Case Ref: 22 015 572 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• The Council will remind staff of its duties to check any school provided provisions to determine it is suitable when a child cannot attend for medical reasons or otherwise. And that it is the Council's duty to provide provision when the school's is deemed unsuitable.
• The Council will remind staff about it’s Emotional Wellbeing and Behaviour policy with respect to children who are at risk of being out of education.
• The Council will remind staff of the important of sharing information between departments. Such as sharing decisions between the attendance team and the education support for medical absence team.

Case Ref: 22 011 747 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• The Council agreed to review its processes for arranging alternative education for children out of school, and issue reminders to relevant staff, to ensure it:arranges suitable alternative education without delay, in line with statutory timescales;properly considers and records whether the alternative education arranged is suitable for the child’s age, ability, aptitude, and special educational needs; andensures the child receives the provision set out in their Education, Health, and Care plan while accessing the alternative education.
• The Council agreed to issue reminders to its complaints staff that:complaints should be responded to in line with the timescales set out in its complaints procedure; andwhere a complainant expresses dissatisfaction with the Council’s Stage 1 complaints response, this should be considered and responded to as a request to escalate the complaint to Stage 2.

Case Ref: 22 011 513 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• As a result of this complaint the Council agreed that it would write to us and explain what action it was taking to identify all cases where a child had an education, care and health plan and that plan said the Council must review the child or young person's education provision regularly through the academic year (as distinct from the annual review process set out in law). Further, that it would ensure all relevant staff knew whose responsibility it was, within the education service, to carry out those periodic reviews. Also, that it would ensure it had a system in place to flag if those reviews were not being carried out so those cases can be prioritised for action.

Case Ref: 22 010 147 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council agreed to review its procedures for Education, Health, and Care (EHC) plans and issue reminders to relevant staff to ensure:when reviewing EHC plans it does so without delay, and issues amendment notices and final amended plans within the correct statutory timescales following the review meeting;when re-assessing EHC needs it issues a final amended plan as soon as is practicable, and within a maximum of 14 weeks from the decision to reassess;when it requires professional assessments to inform the EHC plan process and there are delays, it properly considers whether it should commission private assessments to meet statutory timescales. It should keep records of this consideration and any attempts to commission private assessments; and it keeps families updated, responds to their queries, and follows up on any agreed actions in good time.
• The Council agreed to provide an update to the Ombudsman about its progress with staffing its Special Educational Needs and Disability service, training new officers, and clearing the email backlog within the service.
• The Council agreed to review its process for responding to emails within its Special Educational Needs and Disability service, to ensure when staff members are absent or leave the Council’s employment, emails are responded to in good time by other appropriate staff.

Case Ref: 22 009 789 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council has agreed to share this decision with SEND staff reminding them to follow statutory time limits and to put in place alternative provision without delay.

Case Ref: 22 009 530 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council agreed to review with staff its complaints policy and remind staff to keep complainants updated within the time frame stated in its policy. This means if the Council cannot respond to a complaint within the expected 20/65 working day time frame, it should tell the complainant within the 20/65 working day time frame and explain its reasons for the delay.

Case Ref: 22 009 245 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will provide evidence to show it has reminded relevant officers of the Council’s statutory duties under Regulation 22 of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014. This could be in the form of a briefing paper or staff training.

Case Ref: 22 008 899 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• review its procedures for checking SEN provision has been properly put in place when a child or young person starts a new placement.

Case Ref: 22 008 343 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Residential care

• The Council agreed to issue a reminder to all social work staff working within its adult safeguarding team of the relevance of the Human Rights Act when it comes to cases which involve family separation. It will encourage staff to record their consideration of human rights matters whenever relevant to decision making during safeguarding investigations.
• The Council agreed to issue a reminder to care providers with whom it contracts for residential care of its expectations when it comes to handling complaints they receive by or on behalf of users of council services. This will make clear the Council’s expectations on notification of complaints and signposting to its complaint procedures.
• The Council agreed to provide evidence that a care provider with whom it contracts for care will issue advice to its care homes on the importance of clarifying contact arrangements in cases where adult safeguarding investigations involving family separation are ongoing.
• The Council agreed to provide evidence that a care provider with whom it contracts for care will review customer service training for its staff at a specific location to cover telephone enquiries from relatives; to ensure this includes advice on de-escalation techniques in the event they are finding such enquiries difficult or demanding.
• The Council agreed to provide evidence that a care provider with whom it contracts for care will ensure that a specific care home has discussion with its local GP surgery about the correct forms to complete in the event that a resident moves into its care on a temporary basis (i.e. for an anticipated stay of less than three months).

Case Ref: 22 010 233 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will provide us with the details of the Annual Reviews monitoring system in place for children who are out of school.