Case Ref: 23 000 778 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will share the Ombudsman’s guidance on the principles of good administrative practice with relevant officers and managers. This will help to ensure it communicates in a timely and effective manner with those using its services.
• The Council will share the Ombudsman's guidance on effective complaint handling with relevant officers and managers. This will help to ensure complaints are dealt with in a timely and effective manner and complainants receive effective communication throughout the process.

Case Ref: 23 000 444 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• 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

Case Ref: 22 018 076 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• 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.

Case Ref: 22 017 434 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• 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.

Case Ref: 22 017 377 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• 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

Case Ref: 22 017 153 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• 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.

Case Ref: 22 016 917 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• 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.

Case Ref: 22 016 125 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• 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 shortcomings
• The 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.

Case Ref: 22 015 818 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

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

Case Ref: 22 015 105 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

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