Service improvements

Kent County Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024

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 - 27 of 27 cases with service improvements

Export results (CSV)

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

  • Kent County Council (22 010 831)

    Category: Education Date: 03-Apr-2023

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council have failed to ensure his son received the occupational therapy support set out in his Education, Health and Care plan. He also said the Council failed to provide his son with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. We find the Council was at fault. This had a significant impact on Mr X’s son’s transition to college and caused Mr X significant stress. To address the injustice caused by fault, the Council has agreed to several recommendations.

    Service improvements

    Issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they are aware of the Councils duties to:secure the specified special educational provision in an EHC plan for the child or young person.

  • Kent County Council (22 010 159)

    Category: Education Date: 11-Apr-2023

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council failed to provide her daughter, Y, with transition arrangements for post 16 education. Ms X also complained the Council delayed identifying Y an education placement and delayed issuing her Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) paperwork. Ms X says this has caused Y distress and anxiety and she is out of education. The Council did not provide a transition, has not provided education and delayed in the EHCP process. Ms X has suffered distress and Y has missed out on education. The Council has agreed to apologise to Ms X and Y for its fault, make a financial payment and provide guidance to its staff to confirm its statutory duties.

    Service improvements

    The Council should develop an action plan to indicate how it intends to address ongoing delays and issues with EHCP annual reviews. This report should be taken to the relevant committee for democratic oversight and scrutiny.

  • Kent County Council (22 009 904)

    Category: Education Date: 27-Jul-2023

    Summary

    Miss X complained about the Council’s failure to support her son’s (Y) education and special educational needs. We have found the Council to be at fault. There was significant delay in issuing an Education, Health and Care Plan, some poor communication and complaint handling. It also failed to provide equipment and software specified in the Plan. To remedy the injustice caused by these faults, the Council agreed to apologise, make payments to Miss X, increase the personal budget and take action to improve its service. We were unable to investigate parts of Miss X’s complaint because they related to matters that were appealable to a Tribunal.

    Service improvements

    To address the procedural faults identified the Council will tell us what specific action it will take to improve SEN services to parents and children.

  • Kent County Council (22 009 049)

    Category: Education Date: 02-May-2023

    Summary

    Mrs C says the Council failed to put in place speech and language therapy provision following a tribunal. The Council put in place speech and language therapy between October and December 2022 but has not put in place any provision since then, which is fault. An apology, payment to Mrs C and action to put in place speech and language therapy promptly is satisfactory remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will confirm with the NHS whether it is able to put in place speech and language therapy for Mrs C’s son within the next term. If it cannot the Council should prioritise seeking an alternative provider for speech and language therapy.

  • Kent County Council (22 008 898)

    Category: Education Date: 29-May-2023

    Summary

    Ms X complained about how the Council has managed her son’s education provision. She said the Council has: unfairly removed his placement, issued a proposal to cease his Education, Health and Care plan without her consent and delayed responding to her complaint. We find fault by the Council. To address the injustice cause by these faults the Council has agreed to apologise, make symbolic payments and agreed to service improvements.

    Service improvements

    Issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they are aware of guidance which states:Where a Council is considering ceasing to maintain a child or young person's EHC plan it must inform the child or young person’s parent that it is considering this.Councils must notify the child’s parent of its decision to maintain, amend or discontinue an EHC plan within four weeks of a review meeting.

  • Kent County Council (22 008 017)

    Category: Education Date: 02-Apr-2023

    Summary

    There was a delay in issuing Y’s Education Health and Care plan which was fault causing a loss of about four months of education provision. There was also a delay in responding to her mother Ms X’s complaint. The Council will apologise, make payments and take action set out in this statement.

    Service improvements

    The Council will provide the Ombudsman with a copy of the latest quarterly report monitoring improvements to its Educational Psychology service.

  • Kent County Council (22 000 213)

    Category: Education Date: 09-Jul-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council delayed issuing her child, F’s amended Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan following an annual review in December 2021 and failed to ensure F had a suitable education in the interim. The Council was it fault. It took a year to issue F with an amended EHC plan after F was unable to attend the placement named on the plan. It further failed to ensure F received education and provision in line with the plan during that period. The Council agreed to make payments to Mrs X to recognise F’s loss of education and the distress, uncertainty and time and trouble caused. It also agreed to make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to produce an action plan to demonstrate what action it intends to take to ensure it meets statutory timescales in deciding what action to take following annual reviews of Education, Health and Care Plans going forward.The Council has agreed to review its procedures around due diligence to ensure it has measures in place to check whether children or young people it knows are unable to attend their named placement on the Education Health and Care plan are receiving an education and the provision in line with section F of the plan.

LGO logogram

Review your privacy settings

Required cookies

These cookies enable the website to function properly. You can only disable these by changing your browser preferences, but this will affect how the website performs.

View required cookies

Analytical cookies

Google Analytics cookies help us improve the performance of the website by understanding how visitors use the site.
We recommend you set these 'ON'.

View analytical cookies

In using Google Analytics, we do not collect or store personal information that could identify you (for example your name or address). We do not allow Google to use or share our analytics data. Google has developed a tool to help you opt out of Google Analytics cookies.

Privacy settings