Case Ref: 22 016 710 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• The Council has agreed to arrange training to ensure council officers are aware of the Council's duties under Section 19 of The Education Act 1996 to provide provision or suitable education for children of compulsory age who cannot attend school because of exclusion, medical reasons or otherwise.

Case Ref: 22 014 564 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will review its procedures for consulting for new education placements for children with Education, Health and Care plans. In particular, it will ensure its staff are consulting early enough and with sufficient providers to prevent unnecessary delays in children accessing a new education placement.
• The Council will remind all its Special Educational Needs staff that it is the Council’s duty to ensure children receive the provision set out in their Education, Health and Care plans, and an appropriate education under section 19 of the Education Act, and that those duties cannot be delegated to a school.
• The Council will discuss the findings of an investigation in to how it issued an Education, Health and Care plan, a suitable education and specialist education for a child at an appropriate committee or cabinet meeting. This is to ensure the Council's leaders are aware of the delay finalising the Education,Health and Care plan, its poor communication with the family and its failure to provide a child with suitable education. The Council will consider if additional actions are needed to improve its services.

Case Ref: 22 014 218 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will send written reminders to relevant staff of the Council’s responsibilities under Section 19 of the Education Act 1996 when it is made aware a child is attending school part-time. This should cover what the Council should consider when assessing the suitability of education and whether to provide or work towards full-time education for the child.

Case Ref: 22 013 912 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Child protection

• The Council will amend any policy or protocol document to ensure it correctly states when Stage Two timescales start within the statutory complaints process; when it is requested in writing. This change should be sent to all staff involved in this procedure.

Case Ref: 22 013 701 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Charging

• The Council will draw up an action plan to address the following concerns: record keeping, recording the time and duration of care calls accurately and tailoring care plans to individual needs.
• The Council will update the action plan to include a summary of improvements made by the Care Provider following input from its Quality Improvement Team.
• Ensure officers involved in the Council’s complaint response have received training on how to draft complaint responses and provide a copy of the training material.
• Ensure the Quality Improvement Team has completed training referred to in the Council’s enquiry response and provide copies of the training material

Case Ref: 22 012 848 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• The Council will ensure all front-line Special Educational Needs staff and their managers review our FocusReport “Out of school, out of sight?” of July 2022.
• The Council will provideus with the details of how it monitors education of children whoare out of school.

Case Ref: 22 012 000 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff of the Council's duties under lar and guidance to provide alternative provision when a child of statutory school age is out of school for health or other reasons. The Council should consider sharing a copy of our focus report Out of School....Out of sight? and this final decision with the reminder.
• The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff to ensure they obtain EHCP review documentation, issue notices within timescales, approach school settings in good time, consult professionals in good time, issues the EHCP within timescales and keep young people and parents informed.
• The Council has agreed to ensure relevant staff are made aware of the importance of making and keeping clear and accurate records of their decision making in respect of personal budget requests.

Case Ref: 22 011 357 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• The Council has agreed to review its procedures for children out of school to ensure it carries out regular reviews of children it knows are missing in education. This is to ensure it takes timely, appropriate action to support the child back into education without delay or to consider whether it is appropriate to offer alternative provision.
• The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff to respond to complaints in a timely manner in line with its complaint handling policy.

Case Ref: 22 010 056 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff of the need for child protection enquiries to be concluded when started and the importance of speaking to children alone to seek their views.
• The Council failed to complete one of its child protection enquiries for the children in this case and did not consult sufficient health professionals during its child protection proceedings. It has agreed to review what caused the Council to drift and act indecisively with regards to whether it enforced attendance or re-considered the suitability of the education being provided to the children.

Case Ref: 22 009 052 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council has agreed to consider how it manages its internal process for altering names of service users who have gone through gender transition to ensure it does not inadvertently disclose sensitive information.
• The Council should ensure staff who may deal with sensitive information about transgender children are adequately trained on how to do so to avoid inadvertently disclosing a persons gender information who would not otherwise need to be aware of this information.