Case Ref: 21 012 317 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• The Council will review its processes for considering requests for alternative educational provision to ensure that its decisions are in accordance with Section 19 (1) of The Education Act 1996.

Case Ref: 21 012 304 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Trust, Council and Surrey Downs will complete a joint review of their complaints procedures. This review should seek to agree a clear process for handling joint complaints that reflects their duty to cooperate as set out in the complaints regulations. The review should also agree a standardised format for joint responses.

Case Ref: 21 012 246 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will review how it monitors children who are due to attend a new school to ensure they are on roll, including in year placements.
• The Council will remind its Officers of the Council’s duties to place a child on roll in the named school set out in an EHC plan, and hold a meeting with School Y to ensure it also understands the School’s duty to do so.
• The Council will arrange a debriefing session with professionals involved with Child B, and for the Speech and Language service to discuss Child B’s sessions with Mrs K for the Autumn 2021 term.

Case Ref: 21 008 578 Category: Education Sub Category: School transport

• The Council will remind officers involved in school transport of the correct process for dealing with school transport appeals.
• The Council will review its Home to School/College Travel and Transport Policy June 2020 to address the concerns about clarity identified by the Council’s second stage complaint investigation and ensure that its policy reflects its duties in respect of transport for relevant young adults set out in the Act.
• The Council will review whether other parents’/carers’ mileage arrangements have been similarly affected since September 2020 and provide us with an action plan to address such cases.

Case Ref: 21 007 033 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council agreed to identify learning points to take forward to prevent delays in complaint handling where a parent has ongoing Special Educational Needs and Disability tribunal appeals which are unrelated to the matters subject to the complaint.

Case Ref: 21 005 214 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will establish a clear policy relating to personalbudgets and direct payments. This will include clear and simple statements ofeligibility criteria and the decision-making processes. The policy will bepublished as part of the Council's Local Offer and made accessible to the public inaccordance with statutory guidance.
• The Council will provide formal training to all officers who are (i)responsible for making personal budget decisions and; (ii) responsible forrecording written decisions relating to personal budgets. The training willfocus on the new policy established and how decisions are to be properlymade and recorded to demonstrate good administrative practice in the future.
• At a senior level, the Council will review its systems and practiceswith respect to conducting reviews of personal budget decisions. Specifically,the Council will produce a template document informing parents of a personalbudget outcome. This will contain information relating to a right of review.Further, the Council will develop a robust review process. This will includethe timetable for completing a review and how the decision will be reviewed.The Council will implement a practice of sending parents an outcome letter ofthe review exercise which fully explains how the decision was reached. TheCouncil will adopt further measures it considers appropriate following a fullreview.

Case Ref: 21 001 931 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• Provide guidance to staff to ensure that EHCP processes are managed to ensure, as far as practicable, that mediation and appeal rights are not compromised. Where it is foreseeable that this may occur, it should ensure letters about mediation and appeal rights include a warning about this to enable recipients to make informed decisions about how to proceed; and
• Provide guidance to staff to ensure that the Council follows its complaints policy in relation to acknowledging complaints and providing information about delays

Case Ref: 21 011 993 Category: Education Sub Category: School transport

• The Council will review itsHome to School Travel and Transport policy to ensure it provides clear information about: the tests it must apply when deciding whether to pay for transport/provide travel assistance; and where the Council decides the parental choice school is incompatible with the efficient use of resources, it will name both schools in the EHC plan along with the condition that the parent will pay for the transport costs tothe preferred school.
• The Council will review all transport appeal decisions, issued within the past 12 months, to check whetherthe same fault has occurred in other cases. If the Council identifies cases with the same fault, the Council should take appropriate steps to remedy the injustice caused by the faults identified. The Council will provide details tothe Ombudsman outlining the cases it has identified and a brief outline of the remedy provided.

Case Ref: 21 009 310 Category: Other Categories Sub Category: Other

• The Council will provide evidence it has: updated the Coroner's office operating procedures with mandatory tasks relating to communication with and disclosure of documents to families; developed staff training for all staff on case management, information sharing and updating bereaved families; and revised its complaint handling procedures within the Coroner's office and recruited additional staff for complaint handling.

Case Ref: 21 008 922 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will provide training or guidance to all staff who handle reviews of Education, Health and Care Plans to ensure they are aware of the need to meet timescales, avoid undue delay and decide on the parent’s preferred setting in line with the statutory guidance.