Service improvements

Suffolk County Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023

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 1 - 10 of 18 cases with service improvements

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

  • Suffolk County Council (22 009 178)

    Category: Education Date: 13-Mar-2023

    Summary

    Mrs C complained the Council failed to secure a suitable school for her daughter, D, to attend from September 2022, and delayed putting alternative provision in place. She also complained the Council did not issue a final education, health and care plan, frustrating her right of appeal, and its communication was poor. We found the Council at fault for delays finalising D’s education, health, and care plan, and securing alternative provision. Because of the Council’s faults, D missed education and education health and care provision, and Mrs C’s rights of appeal to the SEND tribunal were frustrated.

    Service improvements

    Remind relevant staff of the timescales for issuing final amended EHC plans following the Council issuing an amendment notice and include this in future training.Review its procedure for covering cases when staff are absent.Review its procedure for considering provision requests to ensure these are dealt with in a timely manner.

  • Suffolk County Council (22 008 240)

    Category: Education Date: 22-Feb-2023

    Summary

    the Council failed to ensure Mrs B’s daughter’s school put all the provision in her education, health and care plan into place, delayed responding to her complaint, failed to properly consider her complaint and delayed responding to her queries about how the GCSE process would work for her daughter. An apology, payment to Mrs B, reminder to officers and training is satisfactory remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will send a reminder to complaints officers to remind them of the need to adhere to complaint timescales, to inform complainants when a response will be delayed and to ensure complaint responses properly address the concerns raised.The Council will carry out a training session for complaints officers dealing with special educational needs cases to cover the issue of what can be considered as part of a complaint when an appeal has been submitted to tribunal.The Council will send a reminder to officers dealing with EHCP’s about the need to obtain evidence from schools when a parent reports that provision is not in place so the Council can satisfy itself all the provision is in place.

  • Suffolk County Council (22 006 659)

    Category: Education Date: 06-Jan-2023

    Summary

    Mrs B complained about the Council’s failure to properly consider individual transport for her daughter to get to school, the way the appeal was handled, failure to consider her complaint and poor communication. There is fault in how the appeal was handled, along with instances of poor communication with Mrs B and a failure to take part of the complaint to stage two. An apology, payment to Mrs B and reminder to officers is satisfactory remedy. A further appeal is no longer necessary as Mrs B’s daughter has changed schools.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind officers dealing with complaints of the need to ensure the complaints process deals with issues that are separate to any issues which attract a right of appeal.

  • Suffolk County Council (22 006 250)

    Category: Education Date: 08-Feb-2023

    Summary

    the Council delayed completing an annual review for an education, health and care plan and in producing the final plan, failed to ensure some elements of provision in the plan were put in place, failed to consider a request for a speech and language therapy assessment and failed, on occasion, to respond to Mrs B’s contact until she chased the Council. An apology, payment to Mrs B, reimbursement of the amount she paid for her own speech and language therapy assessment and arrangement for the outstanding provisions to be put into place is satisfactory remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will arrange the one day assertiveness training.The Council will provide evidence of the action it has taken following the independent review of its special educational needs services where it is relevant to the issues raised in this complaint.The Council will confirm it has expedited the visit from the inclusion facilitator.The Council will arrange for the ICT assessment to take. place/confirm it has taken place.

  • Suffolk County Council (22 001 396)

    Category: Education Date: 20-Sep-2022

    Summary

    There was fault in failing to secure special educational provision after a Tribunal order and delay in agreeing a personal budget. This caused loss of education and unnecessary distress, time and trouble. The Council will pay a financial remedy and make service improvements. The complaint is upheld.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its processes to ensure provision in Education, Health and Care plans is put in place on time and personal budgets requests are dealt with in a timely way.The Council will ensure its commissioning arrangements are sufficient to meet the needs of children with Special Educational and Disability needs locally.When the Council upholds a complaint which has resulted in loss of a service it will consider whether a financial remedy is merited to avoid the need for complainants to bring cases to the Ombudsman unnecessarily.The Council will review its Special Education and Disability action plan, including around communication with families, to consider if further service improvements are required in light of this complaint.

  • Suffolk County Council (22 001 180)

    Category: Education Date: 05-Jan-2023

    Summary

    Mrs Y complains that the Council failed to ensure her daughter, X, received the education she was entitled to as per the provision named in her Education Health and Care Plan. In our view, X has received up to nine hours per week as specified in the amended draft plan. However, the Council has not issued a final plan, and this has frustrated Mrs Y’s right of appeal to challenge this. The Council has agreed to apologise, pay £300 and undertake the service improvements listed at the end of this statement.

    Service improvements

    The Council will provide evidence to show it has taken action to ensure, as far as possible, that staff adhere to statutory timescales regarding the issuing of amended and final EHC Plans after an annual review.

  • Suffolk County Council (22 000 993)

    Category: Education Date: 08-Nov-2022

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to ensure the provision set out in her son, Y’s Education, Health and Care plan was delivered and failed to adequately support his transition to post 16 education. The Council was at fault for failings in the annual review process in December 2021, not issuing a final amended plan for Y by 31 March 2021, missed provision in 2021-22, for delays in transition planning and support, poor communication and poor complaints handling. The Council should apologise and make payments to reflect the injustice caused to Y by the missed provision, the uncertainty and frustration caused to Mrs X, and the avoidable time and trouble she was put to pursuing the Council.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind staff about the need to respond to all parts of complaints with sufficient detail to ensure it is clear what has been upheld or not upheld, and the reasons for the conclusion reached, and to explain the basis of any payments offered if appropriate.

  • Suffolk County Council (21 018 111)

    Category: Education Date: 05-Sep-2022

    Summary

    Mrs B says the Council failed to provide full-time education to her son from March 2020 and delayed reassessing his education, health and care plan. There is no fault in the Council’s provision to Mrs B’s son until January 2022 when the Council failed to increase Mrs B’s son’s provision at the point at which he was ready for it. There was delay completing the reassessment for the education, health and care plan. A payment to Mrs B and reminder to officers is satisfactory remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will send a reminder to officers dealing with children out of education to remind them of the need to keep part-time education packages under review and increase them when the child is ready.

  • Suffolk County Council (21 017 154)

    Category: Education Date: 26-Oct-2022

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about the Council’s failure to provide her daughter with a suitable education and support for her special educational needs since 2018. We found the Council to be at fault because it failed to provide speech and language therapy specified in the Education, Health and Care Plan since June 2020. To remedy the injustice caused by this fault, the Council has agreed to apologise, make a payment to Mrs X and her daughter X, take action to provide the service in future and increase the supply of therapists in its area. We have not investigated part of Mrs X’s complaint because she appealed to the Tribunal.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to take action, at a senior level, to address the shortage of SALT provision in the Council area. It should also take action to ensure communication with parents is improved. The Council should provide a report to the Ombudsman to confirm what it proposes to do.

  • Suffolk County Council (21 016 914)

    Category: Education Date: 12-Sep-2022

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about delays in providing special educational needs support to her daughter, Y, and failings in the Council’s complaints handling. The Council was at fault. This caused frustration for Mrs X and missed provision for Y. The Council should apologise, make payments to reflect the injustice caused, and take action to improve its timescales for responding to communications from service users.

    Service improvements

    The Council did not respond to communications within its published timescales. It will carry out analysis to identify how quickly the relevant team responded to communications from service users in the six months to the date of the final decision, and either develop a plan of action to ensure it responds within published timescales in future or reviews its policy to ensure its published timescales are realistic and achievable.

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