Service improvements

London Borough of Croydon

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023

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 - 4 of 4 cases with service improvements

Export results (CSV)

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

  • London Borough of Croydon (22 002 258)

    Category: Education Date: 13-Jan-2023

    Summary

    There was delay and fault in the way an EHC needs assessment was carried out and a delay in putting s.19 education in place. This caused unnecessary distress, time and trouble, some loss of education and uncertainty. The Council will apologise, make a remedy payment and carry out service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council will provide guidance to staff about the timeframe for carrying out an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment when ordered by a Tribunal; gathering advice and discussing this with parents; and seeking social care advice as part of every Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment.The Council will review procedures for children unable to attend school due to medical needs to ensure medical advice is obtained to support decisions about the amount and type of alternative education to provide, including special education provision. The Council will also keep provision under review.The Council will ensure statutory timescales for phase transfers for children with Education, Health and Care plans are met.

  • London Borough of Croydon (22 002 241)

    Category: Education Date: 02-Dec-2022

    Summary

    Miss X complained the Council failed to provide Occupational Therapy (OT) provision in line with her son, F’s, Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan between December 2021 and May 2022. The Council failed to deliver F’s OT provision during this period which was fault. It agreed to pay Miss X £1000 to recognise the impact the loss of OT provision had on F. It also agreed to refund her the cost of the private OT assessment she commissioned during the EHC assessment process and carry out service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to remind relevant staff that where NHS Occupational Therapy advice is sought during the Education, Health and Care assessment process and that advice is delayed, to consider obtaining advice from private occupational therapists or asking other professionals to cover the issue in their reports.The Council agreed to consider whether to review its partnership and commissioning arrangements with health bodies to ensure advice requested as part of the Education, Health and Care assessment is received within six weeks of the advice request.

  • London Borough of Croydon (21 018 626)

    Category: Education Date: 16-Oct-2022

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council did not properly consider her request for a personal budget to provide education for her son, Mr Y and failed to implement the provision set out in his Education, Health and Care plan between November 2021 and July 2022. There was no fault in the Council’s decision not to provide a personal budget for direct payments. However, the Council failed to provide most of the special educational provision for Mr Y. The Council agreed to pay Mr Y £2800 to recognise the education he missed, reimburse the costs Ms X accrued in arranging some of Mr Y’s provision and pay her £500 to recognise the time and trouble caused to her by the Council’s fault.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its processes for commissioning or arranging occupational therapy provision to ensure it can access assessment and therapy services when children and young people require it.The Council will review how it assures itself that providers it commissions to deliver specialist provisions can meet the educational provision specified in children and young people’s Education, Health and Care Plans.

  • London Borough of Croydon (20 005 011)

    Category: Education Date: 14-Sep-2022

    Summary

    We found fault with the Council for failing to put in place all the provision in Y’s Education, Health and Care plan. We also found fault with the annual review process, record keeping and complaint handling. This caused Y an injustice because they missed out on provision they should have received. The Council agreed actions to remedy the injustice.

    Service improvements

    • Review its personal budget policy and provide the Ombudsman with evidence of how it will avoid the delays and issues identified in this case.• Review its monitoring arrangements for EHCP provision that is provided by schools. It should be able to demonstrate how it has used the learning from this case to improve its practice in this area to ensure accurate record keeping and audit trails.

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