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 31 - 40 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 (22 016 917)

    Category: Education Date: 18-Jun-2023

    Summary

    Ms Y complained the Council did not arrange Y’s educational provision under her Education Health and Care Plan (“EHCP”) from September 2022 meaning she could not start college. The family also missed out on benefits linked to Y’s education. We found the Council at fault. We recommended it apologises to Ms Y, pays £150 for time and trouble, pays £500 for distress and uncertainty, pays £1500 for Y’s missed educational provision, pays £5263.33 to reimburse financial losses, arranges social skills provision for Y, updates Y's EHCP, and trains staff to prevent recurrence.

    Service improvements

    The Council will provide training to its staff responsible for Education Health and Care Plans to ensure they are aware to complete planning during the Education Health and Care Plan process and that placements have a duty to admit once named on the Education Health and Care Plan; parents do not need to go through the usual school admissions process.

  • Surrey County Council (22 016 125)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 22-Aug-2023

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council failed to ensure a young person, Miss W, continued to receive adult social care support and special educational provision when she moved into its area. The Council was at fault failing to ensure Miss W did not experience a break in her care services. This caused Miss W undue upset and Mr X avoidable frustration. The Council will apologise to them both, pay Mr X £400 total in recognition of that injustice, and review this complaint to identify points for learning and improvement. There was no fault in how the Council secured Miss W’s special educational provision.

    Service improvements

    The Council was at fault failing to ensure a young person did not experience a break in care services when she moved into its area. The Council will review the events in this case relating to continuity of care and in particular, the Council's communication with the other council involved in this complaint. It will also review the lack of staff awareness on the continuity of care duties as evidenced in this case. It will identify areas for learning and training and will send the Ombudsman an action plan setting out how it intends to address those shortcomingsThe Council will review how it communicated with the young person's representative from April to December 2022 and will identify areas for learning and training. It will send the Ombudsman an action plan setting out how it intends to address those shortcomings.

  • Surrey County Council (22 015 818)

    Category: Education Date: 21-Jun-2023

    Summary

    We upheld a complaint about delay in amending an Education Health and Care Plan, poor communication and a failure to arrange alternative educational provision. The Council needs to apologise to Ms X and make her a payment for the avoidable frustration, distress and delay in providing her with SEND tribunal appeal rights. It will also make a payment to Y to reflect a loss of educational provision.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind staff in its Special Educational Needs and Disability team that the parental right to mediation cannot be refused.

  • Surrey County Council (22 015 105)

    Category: Education Date: 28-Jun-2023

    Summary

    Mrs Y complained about the delays in the statutory Education, Health and Care plan assessment and an assessment by an educational psychologist. She also complained about the Council’s poor communication with her about the assessments. Mrs Y said the Council’s actions caused her and her son avoidable distress and uncertainty. The Council was at fault for the delays. The Council agreed to our recommendations on how it should remedy the injustice caused to Mrs Y and B.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to emphasise the importance of issuing EHC plans within the statutory timeframes to its SEND Officers.

  • Surrey County Council (22 014 734)

    Category: Education Date: 05-Oct-2023

    Summary

    Mr F complained about a delay in the Council reviewing his daughter's Education, Health and Care plan. He said the Council failed to meet his daughter’s educational needs and did not put in place alternative education. The Ombudsman upholds the complaint and the Council has agreed to our recommendations.

    Service improvements

    The Council should remind relevant staff that it is the Council’s duty to ensure the specified special educational provision in an Education, Health and Care plan for a child or young person is being provided. And it should investigate where a concern is raised that the provision is not in place.The Council should remind relevant staff to review Education, Health and Care plans in line with the statutory guidance and adhere to the timescales set out within it.

  • Surrey County Council (22 014 696)

    Category: Education Date: 22-Aug-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complained that the Council failed to make suitable alternative provision for her daughter when she was unable to attend school because of anxiety. We found the Council was at fault in failing to put in place alternative provision between September 2022 and January 2023. The Council has agreed to make a payment to Mrs X in recognition of the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council has also agreed that, following a review of its procedures and the development of a revised process, it will provide training to Inclusion, A2E, SEN teams and schools on best practice in supporting children on a school roll who are not accessing full-time education and the Council’s duty under section 19 of the Education Act 1996.

  • Surrey County Council (22 014 573)

    Category: Education Date: 04-Jun-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council refused to assess her daughter for an Education Health and Care Plan (“EHCP”) and then delayed completing the assessment, causing distress. We have not investigated the refusal to assess as Mrs X could have appealed. We found the Council at fault for delay. We recommended it pays Mrs X £500 for distress and uncertainty, issues a final EHCP, considers a remedy for any missed provision and acts to prevent recurrence.

    Service improvements

    The Council should take action to ensure it can evidence it has met the Ombudsman’s expectation that councils should directly commission a private Education Psychologist where necessary in order to complete an Education Health and Care Plan assessment within the statutory timescales.

  • Surrey County Council (22 013 345)

    Category: Education Date: 02-Apr-2023

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council delayed amending and finalising his child, Y’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan in March 2022 and again in November 2022 after an interim review. The Council was at fault for failing to finalise Y’s EHC plans in line with statutory timescales. The Council agreed to apologise and pay Mr X £600 to recognise the frustration and uncertainty caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to write to all Special Educational Needs and Disability officers and remind them of recent caselaw R (L, M,and P) v Devon County Council [2022] EWHC 493 which says Councils must, from March 2022, send the decision letter alongside any proposed changes to the Education, Health and Care Plan within four weeks of the review meeting and issue a final plan no later than eight weeks after the decision letter is sent.

  • Surrey County Council (22 013 007)

    Category: Education Date: 06-Jun-2023

    Summary

    Mr B complains the Council did not ensure his son, Y, received occupational therapy outlined in Section F of his Education Health and Care (“EHC”) plan. Mr B says Y needed this support to help his development and that as a result educational targets could not be updated in his EHC plan. The Ombudsman finds fault with the Council for not ensuring Y received the required occupational therapy.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to send a reminder to staff working in its SEN team that the Council remains responsible for ensuring that all support outlined in Section F of an EHC plan is provided, including where a young person is attending school that is not in the Council’s area. If a school or NHS service is no longer able or willing to provide the support, the Council must ensure it identifies suitable alternative provision.

  • Surrey County Council (22 012 950)

    Category: Education Date: 01-May-2023

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council failed to ensure his son received suitable education for one year, resulting in missed education and distress. We found the Council at fault. We recommended it provides Mr X with an apology; pays £200 for time and trouble; £300 for distress; £2200 for missed education and; acts to prevent recurrence.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to provide guidance to staff working in children’s education on the need to consult and name a school during the Education Health and Care Plan process and the test to apply when considering whether to name a school that is parental preference.

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