Service improvements

Surrey 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 - 20 of 46 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 (23 004 581)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 12-Jan-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complains about several issues concerning how the Council responded to his request for some post adoption support. He complains about several delays, the support proposed, advice given and the Council’s refusal to fund some of the family’s costs. The Ombudsman’s decision is there was fault with some delays and with not responding to Mr X’s complaint through the statutory children’s complaint procedure. The Council has agreed to our recommendations to remedy the injustice caused to Mr X and his family. But we cannot question the merits of the professional assessment, or the proposed therapy that was commissioned from that assessment.

    Service improvements

    The Council has delayed in reviewing its post adoption support procedure. It has agreed to carry out the review.

  • Surrey County Council (23 004 580)

    Category: Education Date: 27-Feb-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council delayed in issuing an Education, Health and Care Plan for her son, Y, and failed to make alternative provision available for him while he was out of school. We find the Council at fault for failing to explore alternative provision options. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs X and Y, make a payment to recognise the injustice caused by the fault, and act to prevent recurrence.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind staff dealing with these cases that where they are aware a child is not attending school, it should consider each individual case and its Section 19 duty in accordance with relevant law and guidance.

  • Surrey County Council (23 003 807)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 14-Nov-2023

    Summary

    Mrs B says the Council failed to provide her with any advice, support or options when she took on care of her niece in 2020, unreasonably refused to consider her complaint about that and failed to provide her with any advice about securing a special guardianship order. The Council failed to recognise its involvement in setting up the placement in 2020, failed to consider Mrs B’s complaint and failed to give her any advice about special guardianship. Backdated payments, funding for some legal advice for Mrs B and training for officers is satisfactory remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will carry out a training session for social workers to ensure they know about the Council’s responsibilities under the Children’s Act and the Council’s family and friends policy. That training should include information about what advice and support should be provided to those potentially taking on the care of a child and the information to be given about the options, including financial.

  • Surrey County Council (23 003 786)

    Category: Education Date: 28-Mar-2024

    Summary

    Mr M and his mother complain the Council left him without education from 2019. It delayed reviewing his Education, Health and Care Plan, did not respond to their request to explore a personal budget and delayed referring them to the Council’s Adult Social Care service for an assessment. We will not investigate some parts of Mr M’s complaint. But we have found fault with the parts we have investigated. The Council has agreed to our recommendation of an improved remedy to that which it had offered.

    Service improvements

    The Council will provide training or guidance to relevant officers to ensure it responds to requests for personal budgets in Education, Health and Care needs assessments and reviews.The Council should undertake a detailed review of the failings identified in this statement. The review should focus on the induction and support new special educational needs and disabilities officers, including locum officers, receive.

  • Surrey County Council (23 003 593)

    Category: Education Date: 18-Jan-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council failed to deliver all the special educational provision in his child’s Education, Health and Care plan, and about its communication failures. We have found fault by the Council in failing to deliver the Occupational Therapy (OT) provision, a delay in arranging some other parts of the provision, and failing to communicate properly, causing injustice. The Council has agreed to remedy this by apologising, making payments to reflect the distress caused and the impact of the missed provision, taking action to put the OT provision in place and update Mr X, and making service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council will report back to us on the progress of its review of its SEN services and its recovery programme to resolve any out of date actions within its statutory SEN service.The Council will report back to us on what it is doing to share the review findings and planned actions with interested parties.

  • Surrey County Council (23 003 549)

    Category: Education Date: 08-Dec-2023

    Summary

    Mr X complains the Council delayed completing an Education, Health and Care needs assessment for his daughter. He also complains the Council and its staff failed to demonstrate basic standards of professionalism and courtesy when dealing with him and his family. Mr X says this caused him avoidable distress, uncertainty, financial loss and time and trouble. Based on the information provided, we have found fault by the Council. We recommend it reimburse him the full cost of getting a private Educational Psychologist report for his daughter and make him a symbolic payment.

