Service improvements

Suffolk County Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022

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 - 14 of 14 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 (20 008 503)

    Category: Education Date: 30-Jul-2021

    Summary

    Mrs B complained that the Council failed to provide suitable alternative education for her daughter C when she was unable to attend school due to anxiety. We found the Council failed to provide C with suitable alternative education, between October 2019 and March 2020. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs B, pay her £2000 to remedy the impact on C and a further £300 for Mrs B’s time and trouble in pursuing the matter. It has also agreed to review its policy, provide training and check alternative provision for other children in similar circumstances.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to (within three months): ensure it has a policy in place for providingalternative education to children out of school, which complies with section 19of the Education Act 1996; provide training and/or guidance to all relevant staffon its policy; and review the educational provision in place for childrenof compulsory school age who are on the roll but have not attended school formore than 15 school days and where alternative provision is not being supplied,to ensure there is an assessment of their educational needs and how these needsare being met.

  • Suffolk County Council (20 003 486)

    Category: Education Date: 14-Jun-2021

    Summary

    The Council failed to provide J with suitable full-time education and delayed making the specialist provision set out in his Education, Health and Care plan when his school placement ended. The Council also failed to follow the statutory guidance when it refused Mr and Mrs B’s request for a personal budget. We have recommended and the Council has agreed to apologise, make a payment and take action to prevent similar failings in future.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its procedures for dealing with requests for personal budgets and direct payments to ensure it accords with the statutory guidance and that is properly explains its reasons for its decisions.

  • Suffolk County Council (20 000 747)

    Category: Education Date: 08-Dec-2021

    Summary

    Mrs Y complained the Council failed to provide her son with suitable education. The Ombudsman has found fault by the Council, causing injustice. The Council has agreed to remedy this by apologising, making payments to acknowledge the impact of the loss of education and time and trouble caused to Mrs Y, and a service improvement.

    Service improvements

    Review its procedures for the provision of GCSE learning to pupils unable to attend school or engage with tutors.

  • Suffolk County Council (19 019 593)

    Category: Education Date: 04-Nov-2021

    Summary

    Mr and Mrs B complain that the Council failed to arrange suitable education for their son, C, so he did not receive the provision in his EHCP. The Ombudsman has found that the Council failed to take appropriate steps to ensure that C received alternative provision while out of school or to facilitate his attendance at school. The Council has agreed to pay Mr and Mrs B £5,400 for C’s benefit for the loss of two years of his education, £1,000 in recognition of the distress and social isolation that this has caused C, and £500 for the distress caused to Mr and Mrs B. The Council will also carry out an audit of children for whom it has a statutory duty to provide suitable full-time education under s.19 Education Act 1996.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to carry out an audit of children for whom it has a statutory duty to provide suitable full-time education under section 19 of the Education Act 1996 to ensure that: children are receiving full-time education on a par with their peers, and any provision due in their Education and Health Care Plan; provision is not being withheld or restricted due to resources or commissioning gaps; where a child is receiving less than full-time education, there is medical evidence to support that this is the maximum amount of education they can access and that this is regularly reviewed.The Council has agreed to review its complaint procedures to ensure that, as part of that process, it considers whether a remedy should be provided for any injustice and what other steps may be necessary to resolve the matter complained about.

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