Case Ref: 24 008 593 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Residential care

• The Council has agreed to identify the action it needs to take to ensure: care providers receive copies of care and support plans; the Council is commissioning the support it has assessed people as needing; and officers accept requests to review people’s needs.

Case Ref: 24 008 152 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Other

• The Council has agreed to remind staff of the need to arrange a formal visit with all parties when carrying out a section 17 family assessment to ensure all views are properly considered and all parties are given a chance to comment on concerns raised about them.

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.