Case Ref: 23 001 905 Category: Education Sub Category: School transport

• The Council will issue guidance to staff explaining that applicants should be advised of the options available for obtaining and submitting medical evidence in support of their PTB appeal

Case Ref: 22 018 130 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council agreed that it would try to arrange a meeting with health service commissioning bodies to discuss how it can improve current arrangements and publicity materials to support parents / carers who may want to request a personal budget to meet both education and health needs identified in an Education, Health and Care Plan. The Council agreed to also write to us to tell us the outcome of any meeting and actions agreed.

Case Ref: 22 017 780 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council should develop an action plan to show how it intends to address the ongoing lack of Occupational Therapy availability in its area. This should be reported to the relevant committee for democratic scrutiny and an update should be provided to the Ombudsman to set out the actions agreed to improve this area of provision.

Case Ref: 22 017 713 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• The Council will remind officers in education of the Council's duties to provide alternative provision when a child of statutory school age is out of school. The Council should consider sharing a copy of our focus report 'Out of school…. Out of sight?' and our final decision with the reminder.
• The Council will remind officers dealing with EHCPs of the need to follow the code of practice when receiving annual review paperwork from schools.
• The Council will draw up a plan, to be shared with the Ombudsman, to show how it will deal with similar cases in future to ensure drift does not occur when a child is out of school. This should set out a clear pathway for taking timely action to decide whether to either take enforcement action for non-attendance, plan for re-integration into school, seek an alternative placement, or offer alternative provision for medical or other reasons;
• The Council will ensure it has procedures in place for checking it takes the necessary action following review meetings to issue amendment notices and draft and final EHCPs.

Case Ref: 22 017 446 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Council has agreed to provide the Ombudsman with evidence it has shared with the principal social worker the need to review practice in the operational teams to encourage early carer referrals.
• The Council has agreed to provide the Ombudsman with evidence it has developed a step by step overview of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards process to be shared with families, carers and relatives of those subject to assessment.
• The Council has agreed to provide the Ombudsman with evidence it has reminded senior managers to have conversations with families and carers who have concerns where matters are escalated to them.

Case Ref: 22 016 843 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• Produce an action plan to demonstrate how the council will meet statutory timescales for EHCP annual reviews.

Case Ref: 22 015 764 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will reflect on the issues raised in this decision statement and identify any areas of service improvement, particularly around communications, complaint handling and delay in the EHCP process.

Case Ref: 22 015 377 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Safeguarding

• •Remind relevant staff of the importance of keeping the adult who is the subject of a safeguarding enquiry at the centre of the enquiry.

Case Ref: 22 015 189 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council agreed to review how its SEND Therapies team process and approve personal budgets for Education Health and Care plans to ensure these are processed promptly and families are kept aware of any delays.
• The Council agreed to review the working arrangements between its SEND and SEND Therapies teams to ensure that communication between the two teams are effective and that any complaints involving both teams are responded to jointly.

Case Ref: 22 014 981 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• We decided that the Council's failure to arrange an Occupational Therapy assessment for the complainant was a result of a service failure which may have affected other pupils with special educational needs. the Council will:if another person complains about the delay in an Occupational Therapy assessment, it will accept fault and remedy any injustice in line with our guidance on remedies and how it remedied the complainant's injustice.
• the Council will :provide a prompt way whereby those in receipt of personal budgets, who are unhappy with the amount offered, can have the decision reviewed, as required by the guidance.