Service improvements

Essex County Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023

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 - 9 of 9 cases with service improvements

Export results (CSV)

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

  • Essex County Council (22 000 336)

    Category: Education Date: 18-Nov-2022

    Summary

    Mr B complained the Council’s transport provider repeatedly failed to transport his disabled son to school, and the Council failed to properly respond to his complaints. We found the Council caused a service failure as it failed its duty to ensure Mr B’s son was transported to school in line with his special educational needs. The Council agreed to apologise to Mr B and make payment to remedy the injustice this caused him and his son.

    Service improvements

    The Council will provide an update on its ongoing review of its school transport service for Child X and other families. Including any learning and actions taken as a result of this complaint.The Council will remind its staff to respond to complaints as set out in the Council’s Corporate Complaints Policy, regardless of whether responses have also been provided by councilors, or commissioned service providers. This is to ensure, once the Council’s internal complaint process has been completed, all complainants have the opportunity to bring their concerns to the attention of the Ombudsman, or other relevant body.

  • Essex County Council (21 016 894)

    Category: Education Date: 31-Oct-2022

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to properly deal with her application for an EHC plan for her daughter. We found the Council’s initial decision not to carry out an EHC assessment was one it was entitled to make. While the EHC took too long to issue, the impact of this was negated by the Council’s agreement to revisit the assessment without the need for the family to appeal. We found there was fault in respect of a school transport issue and in communication about consultations. We also found some issues with the EHC drafting constituted fault. We recommended a remedy for the impact of these issues.

    Service improvements

    The Council should instruct/train officers not to ask parents to sign transport disclaimers early in the EHC process, before school consultations have established the nearest suitable school. The Council should provide us with evidence it has done this.

  • Essex County Council (21 013 183)

    Category: Education Date: 07-Jun-2022

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council has failed to properly manage her son’s EHCP review and delayed in issuing an amended plan. She states this has negatively impacted on her son’s education and led to him missing school. Mrs X also complained her son has been illegally excluded from school on three occasions over the last 12 months and that the Council has failed to provide suitable alternative provision. The delays in annual review process and in issuing a final EHC plan amount to fault. As does the failure to provide suitable alternative education between November 2021 and April 2022. This fault has caused Y and Mrs X an injustice.

    Service improvements

    The Council has also agreed to provide reminders/training to ensure that staff understand the Council’s duty to offer suitable alternative educational provision when children are out of school and not receiving a full-time education

  • Essex County Council (21 009 402)

    Category: Education Date: 19-Jul-2022

    Summary

    Mr Y complains about the Council’s refusal to provide transport assistance for his daughter, W, to attend her nearest available secondary school. We find the Council at fault for not properly considering W’s case. In particular, that there was no closer school she could attend due to her status as a late applicant and furthermore for not properly exploring the circumstances around the family’s reasons for applying late. The Council will apologise, re-take its decision and amend its Education Transport policy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its Education Transport Policy to include information about how it assesses eligibility for applicants who attend their nearest suitable school after having applied ‘late’ for their school place.The Council will remind officers who assess transport eligibility of the requirement to consider the availability of school places at the point that places were allocated for the school application in question.

  • Essex County Council (21 008 023)

    Category: Education Date: 08-May-2022

    Summary

    Miss X complained that the Council failed to consider her application and appeal for home to school transport for her 16-year-old son properly. There was fault in the way the Council considered the matter as it did not look at whether in all the circumstances of the case it was necessary to offer help with transport. Nor did it explain how it measured distances. The Council has agreed to review the decision and its post-16 transport policy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will: review its post-16 education transport policy and revise it to refer to the need to consider whether it is necessary to provide transport; remind officers involved in transport appeals of this requirement; and revise the policy to include details of how the Council measures home to school walking distances.

