Case Ref: 20 006 722 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will provide evidence to the Ombudsman it has arranged or carried out training for relevant officers to cover the need to ensure reviews of education, health and care plans take place promptly after 12 months and of the timescales required for issuing final plans.
• The Council has already apologised for the delay completing the review and referring Mr C’s son for a mentor.

Case Ref: 20 006 718 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will send a memo to officers dealing with education, health and care plans to remind them of the need to ensure reviews take place promptly after 12 months and of the timescales required for issuing final plans;
• The Council will send a memo to officers dealing with provision of education to children out of school to ensure they are aware of the need to work with parents and, where relevant, to put in place a clear plan to increase education over time and to assess the provision in place.

Case Ref: 20 005 372 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council has also agreed to have in place a policy for children missing education for medical reasons. The policy should take account of current guidance and legislation.
• The Council will also provide training to relevant Council staff on the statutory duty to provide suitable education when a child is absent from school due to illness, exclusion or otherwise and the need to consider the individual circumstances of the case and all the evidence available.
• The Council will carry out an audit of children of compulsory school age who are on roll but have not attended school for more than 15 school days and where alternative provision is not being supplied, to ensure there is an assessment of their educational needs and how these are being met.

Case Ref: 20 004 611 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Child protection

• 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.

Case Ref: 20 003 413 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• 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).

Case Ref: 20 003 321 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will send a memo to officers dealing with education, health and care plans to remind them of the need to ensure reviews take place promptly after 12 months, of the timescales for completing transition planning for those transferring to a new place of education and of the timescales required for issuing final plans.

Case Ref: 20 002 399 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• Reflect on the issues raised in this decision statement and identify any areas of unresolved service improvement. The Council should prepare a short report setting out what the Council intends to do to ensure similar problems not reoccur. This report should be sent to the Ombudsman.

Case Ref: 20 000 381 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Disabled children

• 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.

Case Ref: 19 016 053 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• 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.

Case Ref: 20 007 424 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Transport

• The Council has agreed to ensure letters refusing Blue Badge applications contain enough detail for the applicant to understand why their application was unsuccessful.
• The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff of the need to consider time and pain as well as distance when assessing a Blue Badge applicant’s ability to walk.
• The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff that records of Blue Badge decisions must contain sufficient detail to demonstrate that the relevant Department for Transport guidance and criteria were considered.
• The Council has agreed to remind staff that the relevant test for a Blue Badge is whether a disability is “enduring and substantial” not “permanent and substantial” and amend any templates and internal guidance accordingly.