Case Ref: 19 000 950 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• Within three months of the date of the decision on the complaint, the Council will: Complete revisions to the assessment of the child's needs; Offer and complete carer and young carer assessments (unless these are refused, in which case the refusal should be documented); Put in place any services deemed necessary to meet needs identified by the above assessments, and take any other action deemed necessary in respect of Child in Need planning, within four weeks of completion of those assessments; Review lessons learned from the complaint, resulting in a plan to address all identified shortcomings, with timescales. This should include the areas of record keeping, communications with and support for service users or potential service users, complaint handling, and commissioning arrangements where services are required to meet needs. It should also include ensuing that relevant staff are reminded of the statutory guidance on care and support for deaf-blind children and adults and of the need to ensure appropriate MSI assessment is promptly arranged where appropriate; and Provide evidence of all the above actions to the Ombudsman.

Case Ref: 18 011 727 Category: Education Sub Category: School transport

• The Council should ensure decision letters about home to school transport are set out clearly to include the rationale for the decision and the evidence gathered and relied upon when making the decision.
• The Council should provide evidence to the Ombudsman that relevant staff, appeal decision makers and panel members have received information to remind them of the need to make full decisions about home to school transport applications, considering all the relevant points in its decision making process.
• The Council should ensure officers considering home to school transport applications are aware of, and follow, the Council’s travel statement to consult other agencies where it is necessary to make a properly informed decision about eligibility on Special Educational Needs or other disability grounds.
• The Council has agreed to revise its transport statement and supporting documentation to clearly state the Council will require applicants to provide evidence establishing that the criteria are met, except in cases where applicants are able to satisfy it that they are reasonably unable to provide this. If so, the Council says it will comply with its overriding duty to act fairly and take reasonable steps to ensure it has adequate information to reach its decision.
• The Council should recognise it has a residual discretion to provide transport and confirms it is prepared to consider exceptional cases for home to school transport under the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970, the Children Act 1989 and the Education Act 1996.