Case Ref: 22 008 150 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• Send a reminder to its Education Health and Care plan coordinators that when annual review meetings are cancelled, and this would lead to the review not being completed within the statutory timescales, to identify any actions that can be taken to ensure the review happens within the required timeframe and rearrange a meeting without delay

Case Ref: 22 007 593 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• The Council will ensure all special educational needs case officers and their managers review:• Department for Education School Attendance: guidance for schools, August 2020;• The Council’s Personal Budget policy and Direct Payments guidance;The Council will provide us with the evidence the above action has been completed.

Case Ref: 22 006 788 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Other

• The Council will remind relevant officers of its policies on alternative ways of using direct payments, including to fund activities and pay close relatives in exceptional circumstances.
• The Council will put in place a system for ensuring that it has discussions with parents or young people about all available options for receiving services once a care plan is agreed, and records those discussions. The options will include direct payments and commissioned services.

Case Ref: 22 005 779 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will consider the improvement in monitoring Annual Reviews arranged at schools by sending to the headteachers/principals lists of all children/young people, whose Education Health and Care Plan review should take place in the coming term, two weeks before the start of this term.
• The Council will remind the front-line Special Educational Needs staff of the details of the Council’s corporate complaints policy and in particular what constitutes a complaint, which should be passed to the complaints team and responded in line with the Council’s policy.

Case Ref: 22 005 273 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• Consider what went wrong in this case and what procedures the Council can put in place to ensure a child’s Statement of Special Education Need Section F provision is arranged in a timely way. The Council should report its findings back to the Ombudsman.
• Consider why it took so long to provide the stage two complaint response in this case and identify what steps the Council will take to improve complaint handling.

Case Ref: 22 004 357 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• 3. After our investigation of other complaints we have made recommendations to the Council about improving its services and we ask that compliance with our decisions be monitored.• I also recommend that, within three months of the Ombudsman’s final decision, the Council should:• issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they are aware of what EHE entails and the consequences for the parents or carers;• tell us how it will ensure that future EHC Plan reviews are held on time and the action required following the review meeting is taken according to statutory timescales; and• confirm how it will ensure that timescales are met in responding to complaints.

Case Ref: 22 001 569 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council agreed to remind relevant staff to carry out due diligence with schools when it receives complaints that provision listed in Education, Health and Care Plans is not in place. It will also remind staff they should not refer complaints to the schools' complaints procedure when receiving these complaints.

Case Ref: 21 019 113 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• Issue written reminders to staff to ensure they are aware of:The councils duy to decide on whether to keep, cease or amend the EHC plan within four weeks of the review meeting, and notify parents in writingThe Councils duties under section 19 of the Education Act 1996 to provide provision or suitable education for children of compulsory age who cannot attend school because of exclusion, medical reasons or otherwise.Ensure the Council retains oversight and responsibility for its duties to children unable to attend school.

Case Ref: 21 014 007 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council agreed to review how it monitors Education, Health and Care plan annual review meetings it asks schools to conduct on its behalf. It should ensure it takes appropriate action where annual review meetings have not been carried out in time for the Council to make its decision about the review within the legal timescales.

Case Ref: 21 012 612 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• the Council has agreed to:establish a mechanism to ensure suitable alternative provision is promptly identified and put in place when a child or young person is unable to access the provision offered by the Council. The Council should consider including a quicker escalation process between ESMA and its SEND team. The Council should include clear guidance to staff on the process to follow and report back to the Ombudsman on the outcome of this service improvement
• the Council has agreed to:circulate a reminder to staff that the duty to arrange alternative provision lies with the Council and is non-delegable to schools or parents. This includes circumstances when a child or young person is unable to quickly transition back to attending school due to illness
• the Council has agreed to:circulate a reminder to staff that there should be clear records of how the Council has decided any alternative provision is suitable to the child’s age, ability, aptitude and any special educational needs they may have. This should include details of how the Council has decided whether educational provision the Council has offered is “available and accessible to the child”.