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 11 - 20 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 (22 003 462)

    Category: Education Date: 27-Feb-2023

    Summary

    Mrs C complains the Council failed to provide her daughter with suitable education provision while she was unable to attend school. Mrs C says her daughter missed out on education and suffered avoidable distress and she spent unnecessary time and trouble in trying to resolve the matter. We have found fault by the Council but consider the agreed action of an apology, symbolic payment and service review provides a suitable remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will complete a review to ensure it meets it statutory duty to arrange alternative provision for children unable to attend school because of illness or otherwise as quickly as possible and can monitor any arrangements made through its Access to Education service to ensure they remain in place and provide suitable education.

  • Surrey County Council (22 002 119)

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

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council failed to carry out the agreed actions in a Child in Need plan it put in place for her daughter, C. The Council failed to undertake actions agreed in the plan. The Council has agreed to take action to prevent the fault reoccurring and make a payment to recognise the frustration caused and loss of respite.

    Service improvements

    The Council will complete its review of the policy and practiceof direct payments.

  • Surrey County Council (22 001 375)

    Category: Education Date: 17-Nov-2022

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council failed to agree a personal budget for her daughter, Y’s, Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), leaving her to fund Y’s education. We find the Council at fault for delays. We recommend the Council apologise to Ms X and Y, pay £400 and act to prevent recurrence.

    Service improvements

    The Council will provide training for Special Educational Needs Service staff involved with personal budgets.The Council will ensure its annual review documents have a dedicated section for personal budgets.The Council has agreed to develop a process to ensure it can complete Education Health and Care Plans (including details of any personal budget) in time, when faced with changes in staff.

  • Surrey County Council (22 001 001)

    Category: Education Date: 09-Oct-2022

    Summary

    Mrs X made two complaints about delay within the Education, Health and Care Plan process for her son. There was fault by the Council for significant delay in issuing a final Plan after an appeal and also in its handling of her second complaint. This caused a direct loss of provision to her son, in addition to time and trouble for Mrs X. The Council has agreed to provide Mrs X with an apology, a financial payment and to make service improvements to remedy the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its processes to ensure it issues final EHC plans within statutory timescales and minimises delays, providing evidence this guidance has been sent to appropriate staff members.The Council will review its processes on how it takes action when professionals miss deadlines in providing advice for the EHCP assessment process, providing evidence this guidance has been sent to appropriate staff members.The Council will identify what key steps it will take to ensure it improves its complaints handling, providing evidence of this.

  • Surrey County Council (22 000 603)

    Category: Education Date: 24-Oct-2022

    Summary

    Mr X complained about delays and other errors in the Education, Health and Care assessment process for his son, Y. There was fault in how the Council prepared Y’s Education, Health and Care plan and responded to Mr X’s complaint. This caused Mr X avoidable inconvenience, frustration, time and trouble, for which the Council agreed to apologise and pay a financial remedy. It also agreed to remind staff about the importance of properly considering comments on draft Education, Health and Care plans.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to remind its staff responsible for Education, Health and Care plans of the importance of fully considering comments on draft plans, adequately recording their consideration of comments and explaining to parents why it intends to make, or not make, changes as a result of any comments.

  • Surrey County Council (22 000 324)

    Category: Education Date: 30-May-2022

    Summary

    Mrs R complains the Council wrongly ended her son’s (Child A) personal budget which was used to support his special educational needs. She also complains the Council has delayed in amending Child A’s Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP). We have identified numerous and serious failings by the Council which amount to poor administrative practice in some areas. The Council repeatedly made flawed decisions about Child A’s personal budget based on no clear rationale or criteria. It also failed to provide Mrs R her legal right to challenge the decisions through a clear review process. The Council also failed to adhere to statutory guidance relating to the timeframe for amending an EHCP. Mrs R has suffered serious loss, harm and distress by reason of the Council’s failings. The Council has agreed to our recommendations to remedy the serious injustice identified.

