Service improvements

Kent County Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026

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 - 9 of 9 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 (25 003 233)

    Category: Education Date: 13-Feb-2026

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council delayed her son Y’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan annual review and failed to act on a personal budget request. She said the Council made errors in the amended EHC Plan and failed to correct them. Mrs X also complained the Council delayed reimbursing invoices for provision and delayed responding to her Stage 1 and Stage 2 complaints. We find fault in the Council’s actions. This caused financial loss, undue distress, time and trouble to Mrs X. The Council has agreed actions to remedy the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    Review the Council’s complaints process to ensure financial remedies are monitored and payments made efficiently.

  • Kent County Council (25 001 695)

    Category: Education Date: 18-Dec-2025

    Summary

    The Council failed to ensure it consulted Z’s preferred college placement to see if they could attend. It then delayed issuing Z’s Education, Health and Care Plan following an annual review and failed to ensure Z had suitable education in place for one year. The Council’s faults led to avoidable missed provision for Z and distress and frustration for Z and their parent, Ms X. To recognise the injustice caused by the faults in this case, the Council has agreed to apologise, pay Ms X £3,200 and take action to improve its services.

    Service improvements

    The Council will investigate and report back to the Ombudsman about why a young person did not have their Education Health and Care Plan issued by 31 March 2025 setting out the details of their post-16 transition. It will outline action it has taken to ensure other children and young people are not similarly affected during key transition years in their education.The Council will outline what, if any, issues have been identified in the Council’s processes for consulting schools, colleges and other education providers which led to the faults in this case including missed provision. The Council should then outline any action it is taking to prevent recurrence of these issues in future.

  • Kent County Council (24 022 560)

    Category: Education Date: 16-Feb-2026

    Summary

    Mr X says the Council wrongly said his nursery had charged a compulsory top up fee, reached that decision without giving him an opportunity to comment and treated him differently to other nurseries that operate in the same way. There is no evidence of fault in how the Council reached its decision about the charges Mr X’s nursery was making or evidence it treated him differently to other nurseries. However, the Council did not give Mr X an opportunity to comment before telling him to refund the parents’ fee. That caused him frustration. An apology and guidance for officers handling complaints is satisfactory remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will issue guidance to complaint staff to ensure they know about the need to allow the provider complained about to respond to a complaint before the Council reaches a final decision.

  • Kent County Council (24 019 682)

    Category: Education Date: 24-Nov-2025

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council failed to ensure her child, Y had funding in place for social care provision outlined in their Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan. The Council was at fault. It failed to provide a personal budget for part of Y’s social care provision and failed to provide any help for Ms X in sourcing a support worker for Y when she struggled to find one herself. It leaves uncertainty around whether more could have been done to ensure the support was in place. The Council agreed to apologise to Ms X and make a payment to acknowledge the injustice caused. It also agreed to review the social care provision to ensure a support worker is in place without further delay.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind relevant officers via team meetings or staff briefings that personal budgets in Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans are optional. Where parents/carers express concerns with the Council that they no longer want a personal budget, then the Council should instead take responsibility to ensure the relevant provision is put in place.

  • Kent County Council (24 019 194)

    Category: Education Date: 27-Jul-2025

    Summary

    Ms Y complained about the way the Council handled her son’s post 16 Education, Health and Care plan. We found the Council at fault. The Council had acknowledged a delay in issuing the plan and had offered a recognition payment. It has agreed to make an additional payment to appropriately address the injustice caused and to carry out service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council should emind all relevant staff of the need to respond to correspondence appropriately.

  • Kent County Council (24 010 594)

    Category: Education Date: 29-Jun-2025

    Summary

    The Council was at fault as it delayed completing an education, health and care needs assessment and subsequently delayed issuing a final Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan for Miss X’s child, Y. It delayed responding to Miss X’s complaints. Furthermore, the Council did not take any action in response to Y being on a reduced timetable at school. The Council has agreed to make a symbolic payment to Miss X and apologise to her for the distress and frustration the matter caused her. The Council will also make service improvements to prevent a recurrence of fault.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review with staff the importance of following the statutory guidance when it receives a request for an education, health and care needs assessment.The Council will provide the Ombudsman with a plan of what action it is taking or will take to resolve its issues with staffing.The Council will review with staff that it should monitor or review a situation where a child is attending school on a part-time timetable due to challenges.

  • Kent County Council (24 010 458)

    Category: Education Date: 14-Aug-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council delayed completing her child’s annual review and failed to provide the Occupational Therapy provision set out in their Education, Health and Care Plan since 2022. We find the Council at fault. This caused uncertainty and a loss of special educational provision. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a payment to Mrs X, and take steps to improve its services.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to provide an update on the actions it is taking to address the ongoing shortage of Occupational Therapists in its area.

  • Kent County Council (24 008 268)

    Category: Education Date: 10-Sep-2025

    Summary

    Miss X complained about the Council’s continued failure to ensure her child Y, received therapy provision in line with their Education, Health and Care Plan. She also complained about personal budget decisions and a failure to provide Y with Free School Meals (FSM). The Council was at fault as Y missed out on therapy provision for four terms between May 2024 and July 2025. There was also fault around its FSM and personal budget decision making and it has delayed carrying out the 2025 annual review. The Council agreed to apologise, make payments and review its decision making to remedy the injustice caused to Miss X and commission the therapy provision without further delay.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to remind relevant officers that applicants cannot appeal Education, Health and Care Plan personal budget decisions to the SEND tribunal. The Council should ensure officers respond to requests in writing and provide applicants with the opportunity to request a review of the decision.The Council will provide the Ombudsman with an update around the tenders for the delivery of therapy provision. The update should include what progress the Council has made to reduce the number of children waiting for therapy provision and what future action it is taking to ensure therapy provision is delivered without delay.

  • Kent County Council (24 004 981)

    Category: Education Date: 07-May-2025

    Summary

    Ms X complained there were failings in the way the Council dealt with her son Y’s Education, Health and Care Plan and provided him with support. Based on current evidence we found fault by the Council as it failed to carry out annual reviews of Y’s Education Health and Care Plan and responded to Ms X’s complaints about the matter in a timely way causing uncertainty and distress. We have recommended a suitable remedy for the injustice caused so have completed our investigation.

    Service improvements

    Update us on the backlog in its complaints process for stage one and two responses and its timeliness.Update us on its action plan for dealing with the backlog for stage one and two responses and how it is being managed.

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