Case Ref: 21 014 267 Category: Education Sub Category: School transport

• The Council has agreed to review its procedures to ensure:initial decisions on school transport applications made on the basis of a child’s disability, mobility issues or Special Educational Needs are decided with regard to the correct test and are not based on statutory distances; stage two appeal letters provide a meaningful explanation of how the panel reached its decision; andit keeps a contemporaneous note of the panel’s decision making.
• The Council has agreed to provide training or guidance to relevant staff to ensure transport applications for children with Spedical Educational Needs are properly considered in line with the correct test in the statutory guidance.
• The Council has agreed to reconsider any refused transport applications regarding Special Educational Needs which the Council has received in the last school year, ensuring it applies the correct test.
• The Council has agreed to revise its transport policy to ensure it considers exercising its discretion when considering the individual circumstances in each case rather than applying a blanket policy that no dispensation can be given for working parents.

Case Ref: 21 013 438 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council agreed to confirm to the Ombudsman when it had delivered its planned training to Special Educational Needs staff about fully involving separated parents when developing Education Health and Care plans for their children.
• The Council agreed to confirm to the Ombudsman what changes it had made following its review into how it involves separated parents when developing Education Health and Care plans for their children.

Case Ref: 21 013 188 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Child protection

• Provides evidence to show the Council has issued learning points from this complaint to the relevant teams.

Case Ref: 21 005 320 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will review its processes to ensure alternative education is put in place for every pupil who is unable to attend school due to health needs, or other reasons, in accordance with the law and statutory guidance.

Case Ref: 21 003 387 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• The Council has agreed to remind officers that, under its Housing Allocations Policy, it is for the Council, rather than its Medical Adviser, to make its own decisions on medical priority, and that its decision letters should reflect this and set out why it has reached its decisions.
• The Council has agreed to remind officers of the need to provide prompt and appropriate advice where an applicant raises concerns about safety issues affecting their current housing.
• The Council has agreed to remind its Medical Adviser to take account of all relevant factors when making recommendations to the Council in respect of housing priority.

Case Ref: 21 004 654 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• The Council agreed to review its policy regarding Medical Assessments to ensure the Council, not the Medical Adviser, is making the decisions whether to award medical priority.
• The Council agreed to remind staff to ensure all decision letters provided to applicants concerning medical priority explain the reasons why the decision has been made.
• Provide guidance to staff to ensure they know which Ombudsman to signpost complainants to.

Case Ref: 21 001 956 Category: Education Sub Category: COVID-19

• The Council has confirmed it will put procedures in place so that where a Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal orders therapy provision, it will identify whether there is an open referral to the therapy service or a re-referral is needed.
• The Council will arrange a meeting with its therapy commissioning team to discuss drafting a policy to ensure therapy services ordered by a Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal can start without needing a further referral.

Case Ref: 20 013 834 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will review its processes for Education, Health and Care plans to ensure exemptions to timescales are applied correctly, advice sought is agreed with the family and advice is challenged if it is not sufficiently clear.
• The Council will ensure it has a process to check whether provision in an Education, Health and Care plan has been put in place by a school.

Case Ref: 20 013 740 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• • Review its policy of allocating houses and make relevant changes toensure it meets the duties placed upon the Council by the Equality Act 2010,the Housing Act 1996, the Public Sector Equality Duty and the Government’sSocial Housing Allocation Guidance.
• • Following the review, any applicants who may have been disadvantagedby the Council’s current policy should be invited to ask the Council for areview of their housing application. The Council will write to anyone who hasbeen disadvantaged by its policy.
• • Review its processes to ensure the medical advice is checked andassessed by the Council before a decision is sent to the applicant.
• • Remind its staff of the need to write clear communications to membersof the public that are not ambiguous.

Case Ref: 20 011 032 Category: Education Sub Category: School transport

• The Council has agreed to review its School Transport policy.