    Service improvements

    The Council will establish a clear policy relating to personal budgets and direct payments. This will include clear and simple statements of eligibility criteria and the decision-making processes. The policy will be published as part of the Council's Local Offer and made accessible to the public in accordance with statutory guidance.The Council will provide formal training to all officers who are (i)responsible for making personal budget decisions and; (ii) responsible forrecording written decisions relating to personal budgets. The training willfocus on the new policy referred to above and how decisions are to be properlymade and recorded to demonstrate good administrative practice in the future.a) At a senior level, the Council will review its systems and practiceswith respect to conducting reviews of personal budget decisions. Specifically,the Council will produce a template document informing parents of a personal budget outcome. This will contain information relating to a right of review.Further, the Council will develop a robust review process. This will includethe timetable for completing a review and how the decision will be reviewed.The Council will implement a practice of sending parents an outcome letter ofthe review exercise which fully explains how the decision was reached. TheCouncil will adopt further measures it considers appropriate following a ful lreview.

  • Surrey County Council (22 000 291)

    Category: Education Date: 03-Oct-2022

    Summary

    Mrs Y complained about the significant delays by the Council in finalising her sons Education, Health and Care plan and consulting with schools. She said the Council failed to send its intention letter following the annual review and failed to provide her son with a suitable education. We find the Council was at fault. This led to Mrs Y’s son regressing significantly in mainstream school. The Council has agreed to our recommendations to address this injustice.

    Service improvements

    Issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they are aware of the Councils duty to decide whether to keep, cease or amend the EHC plan within four weeks of the review meeting, and to notify the parents in writing.

  • Surrey County Council (22 000 263)

    Category: Education Date: 03-Nov-2022

    Summary

    Miss X complained about the Council’s delays in finalising her son’s Education, Health and Care Plan in 2019 and in sourcing a new school for him. We have found the Council to be at fault because it took too long to find a new school and in the way it handled Miss X’s complaints. Miss X and her son suffered avoidable frustration and distress because it took over a year to find a suitable school. To remedy the injustice caused by this fault, the Council has agreed to apologise, make a payment to Miss X and review its procedures.

    Service improvements

    The Council should take action, at a senior level, to address the delays experienced by the complainant and review its complaints’ handling processes linked to education-related complaints. The Council should provide a report to the Ombudsman to confirm what it proposes to do.

  • Surrey County Council (22 000 046)

    Category: Education Date: 27-Sep-2022

    Summary

    Miss X complained the Council failed to provide Occupational Therapy (OT) services specified in her son, Y’s, Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). Miss X complained the Council has not completed all the recommendations of its stage two investigation. Miss X says the delay in implementing the OT provision has resulted in further delay in Y’s developing skills and she has been put to time and trouble to complain. There was fault in the way the Council conducted the annual review and did not communicate its decision to amend or maintain the plan with the family. This failure has caused Miss X and Y an injustice as he did not receive the OT provision, the Council has acknowledged he should have.

    Service improvements

    •Review its procedures to ensure recommendations made in its own complaint responses are regularly monitored to ensure timely and full compliance.•Review its EHCP annual review procedure to ensure it follows the statutory four-week timeframes set out in the SEND regulations. Ensure decisions about maintaining, amending or discontinuing plans are communicated clearly and promptly to the young person and their family to enable appeal rights to be engaged.

  • Surrey County Council (21 018 132)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 19-Oct-2022

    Summary

    Mrs X complains the Council has not completed some of the agreed remedy actions after it upheld her complaints following an investigation under the children’s statutory complaints procedure. The Council is at fault. It has not completed some of the actions agreed. There was also poor record keeping which has caused uncertainty about how the decision to refuse Mrs X support as a parent carer was reached. The Council will apologise to Mrs X for the frustration and uncertainty caused and improve its services.

    Service improvements

    The Council will share the learning identified during its investigation into her complaint about childrens services under the childrens statutory complaints procedure and remind staff of the importance of keeping proper and appropriate records of decision making by the childrens service resource panel.The Council will produce a printable or downloadable leaflet about parent carer assessments and make this publicly available.The council will complete improvements to information about parent carer assessments on its website.

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