Service improvements

Surrey 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 33 cases with service improvements

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

  • Surrey County Council (22 014 808)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 23-Mar-2023

    Summary

    The Council failed to assess Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards requests in accordance with the timescales set out in the Mental Capacity Act regulations. People may have been restricted unnecessarily or wrongly deprived of their liberty. The Council has agreed our recommendation to address the delays.

    Service improvements

    The Council should create an action plan addressing the delays that have occurred in assessing Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards requests. The Council should state how it will reduce the backlog of outstanding requests and respond to ongoing new requests in a timely manner.The action plan should consider a remedy in line with our published Guidance on Remedies for those cases where a request is not approved, and an unlawful deprivation of liberty has had a potentially harmful impact on that person.The action plan should consider a remedy in line with our published Guidance on Remedies for those cases where a request is approved but with less restrictive measures, and an unlawful restriction of liberty has had a potentially harmful impact on that person.

  • Surrey County Council (22 010 168)

    Category: Education Date: 23-Mar-2023

    Summary

    There was fault by the Council in failing to provide suitable fulltime education when a child was unable to attend school due to medical needs. This caused the child to miss out on education and caused the parent carer unnecessary inconvenience and distress. The Council will apologise and make a payment of £3900 to acknowledge the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council will provide updated guidance to complaint officers clarifying the legal position around complaints and appeals, in particular that case law affecting the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction does not bar councils from considering complaints itself or prevent a complainant pursuing other legal remedies such as judicial review.

  • Surrey County Council (22 009 834)

    Category: Education Date: 27-Jan-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to arrange alternative provision for her son, Y, leaving her to arrange this and causing distress. We found the Council at fault because it did not act in line with its statutory duty to provide education to a child out of school. We recommended the Council apologise, pay £300 for distress and take action to remedy any injustice to others.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review all complaints made to the Council in the last 12 months concerning children out of school; consider if the Council has applied its section 19 duties correctly in light of this decision and; if the Council finds it has erred, take action to remedy any injustice.

  • Surrey County Council (22 009 683)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 17-Mar-2023

    Summary

    The Council has acknowledged that it took too long to consider Mrs B’s request for changes to respite care when she could not recruit a personal assistant. It has apologised to her, and agreed to her request. It has backdated payments to cover care Mrs B funded herself, and offered to pay Mrs B in recognition of the impact on her. In response to my recommendation, the Council has agreed to also make a further payment and remind staff of the correct process.

    Service improvements

    The Council should share this decision with relevant staff and remind them of procedures for agreeing changes to care packages outside of the funding panel

  • Surrey County Council (22 009 496)

    Category: Education Date: 10-Mar-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complains that the Council failed to provide her son, C, with alternative provision when he was absent from school between December 2021 and June 2022. The Council failed to provide alternative provision. The Council will take action to prevent the fault reoccurring and make payments to recognise the loss of education and financial loss incurred.

    Service improvements

    Remind all inclusion officers that they have an obligation to check any school provided provision is suitable when a child unable to attend for medical reasons or otherwise. And that it is the Council’s obligation to provide provision when the school’s is deemed unsuitable.Remind staff within the education department that government guidancedoes not expect alternative provision to be solely in an online format when children areunable to attend school.

  • Surrey County Council (22 009 371)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 10-Mar-2023

    Summary

    Mr C complained about the Council’s handling of his father’s respite and subsequent permanent care placements. We found fault in how the Council handled Mr X’s transition from respite into permanent care. There was no other fault, or significant injustice on other parts of the complaint. The Council should apologise and make payment to Mr C to acknowledge the distress and time and trouble its fault caused him.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind its Financial Assessment Team to include the Council’s rates with care providers in its communication with individuals and their representatives when arranging care placements. This is to ensure individuals has a clear understanding of their care costs at the time and any potential top up payments.The Council will remind its staff to progress permanent care placement without delay before respite placement ends in line with wishes of the person care for, or their representatives.

  • Surrey County Council (22 007 478)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 15-Nov-2022

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about delays in how the Council considered her complaint about its adoption service. The Council was at fault for significant delays in arranging an independent stage three panel. This caused Mrs X frustration and meant she had to go to avoidable time and trouble. The Council will pay Mrs X £300 in recognition of that injustice. It will also promptly arrange the stage three panel hearing and carry out staff training.

    Service improvements

    The Council will carry out training with the relevant staff on its duties under the statutory children's complaints procedure, including when a complaint is eligible for early referral to the Ombudsman.

  • Surrey County Council (22 006 202)

    Category: Education Date: 01-Dec-2022

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council delayed finalising an Education Health and Care Plan (“EHCP”) for his son, Y, and failed to arrange alternative provision while Y was out of school, resulting in missed education, costs and distress. We found the Council at fault. We recommended it provide an apology, reimburse Mr X’s costs; pay £800 for missed education, pas £450 for time trouble and distress, arrange provision for Y going forward and act to prevent recurrence.

    Service improvements

    The Council will provide training or guidance to staff responsible for arranging Education Health and Care Plans to ensure they are meeting their duty to provide information to parents about the process involved.The Council will put in place a process to ensure it has oversight of requests for information from professionals to support an Education Health and Care Plan and to ensure the Council considers taking action if there is any delay in responses.The Council will provide training to staff responsible for children’s education on the Council’s responsibilities under s19 of the Education Act 1996, with reference to this decision and the Ombudsman’s Focus Report ‘Out of school….out of mind?’, available on our website.

  • Surrey County Council (22 004 034)

    Category: Education Date: 31-Dec-2022

    Summary

    Mrs L complains in respect of her daughter (Young Person X) who has special educational needs (SEN). The Council maintains an EHCP for Young Person X which identifies what support she needs to meet her SEN. Mrs L complains in respect of the contents of the EHCP, a failure to provide specific EHCP provision, as well as how this was handled internally as a complaint by the Council. We found the Council failed to maintain oversight over whether Young Person X’s EHCP provision was being delivered. This meant the Council failed to provide part of the EHCP provision. The Council also gave misleading and inaccurate information to Mrs L as regards to who was responsible for providing Young Person X’s EHCP provision. We have no jurisdiction to investigate the contents of Young Person X’s EHCP because Mrs L appealed to a tribunal in respect of these issues. Nevertheless, Young Person X and Mrs L suffered an injustice by reason of the failings identified. The Council has agreed to our recommendations to remedy this.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind all relevant staff that it is the Council which has a duty to meet Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) provision.The Council will also conduct a formal review its oversight practices with respect to ensuring Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) provision is met in educational settings. The purpose of the review is for the Council to adopt measures so to prevent similar occurrences which result in a loss of EHCP provision. The review will also inform additional training and guidance to staff working in this area.

  • Surrey County Council (22 003 724)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 21-Feb-2023

    Summary

    Miss X complains about how the Council investigated her complaint under the statutory complaints process. She complains the Council failed to consider its actions and the impact this had on her family. The Ombudsman finds fault with how the Council considered Miss X’s complaint at stage two. The Council has agreed to reinvestigate Miss X’s complaint at stage two and pay Miss X a financial remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to share a copy of the decision with those it commissions for the statutory complaints process. This should include communication about lessons learnt and how failing to fully investigate hinders the complaints process.The Council has agreed to review whether staff need further training about the Council’s responsibility to be proactive about its duty to consider reasonable adjustments.

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