Case Ref: 22 014 734 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• 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.

Case Ref: 22 014 696 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• 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.

Case Ref: 22 014 573 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• 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.

Case Ref: 22 013 345 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• 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.

Case Ref: 22 013 007 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• 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.

Case Ref: 22 012 950 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• 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.

Case Ref: 22 012 228 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council has agreed to provide the Ombudsman with evidence of the actions it is taking to increase educational psychology capacity and reduce waiting times and to increase capacity for specialist school places.

Case Ref: 22 011 444 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will produce an action plan to address delays in its process for completing Education Health and Care Plans, including timeframes for completion.
• The Council will act to ensure there is oversight or monitoring in place during its assessment or review of any Education Health and Care Plan so that senior staff are promptly alerted to any delay.

Case Ref: 22 009 996 Category: Education Sub Category: School transport

• The Council will review its home-to-school travel policy to ensure it provides clear information about the tests it must apply when deciding to pay for school transport.
• The Council will provide staff training, to ensure all relevant staff which includes those carrying out school transport decisions/appeals as well as the Special Educational Needs Disability team are aware of the three stage test process. The decision which this service improvement resulted from will be shared as part of the training.

Case Ref: 22 005 703 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Friends and family carers

• The Council should review its procedures for handling statutory complaints about children’s services so they are clear that complainants can progress to stage two if they are unhappy with the outcome of Alternative Dispute Resolution.
• The Council should review the use of mediation/Alternative Dispute Resolution and ensure that the process sets out how recommendations of an independent facilitator are to be considered, actioned and communicated to a complainant.