Service improvements

Suffolk County Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2027

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 31 - 40 of 108 cases with service improvements

Export results (CSV)

Downloads the current filtered list of service improvement decisions for Suffolk County Council as a CSV file.

  • Suffolk County Council (24 001 995)

    Category: Education Date: 22-Nov-2024

    Summary

    Miss X complained the Council failed to provide adequate education for her child, Y, while excluded from school. We find the Council at fault resulting in a loss of educational provision for Y. We recommend the Council apologises and makes a payment to Miss X.

    Service improvements

    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.

  • Suffolk County Council (24 001 931)

    Category: Education Date: 12-Jan-2025

    Summary

    There was delay and fault by the Council in failing to secure special educational provision in an EHC Plan and failing to respond to requests for additional funding from a school within an acceptable timeframe. This has caused loss of education, distress, frustration and delay. The Council will apologise, make a symbolic payment, resolve the outstanding funding request, and make service improvements. The complaint is upheld.

    Service improvements

    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.

  • Suffolk County Council (23 021 216)

    Category: Education Date: 24-Jul-2024

    Summary

    The complainant (Mrs X) said the Council had failed to comply with the statutory timescales for an Education Health and Care needs assessment for her son (Y) and had failed within its communication with her. We found fault in the Council’s delays and communication. This fault caused Y and Mrs X injustice. The Council agreed to apologise and make payments to recognise distress.

    Service improvements

    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.

  • Suffolk County Council (23 020 681)

    Category: Education Date: 06-Aug-2024

    Summary

    We found fault in the way the Council carried out an Education Health and Care needs assessment for the complainant’s (Mrs X) daughter (Y) and in the Council’s communication with Mrs X. This fault caused Y and Mrs X injustice. The Council agreed to apologise, issue a draft Education Health and Care Plan for Y, re-consider Mrs X’s request for an Occupational Therapy assessment for Y and make payments to recognise delays and distress. The Council also agreed to carry out some service improvements.

    Service improvements

    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.

  • Suffolk County Council (23 020 622)

    Category: Education Date: 21-Nov-2024

    Summary

    the Council delayed putting in place education for Mrs B’s daughter when she could not attend school due to anxiety. An apology, payment to Mrs B and reminder to officers is satisfactory remedy.

    Service improvements

    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.

  • Suffolk County Council (23 019 930)

    Category: Education Date: 05-Nov-2024

    Summary

    the Council delayed putting in place education for Miss B’s daughter, failed to put in place sufficient education, failed to put in place some of the provision in her daughter’s education, health and care plan and delayed completing the annual review for that plan. An apology, allocation of a budget to be used for Miss B’s daughter’s benefit, payment to Miss B and reminder to officers is satisfactory remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind officers about the need to keep the number of hours of tuition in place for children receiving only part-time hours under review.

  • Suffolk County Council (23 019 811)

    Category: Education Date: 22-Nov-2024

    Summary

    The Council took too long to issue a final Education Health and Care Plan. It also failed to properly consider whether it should make alternative educational provision when Miss B’s child could not attend school. This caused Miss B distress and meant that her child missed out on education. The Council has agreed to take action to remedy the impact on Miss B and her child.

    Service improvements

    Share this decision with relevant staff

  • Suffolk County Council (23 019 368)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 22-Nov-2024

    Summary

    Mr D complained on behalf of his mother that the Council had overcharged for her care and support and failed to issue invoices. He also complains about delay responding to his complaint. We found fault causing an overcharge, distress and time and trouble. The Council has agreed to take the actions set out at the end of this statement to remedy the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    •Review its adult social care charging systems to ensure invoices can be issued to self-funders who have not had a full financial assessment and that there are regular checks that commissioned care is being evidenced and invoiced.•Check that it is monitoring whether regular care and support reviews are being carried out of self-funders.

  • Suffolk County Council (23 019 255)

    Category: Education Date: 11-Nov-2024

    Summary

    Mrs B complained that the Council failed to provide transport for her son, C to attend his educational provisions for almost a year. We found the Council, failed to provide transport, delayed excessively in reaching a decision on C’s eligibility for transport and also in offering Mrs B a personal travel budget. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs B, pay her £500 and improve its procedures for the future.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review its transport procedures to ensure (as far as is practical) arrangements are in place for transport by the start of the school year, including cases involving children with an EHC Plan and that the Council is clear in its decisions regarding exceptional circumstances and accompaniment.

  • Suffolk County Council (23 019 006)

    Category: Education Date: 02-Sep-2024

    Summary

    Mrs B complained the Council failed to comply with the statutory timeframes for completing an Education, Health and Care needs assessment for her child, X. Mrs B says this has impacted X’s access to education. We have found the Council at fault. The Council has agreed to apologise, pay a financial remedy to Mrs B and X and complete service improvements to remedy the injustice caused by the faults identified.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its procedure for considering and recording section 19 decisions to ensure it is correctly and accurately recording all section 19 decisions.The Council will circulate guidance to its Special Educational Needs and inclusion officers about the Council's duty under section 19 of the Education Act 1996 to consider alternative provision from the point it becomes aware a child is out of school and record its decision making on this.

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