  • Essex County Council (21 005 643)

    Category: Education Date: 25-May-2022

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about the Council’s handling of her daughter, Y’s, Education Health and Care plan, and its failure to ensure Y received a suitable education. The Council was at fault for a significant delay in finalising Y’s plan, a delay in consulting the family’s preferred school, and a failure to check whether the education Y was receiving at home whilst a suitable school was identified was suitable. I have recommended it pay Mrs X £1,800 to remedy the costs of educating Y at home for a longer period due to the delays and to recognise the educational opportunities Y missed out on. It should make changes to its processes to prevent recurrence of the faults.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its processes to ensure it issues Education Health and Care plans within statutory timescales and within relevant Tribunal time limits, consults appropriately with schools and is open with parents about consultations.The Council will review its processes to ensure that where its Special Educational Needs team becomes aware of a child with special needs is out of school it will share that information with relevant teams within the Council so they can consider whether further action is needed to support the child to attend school, take formal action for non-attendance or check that education provided at home is suitable, as needed.

  • Essex County Council (21 005 470)

    Category: Education Date: 13-Jun-2022

    Summary

    Mrs B says the Council failed to put in place alternative education provision for her son despite agreeing his placement was no longer appropriate for him. There were some delays by the Council ensuring the school put in place alternative provision and some communication issues with Mrs B. An apology to Mrs B and her son and payment to Mrs B is satisfactory remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will send a memo to officers dealing with children not attending school to remind them it remains the Council’s responsibility for ensuring education provision is in place if a school fails to make alternative provision even if the child remains on the school’s roll.

  • Essex County Council (21 004 607)

    Category: Education Date: 04-Apr-2022

    Summary

    Mr and Mrs F complain the Council has failed to provide suitable alternative education to their son (Child X) who could not attend his primary school due to his special educational needs. Further, they say the Council has not reviewed Child X’s Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) so that he could effectively transition to secondary school. We found the Council failed to provide alternative education for Child X while he was unable to attend primary school. The Council also failed to amend Child X’s EHCP in good time so that he could attend secondary school. The Council’s proposed transition arrangements for Child X were not appropriate for him and it has not provided suitable alternative education to him for this period also. These failings have caused Child X and both Mr and Mrs F serious loss, harm and distress. The Council has agreed to my recommendations to remedy this.

    Service improvements

    At a senior level, the Council will undertake a detailed review ofthis case. The review exercise will focus on why the complainant's child was not providedsuitable alternative education when he was unable to attend his mainstreamprimary school. Moreover, the Council will review why an EHCP review was notundertaken to inform what provision child needed to make a transition tosecondary school viable. The purpose of the review is to adopt measures toinform service improvements for each area of fault identified in thisstatement. The Council will then provide training to all staff involved in EHCParrangements relating to the Code, specifically when an annual review of anEHCP should be commenced and finalised and issued.

  • Essex County Council (21 000 724)

    Category: Education Date: 23-Jun-2022

    Summary

    Mr G complains the Council has failed to provide his daughter (Child X) with physiotherapy provision, as required by her Education and Health Care Plan. We found the Council has fallen significantly short of providing the provision Child X is entitled to receive by law. Further, the evidence shows a fundamental lack of management and oversight by the Council in relation to securing Child X’s education provision. We consider the failings identified have caused both Child X and Mr G a serious injustice. The Council has agreed to our recommendations to remedy this.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its complaint handling to ensure it offers a substantive consideration of concerns raised in its formal stage one and two responses. Further, the Council will undertake a detailed review of complainant's case. The review will focus on monitoring EHCP provision where this is provided by an external contractor on behalf of the Council. The purpose of the review is to identify improvements with respect to demonstrating good administrative practice and maintaining quality oversight over delivering EHCP provision.

LGO logogram

Review your privacy settings

Required cookies

These cookies enable the website to function properly. You can only disable these by changing your browser preferences, but this will affect how the website performs.

View required cookies

Analytical cookies

Google Analytics cookies help us improve the performance of the website by understanding how visitors use the site.
We recommend you set these 'ON'.

View analytical cookies

In using Google Analytics, we do not collect or store personal information that could identify you (for example your name or address). We do not allow Google to use or share our analytics data. Google has developed a tool to help you opt out of Google Analytics cookies.

Privacy settings