The Council will remind social workers in children’s social care to keep written records of all meetings and phone calls.

•Provide me with evidence it has learnt lessons from Ms D’s complaint and it will now, where appropriate, follow up verbal consent with written consent when undertaking an assessment. •Using this case an example, issue written reminders to its social workers to ensure they complete accurate and evidence-based assessments.

The Council will also review all feedback given to foster applicants who attended virtual courses set up in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The purpose of the review will be to ascertain whether other applicants have been affected by the same fault identified. The Council will identify any other cases which were not referred to panel. If the decision was flawed, it will conduct a fresh review of the decision made and notify the applicant of this accordingly.

• Using this case as an example, ensure staff dealing with complaints are aware of the circumstances when the statutory complaints process should be used for children’s social care services complaints.

Reflect on the issues raised in this decision statement and identify any areas of service improvement, particularly about removal of children without a court order in place. The Council should prepare a short report setting out what the Council intends to do to ensure a similar situation does not reoccur. This report should be sent to the Ombudsman.

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.