Service improvements

London Borough of Barnet

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025

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 - 3 of 3 cases with service improvements

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Downloads the current filtered list of service improvement decisions for London Borough of Barnet as a CSV file.

  • London Borough of Barnet (24 008 391)

    Category: Education Date: 25-Mar-2025

    Summary

    Ms X complained about the education, health and care needs assessment process. She also says the Council failed to secure the special educational provision in her child’s education, health and care plan and failed to respond to her request for a personal budget. She says this caused stress, anxiety and uncertainty. We found the Council failed to inform Ms X of the reasons for its decision to refuse her request for a personal budget. This caused her uncertainty, and she was denied the opportunity to request a review of the decision. The Council has agreed to apologise and make a payment to Ms X in recognition of the injustice caused. We do not uphold the remainder of Ms X’s complaints.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to issue a reminder to relevant staff that, if the Council refuses a request for a direct payment, it must inform the child’s parent or the young person of the reasons for the decision and their right to request a formal review of the decision in writing.

  • London Borough of Barnet (24 002 893)

    Category: Education Date: 11-Feb-2025

    Summary

    the Council failed to put in place the speech and language therapy sessions in Ms X’s son’s education, health and care plan. An apology, payment to Ms X, arrangements to put in place the provision and reminder to officers is satisfactory remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind officers dealing with EHC Plans of the need to ensure the provision in a final EHC Plan is in place when concerns are raised and that the provision cannot be changed without amending and issuing a final EHC Plan.

  • London Borough of Barnet (23 007 871)

    Category: Education Date: 24-Feb-2025

    Summary

    Miss X complains the Council failed to adhere to statutory timescales and failed to deliver provision set out in Y’s EHCP. We have concluded our investigation having made a finding of fault. The Council failed to adhere to statutory timescales during the EHCP process. Further, the evidence does not demonstrate that much of the provision Miss X complained about was delivered, and on balance I have concluded that it did not. The Council has agreed to our recommendations.

    Service improvements

    Enhanced Monitoring of School Provisions: Conduct a review with a view to implementing a system to monitor the implementation of provision. This is in line with the Ombudsman’s expectations from Council’s as per paragraph 14.Annual Reviews: Conduct a review with a view to implementing a system to monitor the timeliness of annual reviews where the process has been delegated to schools. This should ensure sufficient monitoring arrangements are in place to identify potential failings at the earliest opportunity.

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