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 21 - 30 of 38 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 (23 000 444)

    Category: Education Date: 22-Dec-2023

    Summary

    There is evidence the Council failed to properly consider its section 19 duty to provide Mrs X’s son, Y, with suitable alternative provision when he was unable to attend school due to health needs between May 2022 to December 2022. I have made recommendations to remedy the injustice caused by the faults for the Council to consider.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff of its section 19 duty to make suitable full-time educational provision to children who are absent from school due to illness, exclusion or otherwise

  • Surrey County Council (22 018 076)

    Category: Education Date: 09-Jul-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council delayed completing her child, Child Y’s Education Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment and deciding to issue Child Y with an EHC plan. The Council was at fault. Its failure to meet statutory timescales was due to a delay in obtaining Educational Psychologist advice. The Council will apologise and pay Mrs X £350 for the distress and uncertainty the delay caused between mid-March 2023 and late June 2023.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its processes to ensure actions recommended in complaint responses are carried out, including a mechanism to check all actions have been completed before the complaint is closed.

  • Surrey County Council (22 017 434)

    Category: Education Date: 14-Jun-2023

    Summary

    There was fault by the Council in failing to complete an EHC needs assessment within statutory timeframes. This has caused injustice. The Council will apologise, make a financial payment, consider putting in place interim provision and make service improvements. The complaint is upheld.

    Service improvements

    The Council will provide the Ombudsman with information about the actions it is taking to resolve a lack of Educational Psychology resource for Education, Health and Care needs assessments.

  • Surrey County Council (22 017 377)

    Category: Education Date: 30-Aug-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to provide a personal budget outlined in her daughter’s Education Health and Care plan. We found the Council at fault for failing to make personal budget payments to Mrs X. The Council will apologise, pay for loss of education and distress and take action to prevent reoccurrence.

    Service improvements

    The Council will inform all staff within the special educational needs department of the process by which direct payments must be set up and the policy is for payments to be made in advance

  • Surrey County Council (22 017 153)

    Category: Education Date: 16-Aug-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council delayed in completing the education, health and care plan needs assessment for her son Y and that Y had been out of education since November 2022 and the Council had not responded to her complaints about the same. The Council failed to issue an education, health and care plan for Y in line with the statutory timescales, failed to ensure Y had a suitable education between December 2022, and March 2023 and failed to ensure Y received the provision in his plan between March 2023 and July 2023. The Council agreed to pay Mrs X £5,225 to recognise the impact of the faults identified.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind relevant staff that it is the Council’s responsibility to decide whether a child’s health needs prevent them from attending school and to decide what weight to give medical evidence; and to make arrangements for the provision of suitable education at school or otherwise for children who, by reason of illness, may not for any period receive suitable education unless such arrangements are made for them.

  • 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 (22 015 818)

    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.

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