Case Ref: 22 016 913 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Other

• The Council was at fault because it was not able to show how it openly discussed and took into account the complainants views and agreed a support plan while it was providing him with support as a parent of adopted children. The recommendation is to remind all staff of the importance of sharing assessments to ensure it obtains adoptive parent’s views on support.

Case Ref: 22 016 391 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will review its process for allocating medical tuition to ensure it is compliant with the law and recently issued statutory guidance, that it has a plan to address gaps in capacity of tutors and that it retains oversight of provision while a child is out of school.

Case Ref: 22 015 693 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Charging

• The Council will review its response to the difficulties of issuing invoices without a cover letter and consider alternative solutions.

Case Ref: 22 015 250 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council agreed to issue reminders to all relevant staff who manage its Education, Health, and Care (EHC) plan processes, about:its statutory duty to properly consider and respond to requests from families for an EHC needs re-assessment; its statutory duty to properly consider and respond to requests from families for further professional advice to be sought as part of an EHC needs assessment or re-assessment; its statutory duty to carry out EHC plan reviews and EHC needs assessments or re-assessments within the required timescales; andthe importance of communicating properly with families and keeping them updated about any delays.
• The Council agreed to share a copy of our final decision with all staff who work in its Special Educational Needs and Disabilities service, and its complaints service. It will remind them of its duties under the Equality Act 2010, including the reasonable adjustment duty.
• The Council agreed to ensure a copy of our final decision is considered as part of its ongoing Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Improvement Strategy, following its Independent SEND Review. The Council commissioned this independent review in 2021 to address issues with its SEND services and is monitoring progress against the actions it identified.

Case Ref: 22 013 840 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• 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.

Case Ref: 22 011 419 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• 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.

Case Ref: 22 010 615 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Charging

• Review its guidance on record keeping for social care staff and ensure it is fit for purpose and that staff are aware of what is required.
• Complete the review into information sharing between the finance team and care providers.

Case Ref: 22 010 176 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• 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.

Case Ref: 22 007 108 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Other

• The Council will review the operation of its statutory complaints procedure to identify where it can make changes to prevent delays.
• The Council will provide us with evidence it has reviewed its link family provision.

Case Ref: 22 006 055 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Council has agreed to remind all staff dealing with complaints to respond to dissatisfaction with complaint responses in accordance with its published procedure and to keep complainants informed of progress on a regular basis.
• The Council has agreed to remind all complaint staff to ensure our requests to consider premature complaints through all stages of the complaints procedure are actioned promptly.