    Service improvements

    The Council will undertake a written review of its handling of the Education, Health and Care needs assessment. The review should include how the Council managed the case and the quality of the communication.

  • Surrey County Council (23 003 405)

    Category: Education Date: 18-Oct-2023

    Summary

    Miss X complained the Council did not provide the provision in her son, Y’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan when he could not attend school for medical reasons between June 2022 and January 2023. Miss X further complained the Council did not review and amend the EHC plan in line with the regulations which delayed her right to appeal to the SEND tribunal. The Council did not review Y’s EHC plan in line with the guidance. The Council agreed to pay Miss X £550 to recognise the frustration this caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind all relevant special educational needs staff responding to stage one and stage two complaints of the importance of clearly setting out their finding on each point of complaint, with reference to our Guidance on Effective Complaint Handling for Local Authorities.

  • Surrey County Council (23 002 965)

    Category: Education Date: 29-Jan-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council failed to provide his child D with suitable education and support for their special educational needs. There was fault by the Council which caused D to miss education and special educational needs support. It also caused avoidable distress for D, and avoidable distress, time, and trouble for their parents. The Council agreed to apologise, issue a final amended Education, Health, and Care plan for D without delay, and pay a financial remedy. It will also issue reminders to its staff, review relevant procedures, and ensure recurrent fault found by the Ombudsman is considered as part of its SEND Improvement Plan.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to share a copy of our final decision with all staff in its Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) service. It will remind them about:the Council’s duty under section 19 of the Education Act 1996 to secure alternative education when it is aware a child is out of school for any reason;statutory timescales for Education, Health, and Care (EHC) plan reviews; the importance of communicating properly with families, responding to specific queries, and keeping them updated about any delays; andthe timescales set out in the Council’s complaints procedure, and the importance of actioning complaint outcomes without delay.The Council agreed to review Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)/ alternative education decisions issued by the Ombudsman since January 2023, where we have identified systemic fault and the Council has agreed to our recommendations to improve its services. It will ensure it includes these Ombudsman recommendations in its SEND Improvement Plan so it can review the effectiveness of completed service improvements.The Council agreed to review its processes and procedures for following up on education complaint outcomes agreed via its complaints procedures, to ensure its Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) service completes the outcomes without delay.

  • Surrey County Council (23 002 055)

    Category: Education Date: 27-Sep-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complains the Council failed to provide suitable education provision for her daughter and delayed in dealing with her requests for an Education, Health and Care plan. The Council is at fault as it failed to consider if Y’s education provision met her needs and was reasonably accessible to her when she could not attend school on a full time basis and when the strategies put into place by the school failed. This caused uncertainty to Mrs X but we cannot conclude the Council would have found the education provision to be unsuitable. There was also fault in how the Council dealt with Mrs X’s complaint which caused uncertainty to her. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs X and make a payment of £300.

    Service improvements

    By reviewing its procedures or other means, ensures it considers whether education provision is meeting a child’s needs and is reasonably accessible in the event a child is not attending full time or at all and keeps a record of this decision. The Council should also ensure it keeps the suitability of the education under review in the event a child does not quickly return to full time education.By training or other means, ensure officers are aware that all issues raised in a complaint are appropriately addressed.

  • Surrey County Council (23 001 857)

    Category: Education Date: 12-Oct-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complains the Council has delayed the reassessment of Child Y’s EHCP and refused to deliver alternative provision in the interim. The Ombudsman finds fault with the Council for delaying issuing the EHCP, and for failing to consider its duty to alternative provision. The Council has agreed to pay financial remedies for the delays and lost education, and implement service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review how it monitors children out of school where they are not accessing alternative provision, and whether the Council is giving due consideration to its duty to provide alternative provision in these cases.The Council has agreed to remind complaint handlers that where the Council upholds a complaint and identifies injustice, it should consider if injustice has been caused to the complainant and whether a remedy is appropriate.

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