Case Ref: 24 003 896 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• Within three months, the Council should consider the lessons learned from this complaint. It should write to Mr B and set out the action it has already taken, and any further planned action, in relation to:• ensuring s12 medical recommendations have not expired / are about to expire when a repeat MHA assessment is carried out by an AMHP • ensuring complaints about s12 doctors under the MHA are routed to the appropriate organisation to investigate and respond to.

Case Ref: 24 003 881 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will remind staff about aspects of good complaint handling including checking the facts of the complaint and not misusing stock responses, providing realistic timescales for actions and keep complainants informed of delays.

Case Ref: 24 002 369 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Other

• Review processes to ensure that suitable information is available to service users, their families and council staff to ensure similar fault does not arise again.

Case Ref: 24 001 520 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Direct payments

• The Council will send a reminder to officers about what the care and support statutory guidance says about service users being able to have other people present at a review should they wish them to do so.

Case Ref: 23 021 450 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will review, or share the outcome of any recent review, of alternative provision placements available within the Council’s area for children with complex special educational needs. This is to ensure it can adhere to its duties under Section 19 of the Education Act 1996 without delay. If the Council find it lack alternative provision placements it should set out an action plan with how it intends to address this.
• The Council will share with the Ombudsman the steps the Council had taken and intends to take to address backlogs in its complaints handling, including an update on its current backlogs.

Case Ref: 23 020 491 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• Provide or produce a plan to confirm the actions taken to ensure EHC Plans are issued within statutory timescales including what actions the Council are taking to address the delays in allocating cases to Educational Psychologists.

Case Ref: 23 020 411 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council agreed to provide training to all relevant staff about transferring Education, Health and Care Plans between councils and its procedures for handling such transfers.

Case Ref: 23 020 341 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• Provide or draw up an action plan with timescales to show how the Council is or tackling the excessive times in carrying out care needs assessments. This is to reduce the time service users are waiting for their care needs to be assessed.
• By training or other means, remind staff carrying out care needs assessments that such assessments should be person centred and fully involve the service user in decisions about their care

Case Ref: 23 020 172 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council agreed to share this decision with officers involved in issuing final EHC Plans to remind them the importance of timely issuing of amended EHC Plans following annual reviews.

Case Ref: 23 019 984 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will remind SEND officers: to make a record of its consideration of whether it owes a Section 19 duty to provide children not attending school with alternative provision, at the time it becomes aware;to record that where a school is providing support and alternative provision that the Council has considered whether that provision is suitable; andkeep oversight of children receiving alternative provision from schools to ensure arrangements remain appropriate or whether it needs to step in and make arrangements itself.
• The Council will review its communication and information sharing processes between departments to ensure that where there is evidence that a child is not attending school that it is communicated to the relevant officers so a decision can be made, at the time, whether a Section 19 duty is owed to provide the child with alternative provision.
• The Council will review its communication process with schools to ensure information about children not attending school is passed to the Council at the earliest opportunity.