Service improvements

Suffolk County Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024

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 - 15 of 15 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 (22 013 840)

    Category: Education Date: 05-Jun-2023

    Summary

    The complainant (Ms X) said the Council failed to provide her son (Y) with suitable alternative education since he stopped attending school, failed to deliver all special educational provisions (SEP) included in his Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP), delayed issuing Y’s EHCP following reassessment of his Education Health and Care (EHC) needs and failed during consideration of Ms X’s Personal Budget request. We found fault with the Council in all areas of Ms X’s complaint. This fault caused injustice to Y and Ms X. The Council agreed to apologise, review the educational provision offered to Y, re-consider Ms X’s request for Personal Budget, make payments for the loss of Y’s education and Ms X’s distress and introduce an information leaflet to be sent when responding to requests for Personal Budget.

    Service improvements

    The Council will ensure all the parents/young people requesting Personal Budget in Education Health and Care plans are provided at the beginning of the process with the information required by law and SEND Code of Practice 2015, including details of the organisations that provide advice and assistance on Personal Budgets and the right to apply for a review of the Council's decision. The Council will provide the evidence that this has been introduced as part of the process.

  • Suffolk County Council (22 011 419)

    Category: Education Date: 21-May-2023

    Summary

    The Council delayed identifying a suitable specialist school placement for Mrs B’s son which affected the provision he could receive, delayed issuing a final education, health and care plan following a review and failed to keep Mrs B up-to-date with what was happening. An apology, payment to Mrs B and reminder to officers is satisfactory remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind officers dealing with EHCPs of the need to comply with the timescales set down in the code of practice.The Council will remind officers dealing with children that need to move to a different school or type of school of the need to ensure consultations are undertaken promptly and concurrently rather than sequentially.The Council will provide evidence of the action the Council is taking to identify additional specialist school places.

  • Suffolk County Council (22 010 176)

    Category: Education Date: 16-Jul-2023

    Summary

    Ms X complained about the Council’s handling of the annual review of her daughter’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan and delay in issuing her EHC plan. She also complained about its consideration of her request for a personal budget. We found evidence of fault by the Council. The Council has agreed to our recommendations to put right the injustice caused Ms X and her daughter and to improve its service.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review it procedures for deciding personal budget requests to prevent a recurrence of the delays we found. It will create an action plan explaining what it will do to achieve this.The Council has agreed to review its procedures for attending virtual Education, Health and Care plan review meetings to ensure there is not a recurrence of the IT issues we found. It will create an action plan explaining what it will do to achieve this.

  • Suffolk County Council (22 005 559)

    Category: Education Date: 02-Jul-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to provide her son (Y) who has special educational needs with education or suitable alternative provision when he was unable to attend school due to ill health. We find the Council at fault as it did not act sooner to arrange alternative provision for Y and review the matter. The Council should apologise to Mrs X and make payments to reflect Y’s missed education and uncertainty and frustration caused. The Council should also make service improvements to prevent recurrence.

    Service improvements

    The Council should provide suitable staff training or reminders to staff of its duties under law and guidance to provide alternative provision when a child of statutory school age is out of school for any reason. The Council should consider sharing a copy of our focus report “Out of school, out of sight?”.

  • Suffolk County Council (22 001 487)

    Category: Education Date: 16-Apr-2023

    Summary

    Mrs B complained about delays and failures in assessing her son C’s special educational needs, providing him with suitable full-time education, arranging the special provision in his Education, Health and Care Plan, and issuing a final plan after a review. On the evidence available we found fault in the Council’s actions. We have asked the Council to pay Mrs B £2400 for the benefit of C’s education, £500 for her time and trouble, £295 for a private report she obtained and to provide evidence of how the major review of its service is progressing in terms of adherence to statutory timescales.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to highlight the steps it has taken over the past year as part of its reforms to improve the adherence to statutory timescales in producing new EHC plans following a needs assessment and responding to annual reviews of EHC plans and how these improvements are being monitored.

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