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 11 - 20 of 68 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 (24 010 672)

    Category: Education Date: 09-Jun-2025

    Summary

    The Council failed to arrange the transitional support that Ms X’s child, G, needed when they started school. The Council also failed to communicate with Ms X properly, delayed consulting alternative schools and delayed issuing G’s Education Health and Care Plan. The Council’s faults caused G to miss out on a term of transitional support and caused Ms X and G frustration and uncertainty. To recognise the injustice caused, the Council has agreed to apologise, pay Ms X £800 and take action to improve its services.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to remind staff in its special educational needs and disability (SEND) team and its complaint handling teams that the Council has a duty to make sure the child or young person receives the special educational provision set out in section F of an Education, Health and Care Plan and this duty is non-delegable. The Council should not inform parents or carers that this is the responsibility of the school.

  • Suffolk County Council (24 008 195)

    Category: Education Date: 01-Jun-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about how the Council handled her son’s Education, Health and Care Plan process. We have found fault with the Council for failing to meet statutory timescales which delayed Mrs X’s right of appeal and caused Mrs X and her son distress and uncertainty. The Council has agreed to remedy this injustice.

    Service improvements

    Provide evidence of the staff training that has taken place to improve record keeping to prevent delays when case workers change roles.Arrange a transition review with Mrs X and Y to include representatives from family services and adult community services to discuss Y’s future plans;

  • Suffolk County Council (24 011 007)

    Category: Education Date: 20-Feb-2025

    Summary

    Mrs B complained that the Council had failed to provide Occupational Therapy support in accordance with her son C’s Education, Health and Care Plan since November 2023. We found the Council’s inability to find appropriate provision until January 2025 was service failure which caused injustice to both C and Mrs B. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs B, pay her £1650 and has provided us with information about the steps it is taking to improve the supply of Occupational Therapists.

    Service improvements

    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

  • Suffolk County Council (24 008 941)

    Category: Education Date: 27-Mar-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complained that the Council failed to make education provision for her son Y when he was unable to attend school. The Council was at fault as it delayed in making education provision for Y and did not ensure he received some provision in his Education, Health and Care Plan. As a result, Y missed education provision for two terms and the fault caused distress to Mrs X. The Council has agreed to remedy this injustice by apologising to Mrs X and Y, making a symbolic payment of £1800 to Y and a symbolic payment of £300 to Mrs X.

    Service improvements

    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.

  • Suffolk County Council (24 002 727)

    Category: Education Date: 05-Feb-2025

    Summary

    Mrs B says the Council failed to put in place speech and language therapy and other provision in her daughter’s education, health and care plan, failed to amend her daughter’s plan as agreed and delayed completing an annual review. The Council failed to put in place some provision in Mrs B’s daughter’s EHC Plan, delayed completing an annual review and delayed issuing a new EHC Plan following the annual review. That means Mrs B’s daughter missed out on some provision and Mrs B experienced distress. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a payment to Mrs B, put in place the missing provision and provide the Ombudsman with its action plan for managing annual reviews.

    Service improvements

    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.

  • 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.

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