Service improvements

Durham County Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025

Find out more about service improvements

When we find fault, we can recommend improvements to systems and processes where they haven’t worked properly, so that others do not suffer from these same problems in future. Common examples are policy changes; procedural reviews; and staff training. Service improvements from decisions are published for 5 years and those from reports are published for 10 years.

Showing 1 - 2 of 2 cases with service improvements

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Downloads the current filtered list of service improvement decisions for Durham County Council as a CSV file.

  • Durham County Council (24 008 210)

    Category: Education Date: 12-Mar-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to ensure her child D, a young adult with disabilities, received suitable education and support for their special educational needs. There was fault by the Council which caused D to miss special educational needs support. It also caused distress to D and Mrs X. The Council agreed to apologise and pay a financial remedy. It will also review why it delayed in completing an Education, Health, and Care needs assessment in D’s case and produce an action plan to prevent recurrence of the same fault.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to review why it delayed in completing an Education, Health, and Care (EHC) needs assessment and finalising the EHC Plan. It will produce a dated action plan to prevent recurrence of the same faults in future.

  • Durham County Council (24 007 979)

    Category: Education Date: 13-Jan-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about the Council’s actions when carrying out an Education, Health and Care needs assessment for her child. Mrs X said this meant her child had to wait longer than they should for an Education, Health and Care Plan. We found the Council at fault for the time taken to carry out the Education, Health and Care needs assessment. To remedy the injustice caused the Council agreed to apologise, make a payment to Mrs X for the distress caused and carry out service improvements.

    Service improvements

    Provide the Ombudsman with an update as to what specific action it is taking to reduce the backlog of assessments waiting for advice from Educational Psychologists.Stop routinely applying the exemption where an educational institution is closed for at least four weeks. The Council should only apply this when it is relevant and the delays completing the assessment are due to it being unable to receive advice in time from the educational provider. The Council should provide evidence to the Ombudsman as to what steps it has taken to stop this exemption being routinely applied to all cases with delays.

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