Service improvements

Kent County Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022

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 21 - 26 of 26 cases with service improvements

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

  • Kent County Council (20 010 067)

    Category: Education Date: 24-Mar-2022

    Summary

    Mrs X complains about the Council’s decision not to fund all four legs of her journeys to take her child to and from school. She also complains about the way the Council calculated the distance between home and school for Personal Transport Budgets (PTB). The Council was at fault because it did not offer free arranged school transport to Mrs X’s child before she chose to use a PTB. The Council has agreed to apologise, reimburse additional travel costs and make a payment to Mrs X for her time and trouble. The Council will also amend its PTB policy to clarify the voluntary nature of the scheme and highlight this to current PTB users.

    Service improvements

    Amend Personal Transport Budget (PTB) Policy to make clear the voluntary and discretionary nature of the scheme and parents accepting this are aware it may not cover all their transport costs - highlight this disclaimer to all current users of the PTB schemeensure where council arranged transport is not viable that mileage payments will cover all four legs of the journey to and from school

  • Kent County Council (20 008 943)

    Category: Education Date: 10-Jan-2022

    Summary

    Miss X complained about how the Council prepared and issued Z’s Education, Health and Care plan. The Council delayed in issuing the plan and failed to put alternative provision in place when it was aware Z was out of education. This caused Miss X avoidable frustration and meant Y was without suitable education for seven months. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a payment to Miss X and makes service improvements to prevent the fault occurring again.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind its staff they are able to seek new assessments if they feel it is necessary to write a child's Education, Health and Care plan.The Council will remind its staff they must send consultations to schools without delay.The Council will remind its staff that when they become aware a chlid may not be receiving a suitable education due to ill health, they should promptly consider if the Council should put alternative provision in place.

  • Kent County Council (20 008 289)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 06-Dec-2021

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about the way the Council provided information about Mr Y’s care costs, and delays in the financial assessment. This meant Mrs X did not understand Mr Y would be charged for his respite stay and she was caused significant stress by an unexpected bill. We find the Council was at fault in the way it communicated with Mrs X, and in its failure to advise them of the cost of the care Mr Y received. We recommend the Council waive 50% of the cost of Mr Y’s respite stay and ensure it communicates properly in future. It should also take action to ensure it completes financial assessments before arranging care services where possible.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to ensure people are advised of the cost of care as soon as possible and complete financial assessments before a person receives care where possibleThe Council has agreed to provide training and/or refresher training to ensure staff are aware of the need to offer reasonable adjustments and how to do this

  • Kent County Council (20 003 413)

    Category: Education Date: 24-Nov-2021

    Summary

    The Ombudsman has already decided that the Council should have held an annual review of the complainant’s Education, Health and Care Plan in October 2018. This complaint considers the complainant’s concern that, because of this failure, he has lost out on his academic choices and on the required special educational needs provision specified in his Education, Health and Care Plan. We uphold some aspects of the complaint. The Council has agreed the recommended remedy and therefore we are closing the complaint.

    Service improvements

    To avoid future difficulties, the Council will: devise a working protocol about how schools and the Council's medical educational hubs should work together when a pupil is dual registered and who has SEN/medical needs preventing attendance at the mainstream school. Particular attention should be paid to Years 10 and 11 (GCSE years).

  • Kent County Council (20 000 381)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 24-Oct-2021

    Summary

    The complainant alleged that the Council delayed in providing appropriate social care to her disabled son and to her, and it delayed in complying with the June 2020 Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal decision in respect of her son’s social care provision. We find fault in some aspects of the Council’s approach causing injustice. The Council has agreed the recommended ways to remedy this. We are therefore closing the complaint.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to where a child has significant physical disabilities, requiring regular occupational therapy (OT) support/provision, the Council will consider arranging joint visits with the OT and social worker for the purposes of a children and family assessment;social care staff will routinely be invited to EHCP reviews and, where they cannot attend, they will submit a report;there will be clear timetable for decision making on social care packages. We have recommended that it should be 12 weeks between referral to the decision;the Council will devise a policy/procedure whereby, despite a disagreement with a parent/carer over the care package, it can provide an interim care package while the dispute is being resolved; and the Council will devise a form of words whereby a parent can record their disagreement with the care package, or amount of DPs, so that DPs can still be offered while the dispute is being resolved.the Council will develop an appeal system for parents/carers when they disagree with the Panel's decision, instead of them having to pursue a time consuming complaint under the statutory process. The appeal should be heard by a different Panel promptly (I suggested within four weeks),. If the appeal does not resolve the issue, parents/carers can complain under the complaints process but with the proviso that an interim care package is provided by the Council while the complaint is being considered.

  • Kent County Council (19 016 053)

    Category: Education Date: 12-Jan-2022

    Summary

    There was delay by the Council in putting provision in place for B’s Education, Health and Care Plan. The Council has agreed a remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council should remind officers that where a school is unwilling or unable to implement provision for a child as specified in their education health and care plan, the Council must ensure this is addressed promptly.

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