Case Ref: 24 015 692 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Charging

• Within three months of the final decision the Council should:• Carry out service improvements to ensure that complaints are fully responded to;• Review how the Council can improve communication where the Council sends out multiple charging letters on the same day or close together, it will also tell people of the final amount to pay.

Case Ref: 24 008 929 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Other

• Review its approach or policy to providing support to meet the eligible outcomes of parent carers to ensure officers consider individual circumstances when deciding what support can be offered. This is to ensure the Council does not fetter its discretion when considering what support should be offered to meet eligible outcomes

Case Ref: 24 011 007 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council agreed to send me details of how many others are affected by the difficulty in sourcing OT support and the steps the Council is taking to improve the supply of available therapists

Case Ref: 24 008 941 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• By training or other means, remind officers of the Council’s approach to supporting young people outside compulsory school age to maintain their placement in the event they are struggling to attend. The Council should also remind officers that they should promptly explore what support should be offered when they are first notified of a young person struggling to attend their placement. This is to ensure the delays identified in this complaint do not recur.
• By training or other means, remind officers responsible for dealing with requests for stage two complaints that they should be satisfied the stage one response has adequately addressed the complaint when considering whether to investigate the complaint at stage two.

Case Ref: 24 002 727 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will provide the Ombudsman with evidence of the action plan it has in place to address how it will meet statutory timescales for annual reviews.

Case Ref: 24 001 995 Category: Education Sub Category: School exclusions

• The Council has agreed to use this case as a case study in a relevant training session for officers to ensure they understand their duty to arrange suitable, full-time equivalent education, tailored to the specific needs and circumstances of each child requiring alternative education arranged by the Council.

Case Ref: 24 001 931 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will review whether it has suitable processes in place to check that all elements of Section F in a new or amended Plan are fully in place, and that additional funding requests are consideredand decided in a timely way.

Case Ref: 23 021 216 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council's Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Improvement Board will review this decision to inform its further work on improving the Council's Special Educational Needs and Disabilities services.

Case Ref: 23 020 681 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will review its process of responding to the parental requests for extra assessments during their children’s EHC needs assessments. This is to ensure the Council responds in a timely manner and, when making its decision, applies the test set up in paragraph 9.49 of the SEND Code of Practice based on the SEND Regulations 2014 regulation 6(1)(h). The Council will provide us with the evidence it has done this.
• The Council’s SEND Improvement Board will review this decision to inform its further work on improving the Council’s SEND services. The Council will provide us with the evidence it has happened.

Case Ref: 23 020 622 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• The Council will send a reminder to officers in education to remind them of the Council’s section 19 duty and the need to consider putting in place alternative provision when a child has been absent from school for more than 15 days in a school year.