Case Ref: 24 020 378 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council has agreed to review how it keeps oversight of children out of school with an EHC Plan, to ensure it has sufficient procedures in place to check SEN provision is in place and being received.

Case Ref: 24 019 290 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Charging

• Review its procedures to ensure that when service users transition to self funding the Council follows the Care Act 2014 guidance. This should consider whether the Council has a duty to arrange and manage the care and whether a deferred payment agreement is appropriate.
• Review its relevant standard letters to ensure they are clear and comply with the Care Act 2014 guidance.

Case Ref: 24 019 097 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Charging

• The Council has agreed to review its procedures to ensure it is able to issue invoices within a reasonable timeframe, and that it provides clear updates when delays are unavoidable.

Case Ref: 24 017 117 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• The Council will remind relevant officers of the need to consider and clearly record decisions about requests for alternative provision under Section 19 of the Education Act, irrespective of whether a referral has been received from the child's school. This is because the Section 19 duty lies with the Council, not the allocated school. The record made by the officers should outline the Council's rationale for any such decisions and particularly with reference to the availability and accessibility of the child's allocated school. The Council may issue this reminder via a staff briefing or team meeting and should provide us with evidence of this.

Case Ref: 24 016 739 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• The Council has agreed to review how it makes its decisions regarding alternative provision to ensure it offers full-time education where appropriate or provides clear and documented reasons when it decides a part-time table is a suitable education for a child. This record should include an assessment of how much the child can manage when they are too unwell to access a full-time education. The decision should be clearly communicated to the child’s parent/carer.

Case Ref: 24 015 276 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• The Council has agreed to create an action plan to address how it will improve internal processes and communication when considering its Section 19 responsibility and making the necessary arrangements to put alternative provision in place in a timely manner.

Case Ref: 24 011 795 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• Remind staff of the need to complete care needs assessments within an appropriate and reasonable timescale, in line with the care and support statutory guidance
• Remind staff to keep cases under regular review to avoid drift and ensure the correct type of accommodation is considered
• Remind staff to explain to service users where necessary the difference between residential care and supported living accommodation
• Review the role of the Council’s brokerage team in its sourcing of supported living vacancies and its interaction with adult social care teams, with a view to improving communication and taking a pro-active approach regarding available pen pictures.

Case Ref: 24 004 646 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Looked after children

• The Council will remind officers responding to complaints at stage three of the children's statutory complaints procedure that the Council can deviate from the recommendations made by the stage three panel with its reasons, but cannot overturn the stage three panel’s outcomes on the complaint.
• The Council will consider the Ombudsman's decision finding fault in how it provided care, accommodation and education to a child in its care at a relevant scrutiny committee and consider if there are any further actions the Council intends to take in relation to the child’s case or its children’s home sufficiency.
• The Council will provide the Ombudsman with a 6 and 12 month update on the progress it has made with the development of four properties as children’s homes.

Case Ref: 24 002 984 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Child protection

• The Council agreed that it would brief all relevant social work staff on the importance of properly considering cases that might engage its duty to support someone as a kinship foster carer. In particular, that social workers must record their thinking on whether someone caring for a relative's child following intervention by the Council should be regarded as such, and that they should record advice given to family members on this subject. This followed an investigation where we found a child subject to a child protection plan entered the care of his aunt for a time, in circumstances where she may have been regarded as a kinship foster carer had such consideration taken place.

Case Ref: 24 002 936 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Looked after children

• The Council has agreed to ensure that relevant staff are sufficiently aware of all the Council’s children’s social care functions which are covered by the statutory complaints procedure (and of who is able to make a complaint under that procedure).