Case Ref: 23 015 102 Category: Education Sub Category: School admissions

• The clerk will remind the clerk about the need to make accurate and more detailed records of appeal hearings.
• The Council agreed to provide training to the panel about the consideration of evidence and reaching decisions on prejudice.
• The Council agreed to act to ensure on future appeals, the presenting officer has sufficient information to allow for detailed answering of questioning by panels.
• The Council agreed to act to ensure on future appeals, the Council as admission authority provides submission statements with fuller, relevant information.

Case Ref: 23 014 977 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• The Council has agreed to explain what action it intends to take around its commissioning arrangements for alternative provision tutors for children out of school. This is to prevent delays in securing alternative provision for children out of school going forward.

Case Ref: 23 013 708 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• Remind staff to adhere to the statutory timeframes as part of the Education, Health and Care Plan review process.
• Remind staff of the importance of recognising parental requests for early reviews of Education, Health and Care Plans, and of the importance of acting on those requests in a timely manner.

Case Ref: 23 009 164 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• The Council will review its processes for alternative provision to ensure they are in line with current statutory guidance in terms of timescale and the requirement for medical evidence.
• The Council will review its use of ‘off-rolling’ to ensure this is only used where the legal criteria is met.
• The Council will ensure that appropriate wording is used in EHC Plans to specify whether alternative provision is interim provision or whether it has decided a child’s needs cannot be met in any school and EOTAS is required.

Case Ref: 23 010 574 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council failed to issue an amended Education, Health and Care Plan following an annual review in March 2022 and then delayed issuing a plan following a post-16 transition review. The Council has agreed to explain what action it has taken since 2022 to resolve the staffing issues in its Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) department which the Council stated caused the delays identified in this case. If staffing issues still exist, it should produce an action plan of how it intends to recruit and train staff to prevent future delays in statutory Education, Health and Care Plan processes.
• The Council should carry out training with its SEND staff and those staff who respond to complaints about the Education, Health and Care Plan process. The training should include the statutory timescales following annual reviews and reviews carried out prior to transitions.

Case Ref: 23 006 935 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Domiciliary care

• The Council will ensure a local adult social care provider issues a reminder to all staff about staying the full length of time and to log in and out correctly using the electronic call monitoring system.

Case Ref: 23 006 590 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will ensure it has a robust process in place to monitor when the annual review of an EHC Plan is due. Within this process it should ensure when the annual review is due the appropriate arrangements have been made for a meeting to take place.
• The Councill will ensure it has a process in place to keep detailed and contemporaneous records of special educational needs panel meetings.

Case Ref: 23 005 967 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council has already revised its alternative education policy (s19). But the Council will:include a timescale for deciding whether its alternative provision duty is triggered to prevent drift and delay.
• the Council will:remind its schools in its area to make prompt referrals to the Council when a pupil is not attending school.

Case Ref: 23 003 041 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Safeguarding

• The Council has agreed to identify the action it is going to take to ensure staff maintain appropriate boundaries when dealing with colleagues who are acting as members of the public.

Case Ref: 23 002 807 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• Issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they aware of the guidance which states • Following comments from the child’s parent or the young person, if the council decides to continue to make amendments, it must issue the amended EHC plan as soon as practicable and within eight weeks of the date it sent the EHC plan and proposed amendments to the parents. (Section 22(3) SEND Regulations 2014 and SEN Code paragraph 9.196)