Case Ref: 23 002 908 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will remind relevant staff that it is the Council’s duty to ensure the specified special educational provision in an Education, Health and Care Plan is being provided. And they should investigate where information is provided that leads to a question about whether the provision was in place.
• The Council will remind relevant staff of the Council’s duties to advise parents of the outcomes of Education, Health and Care Plan annual reviews.

Case Ref: 23 002 393 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• Review what support it provides people who are supported by adult social care to find alternative care placements or housing to ensure they are sufficiently supported in finding placements.
• By training or other means, ensure social workers and other relevant staff are aware of the Council’s duty under section 47 of the Care Act 2014 to take reasonable action to protect property.

Case Ref: 23 002 329 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Other

• The Council agreed to review how it appoints and trains its stage 3 panel chairpersons and panel members as part of the children's statutory complaints procedure. It should ensure that all stage 3 chairpersons have sufficient knowledge and experience to conduct stage 3 panels in line with the statutory guidance. It should also ensure it has appropriate quality monitoring processes in place to ensure stage 3 panels are held in line with the statutory guidance going forward.

Case Ref: 23 000 130 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will provide evidence of the staff training sessions and Education Other Than at School [EOTAS] process documents made available for officers. As part of ongoing training and development, the Council should remind officers of the requirement to give a right of review against any decisions to refuse a personal budget as per Section 7 of the SEN (Personal Budget) Regulations.
• The Council will improve the way it makes decisions about requests for alternative provision. This could be in the form of staff training or a briefing paper. As part of this, the Council will draw officers’ attention to the Section 19 duties, accompanying statutory guidance and the LGSCO’s focus report ‘Out of School, Out of Sight?’

Case Ref: 23 000 078 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• By training or other means, remind staff of the provisions of section 9 of the Care Act 2014 requiring the Council to carry out a Care Act assessment for a person who has the appearance of care and support needs.
• Draw up an action plan to reduce the excessive waiting times for occupational therapy assessments.

Case Ref: 22 016 892 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Council should remind all assessment/review staff of its Review and Re-assessment Practice Guidance.

Case Ref: 22 012 781 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council agreed to brief relevant staff on the correct approach that it should take when a young person or their parent requested that it seek professional advice (such as from a speech and language therapist or occupational therapist) as part of an education, health and care needs assessment. It agreed to remind staff of the need to decide such requests promptly, to make a clear decision on whether to seek such advice and give reasons if deciding not to. Also, to ensure that if it sought advice that it was then under a duty to make sure it was received.

Case Ref: 22 012 513 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Other

• Remind staff of the importance of adhering to the timeframes specified in the children’s statutory complaint process

Case Ref: 22 009 538 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Charging

• The Council will review its policy on contributions to care and support charges, giving consideration to how it will ensure non-dependents can contribute to household costs.
• The Council will review its communication around charging in this case and ensure staff are clear in future about how it allows for non-dependent’s household contributions.
• The Council will ensure staff clearly record the reasons for any charging decisions.