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 1 - 10 of 17 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 (21 012 499)

    Category: Education Date: 27-Mar-2022

    Summary

    Miss X complained the Council delayed finalising her son’s Education, Health and Care Plan causing distress and financial loss. We found the Council at fault. We recommended the Council provide Miss X with an apology and payment for distress, and act to prevent recurrence.

    Service improvements

    The Council will identify the reasons for its delay in completing an annual review of a child's Education Health and Care Plan, take action to prevent recurrence and update the Ombudsman on the actions taken.

  • Kent County Council (21 010 429)

    Category: Education Date: 25-Feb-2022

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about delays with assessments and issuing a final Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) for her daughter. She said the delays had detrimental effect on her daughter’s progress especially in view of her age and the nature of her special educational needs. We find the Council at fault for the delay in completing the EHCP and delivering special educational provisions to Mrs X’s daughter. We also find fault in the way the Council communicated with Mrs X and how it handled the complaint. The Council accepted our recommendations.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind relevant staff of its duty to deliver special educational provisions which are included in Section F of children's and young people's Education and Health Care Plans.The Council will review its processes with Health and Special Educational Needs Inclusion Fund to ensure the funding arrangements do not impact on the Education and Health Care Plans timescales and delivery of special educational provisions.

  • Kent County Council (21 006 802)

    Category: Education Date: 27-Mar-2022

    Summary

    Mrs K complains about a lack of suitable education being provided to her son (Child X) who has special educational needs. Mrs K also complains the Council failed to identify a suitable school placement for Child X and has not updated his Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP). We found the Council used reasonable endeavours to find an alternative school placement for Child X. However, for some of the period Child X was out of school, the Council failed to provide him with suitable education, as required by law. For other periods, we have no jurisdiction to investigate because Mrs K could have reasonably appealed the issue of Child X’s school placement to a Tribunal. We do consider both Mrs K and Child X have suffered an injustice by reason of the Council’s failings and the Council has agreed to remedy this.

    Service improvements

    The Council will undertake a detailed review of the case to understand why this child was not provided with full-time education between September 2020 to September 2021. It should also review its practices with respect to conducting annual reviews in accordance with the provisions of the Code. The purpose of the review is to inform a number of measures to adopt to inform service improvements for the future. The Council will provide evidence of the review to the Ombudsman by the date set out above.

  • Kent County Council (21 004 641)

    Category: Education Date: 14-Feb-2022

    Summary

    We upheld a complaint about a delay in issuing an Education, Health and Care Plan. The delay caused avoidable distress, a delay in appeal rights and a loss of education provision for Y who has autism. The Council will apologise, make payments and take action described in this statement.

    Service improvements

    The Council will ensure staff in the Tribunal and Special Educational Needs' teams are instructed to ensure statutory timescales for completing Education, Health and Care Plans are adhered to even when a case is under appeal to the tribunal.

  • Kent County Council (21 004 335)

    Category: Education Date: 22-Nov-2021

    Summary

    Mrs G complains the Council delayed in completing an Education and Health Care Plan annual review for her daughter (Child X) who has special educational needs. Mrs G says the failure meant Child X did not receive suitable educational support for an extended period of time. We found the Council was at fault for delays in completing an annual review of Child X’s EHCP. These failings delayed Child X receiving specialist educational provision which was appropriate for her needs. Further, the failings caused Mrs G serious distress and uncertainty. We have therefore recommended a remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its handlingof holding annual reviews within the time frames set out in the statutory code. TheCouncil will also conduct a review of the complainant's case and identify serviceimprovements to be implemented for the benefit of service users in the future.

  • Kent County Council (21 002 970)

    Category: Education Date: 14-Jan-2022

    Summary

    the complainant Ms X complained the Council failed to provide suitable educational provision for her child or offer any alternative provision once he reached compulsory school age. The Council says it provided suitable educational provision but did not issue an amendment as early as it should. We found the Council at fault. The Council agreed to apologise, pay £200 in recognition of the distress caused and to share the decision with staff to improve services.

    Service improvements

    Share this decision with staff to remind them of the need consider alternative provision when a child reaches compulsory school age.

  • Kent County Council (21 002 769)

    Category: Education Date: 01-Mar-2022

    Summary

    Dr X complained about how the Council prepared and issued Z’s Education, Health and Care plan. The Council delayed issuing the plan and failed to effectively communicate with Dr X about the progress of Z’s assessment. This caused Dr X and Z avoidable frustration and uncertainty. The Council agreed to make a payment to Dr X and to make service improvements to prevent the fault occurring again.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to remind its staff they should issue final EHC plans as soon as possible and within the statutory timeframes and that they must send consultations to schools without delay.

  • Kent County Council (21 002 352)

    Category: Education Date: 02-Mar-2022

    Summary

    We upheld part of Mrs X’s complaint about an unsuccessful school appeal for her son. There was no fault in the Council’s decision to hold appeals based on written submissions or in how the panel considered the evidence Mrs X provided. However, there was fault in the decision letter following the appeal. While this did not cause Mrs X an injustice, the Council has agreed take action to prevent future injustice to others.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind clerks their decision letters should be an accurate reflection of the discussion which took place during the appeal hearing.

  • Kent County Council (20 012 324)

    Category: Education Date: 06-Sep-2021

    Summary

    We did not find fault with the Council’s decision not to refund the cost of a travel pass Mrs X bought for her daughter. However, there was fault in the Council’s failure to communicate its decision not to recover the outstanding debt on the account. That Council agreed to apologise to Mrs X and tell other customers of its decision not to recover outstanding debts on travel passes for the 2020-2021 academic year.

    Service improvements

    The Council will write to all other customers where it decided not to pursue outstanding Travel Saver debts to confirm the Council’s decision. The Council can make it clear the decision was based on the exceptional circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and only applies to the previous academic year.

  • 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

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