Service improvements

East Sussex County Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024

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 - 10 of 11 cases with service improvements

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

  • East Sussex County Council (23 010 574)

    Category: Education Date: 28-Feb-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council delayed issuing her son, F’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan following annual reviews in 2022 and again in 2023 after the conclusion of her appeal to the SEND tribunal. The Council was at fault. It failed to issue an amended plan following an annual review in March 2022 and then delayed issuing a plan following a post-16 transition review. The Council agreed to make a payment to Mrs X to acknowledge the distress and uncertainty caused to her. It will also carry out service improvements.

    Service improvements

    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.

  • East Sussex County Council (23 006 935)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 09-Nov-2023

    Summary

    Mrs C complained about the standard of care provided to her late mother which caused her uncertainty about whether care workers were meeting her mother’s needs. We have found fault as there were instances of care workers not logging calls correctly and not staying for the allocated time. We consider the agreed action of an apology, symbolic payment and a reminder about call times and recording provides a suitable remedy.

    Service improvements

    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.

  • East Sussex County Council (23 006 590)

    Category: Education Date: 05-Mar-2024

    Summary

    Ms B complained how the Council handled her daughter’s annual review. She says the Council delayed processing the annual review and it failed to consider her daughter’s safety and welfare during the request for a change of placement. She also says the Council failed to consider all her comments and evidence when it responded to her complaint. We find the Council was at fault for its delays during the annual review process. It also failed to evidence it considered all relevant information when deciding on a suitable placement for Ms B’s daughter. The Council has agreed to our recommendations to address the injustice caused by fault.

    Service improvements

    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.

  • East Sussex County Council (23 005 967)

    Category: Education Date: 27-Mar-2024

    Summary

    The complainant said that the Council failed to provide suitable education to her son, who has special educational needs. We find that there has been some fault causing injustice. We have recommended ways to remedy the injustice, which the Council has accepted. We are therefore closing the complaint.

    Service improvements

    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.

  • East Sussex County Council (23 003 041)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 12-Feb-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complains the Council failed to deal properly with her husband’s care or respect her position as his power of attorney for property and affairs and health and welfare, putting her to significant expenses and causing significant distress which has not been fully addressed by the Council’s flawed safeguarding investigation and the payments it has agreed to make to her. The Council accepts it failed to deal properly with Mr & Mrs X, causing avoidable distress. It has apologised and agreed to make payments to refund Mrs X for additional costs she incurred and to reflect the long delay in sending her its summary report on the investigation into her concerns. The Council needs to make a further symbolic payment to reflect the avoidable distress caused by its failure to deal properly with her and her husband.

    Service improvements

    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.

  • East Sussex County Council (23 002 807)

    Category: Education Date: 01-Nov-2023

    Summary

    The complainant, Ms X, complained about how the Council has handled her daughter’s special educational needs and Education, Health and Care Plan. We find the Council was at fault. This caused significant stress to Ms X and her daughter. The Council has agreed to address the injustice caused by fault with the recommendations we made.

    Service improvements

    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)

  • East Sussex County Council (22 011 175)

    Category: Education Date: 10-Apr-2023

    Summary

    Miss B complained that the Council in deciding her son’s application for school transport, failed to follow the guidance and its own policy or consider the individual circumstances of the case. We have found fault. The Council has agreed to pay Miss B £200 and has improved its procedures for the future.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to issue guidance toall staff involved with deciding transport applications:to ensure that when a child hasan EHCP naming one school in Section I, the Council should treat it as thenearest suitable school for that child’s needs, without any furtherconsideration of the other options; andto ensure theyconsider all information provided about the child before reaching a view on themost appropriate transport and not be guided solely by the type of schoolplacement named on an EHCP.

  • East Sussex County Council (22 005 731)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 12-Jul-2023

    Summary

    The Council is at fault for failing to properly assess and put in preventative measures to support a person in need with fluctuating capacity. To remedy the complaint the Council has agreed to apologise to Mr D and Ms C and make a symbolic payment for the distress caused by the Council’s failures. It will work with Mr D to assess and plan future services, review procedures, remind staff about the importance of considering preventive measures and review processes when a person’s circumstances change.

    Service improvements

    Remind staff and if necessary, provide training about how to assess capacity where there is fluctuating capacity, in particular cases where there is substance misuse;Review policies and procedures so they address assessing and supporting people with fluctuating capacity;Remind staff about taking prompt action in response to safeguarding concerns and to follow action plans and include them as part of the care management process if they arise out of safeguarding;Remind staff and review procedures about the need for personalised housing plans and when individuals should receive them.

  • East Sussex County Council (22 004 441)

    Category: Education Date: 06-Jun-2023

    Summary

    Miss X complains the Council failed to provide provision as specified in her daughter, Y’s, EHCP. We have concluded our investigation having made a finding of fault by the Council. The Council were at fault for failing to secure the provision as per Y’s EHCP and this caused an injustice to Y and Miss X. The Council has agreed to our recommendations.

    Service improvements

    Explain what it will to do to ensure, where it commissions other organizations to make provision, sufficient processes are in place to reduce the risk of provision not being delivered.

  • East Sussex County Council (22 004 206)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 19-Jun-2023

    Summary

    There was fault in the care that was provided to Mr C and there was poor communication relating to the safeguarding enquiries into the care. Both councils have agreed to apologise, to pay a financial remedy and to remind staff of the importance of involving the person at the centre of a safeguarding enquiry in the enquiry.

    Service improvements

    Remind relevant staff of the importance of keeping the adult who is the subject of a safeguarding enquiry at the centre of the enquiry

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