The Council should send written reminders to staff involved in complaints handling to ensure they signpost complainants to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman when it has finished its consideration of complaints. Any relevant templates should be updated to reflect this.The Council should establish clear guidelines for practitioners to consider the provision of independent Educational Psychologists within its EHC assessment process sooner, to include how and when to do this. This should be sent to all relevant staff.The Council should update us on the action it has said it has taken to try and resolve the delays with the availability of Educational Psychologists (EPs). This should include what effect it has had on the number of children and young people waiting for EP input in an EHC needs assessment and average waiting times.

Review and ensure the Council’s decision letters about assessment / re assessment requests are clear. For instance, the decision letter should clearly set out and explain there is a separate right of appeal when requests for statutory re-assessments are made.By training or other means remind staff of the importance of adhering to the statutory guidelines and timescales in completing EHCP annual review processes. Explain to the Ombudsman how the Council will monitor performance against timescales.By training or other means remind staff of the importance of following the Council’s complaint procedure timescales.•review and monitor the Council’s EHCP annual review process. Provide the Ombudsman with an action plan to demonstrate how the Council will meet statutory timescales for EHCP annual review process and issuing final EHCPs.

The Council has agreed to provide us with a report on its progress in carrying out the steps its own report identified as recommendations in relation to cultural awareness.