Service improvements

Worcestershire County Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025

Find out more about service improvements

When we find fault, we can recommend improvements to systems and processes where they haven’t worked properly, so that others do not suffer from these same problems in future. Common examples are policy changes; procedural reviews; and staff training. Service improvements from decisions are published for 5 years and those from reports are published for 10 years.

Showing 1 - 10 of 10 cases with service improvements

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Downloads the current filtered list of service improvement decisions for Worcestershire County Council as a CSV file.

  • Worcestershire County Council (24 006 871)

    Category: Education Date: 04-Mar-2025

    Summary

    Miss X complained the Council failed to ensure her son, Y received a suitable education after he stopped attending school in January 2024 due to anxiety. The Council accepted it should have put alternative provision in place for Y between May and July 2024. It agreed to apologise to Miss X and make payments to her to recognise Y’s missed education and for the distress and frustration caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to provide the Ombudsman with an explanation and evidence of how it has improved internal processes for considering its Section 19 responsibility and making the necessary arrangements to put alternative provision in place in a timely manner.

  • Worcestershire County Council (24 006 129)

    Category: Education Date: 30-Mar-2025

    Summary

    Mrs Y complained the Council failed to provide her child, Z, with a suitable education or make appropriate alternative provision for them. We have found fault by the Council, causing injustice, in failing to: consider its duty to make arrangements for alternative provision for Z in April 2023, properly consider the type of alternative provision suitable for Z in December 2023/January 2024 and complete Z’s Education Health and Care needs assessment within the statutory timescales. The Council has agreed to remedy this injustice by apologising to Mrs Y, making a payment to reflect the distress caused and a service improvement.

    Service improvements

    The Council should remind officers of the needto complete EHC needs assessments within the statutory timescales.

  • Worcestershire County Council (24 005 022)

    Category: Education Date: 19-Feb-2025

    Summary

    There was fault by the Council. There was a months delay in finalising an EHC Plan, which the Council has apologised for, to remedy the injustice of distress to the family. The Council also failed to quickly respond to a request to increase the time in education for a child on a part-time timetable. The Council has agreed to apologise and make a symbolic payment to remedy the distress and injustice from the loss of full-time education.

    Service improvements

    Revise its procedures to ensure the education of children on part time tables is monitored effectively and kept under regular review so that education can be increased as soon as a child is ready.

  • Worcestershire County Council (24 002 995)

    Category: Education Date: 29-Nov-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council delayed reviewing his son, Y’s, Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan, and failed to provide an appropriate education since it decided he needed a special school placement in summer 2023. Mr X also complained the Council did not provide the special educational provision specified in Y’s EHC Plan. The Council was at fault. It will make a payment to Mr X to recognise the loss of educational provision to Y and the distress caused to himself. The Council will also review how it ensures provision is in place for children with EHC Plans where there is no suitable school place identified.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its processes and ensure it has clear procedures in place for how it carries out oversight of children with Education, Health and Care Plans who are not attending named placements to ensure it meets its Section 42 duty to provide the specialist provision set out in their Plans and the action it should take when the provision is not in place.The Council will provide training for all relevant officers on the Council’s duty under Section 42 of the Children and Families Act.

  • Worcestershire County Council (23 019 340)

    Category: Education Date: 13-Aug-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to provide suitable support for her child resulting in declining attendance followed by a stop in attendance. Mrs X complained the Council delayed production of her child’s Education, Health and Care Plan. Mrs X also complained the Council delayed providing alternative provision of education for her child and when it did provide this it was unsuitable for her child’s needs. We found fault with the Council for failing to provide suitable education for Mrs X’s child for most of the period 14 September 2023 to 4 March 2024. We also found fault with the Council for delaying outside the statutory timescales in producing Mrs X’s child’s Education, Health and Care Plan. The Council agreed to apologise to Mrs X, pay her £150 for the frustration and uncertainty caused and £2,000 for her child’s missed education. The Council also agreed to provide guidance and training to staff about recognising contacts showing a child is absent from school, and about considering a child’s individual needs when considering suitable alternative provision of education.

    Service improvements

    Provide guidance and training to staff about the importance of recognising and acting on information it receives detailing a child’s failure to access education. This guidance and training should focus on the Council’s responsibility to consider and act on its Section 19 when a child has been absent from school for 15 days, whether consecutive or cumulative.Provide guidance and training to staff about considering a child’s individual needs when considering what alternative provision of education is suitable for a child.

  • Worcestershire County Council (23 017 328)

    Category: Education Date: 18-Aug-2024

    Summary

    Ms X complains that the Council failed to consider its duty to make alternative education provision for Mrs Y’s daughter when she was unable to attend school on a full time basis. The Council is at fault as it delayed in considering its duty to make alternative education provision, delayed in offering the provision and delayed in issuing a final Education, Health and Care plan for Z. As a result, Z missed approximately 11 weeks of education and the faults caused distress to Mrs Y. The Council has agreed to remedy the injustice by apologising to Mrs Y and Z and making symbolic payments to them to acknowledge the distress caused to Mrs Y and Z’s missed education.

    Service improvements

    Issue guidance to appropriate officers to ensure that the relevant services are aware of when they should escalate cases where children are not receiving a full time education. This is to enable the Council to consider if it has a duty under section 19 of the Education Act to provide alternative provision for them.Review its procedures to ensure alternative provision which meets achild’s needs is made without delay in the event the Council has accepted aduty under section 19 of the Education Act.Review its complaints procedure to make clear that the Council may consider a complaint informally and to consider if a complaint which has been considered informally should then be considered at stage two in the event of escalation. This is to ensure transparency in how the Council considers complaints and to ensure the Council does not add an extra stage to the published complaints procedure.

  • Worcestershire County Council (23 015 086)

    Category: Education Date: 29-Jul-2024

    Summary

    Mrs Y disagrees with the Council’s decision to refuse to provide transport assistance for her son, F, to attend the college named in his Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan. She says F attends the nearest suitable college to his home address, but the Council says there is one closer. We find the Council failed to explain the implications of naming Mrs Y’s preferred college in F’s EHC plan. We also find the Council failed to properly consider whether the other college offered a course at the required level for F. The Council will implement the remedial actions listed at the end of this statement.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind staff about the importance of providing clear and consistent information about possible transport implications from the decision to name parental preference in Section I of an EHC plan. Staff should also be reminded of the requirement to notify parents in writing of the possible need to review an EHC plan in the event the parent becomes unwilling or unable to fund the transport to their preferred placement.

  • Worcestershire County Council (23 014 942)

    Category: Education Date: 08-Aug-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to secure the full provision detailed in her child’s Education, Health and Care Plan since January 2022. We found fault with the Council failing to provide education for Mrs X child for three terms and four weeks. We also found fault with the Council failing to provide suitable Teaching Assistant support and access to an Occupational Therapy Motor Skills programme for five terms. We also found fault with the Council failing to provide 12 months Farming Provision and 23 months and 3 weeks access to Hydrotherapy. The Council agreed to pay Mrs X £12,750 in recognition of her child’s missed educational provision, including failure to source a Teaching Assistant making other education provided not at the needed standard. The Council agreed to apologise to Mrs X and pay her £300 for the frustration and distress caused to her through its delays and handling of this matter. The Council also agreed to provide training to staff about the importance of ensuring provisions detailed in Section F of an Education, Health and Care Plan are quantifiable and specific.

    Service improvements

    Provide training to staff about the importance of ensuring any provisions detailed in Section F of a child's EHC Plan is quantifiable and specific.

  • Worcestershire County Council (23 009 513)

    Category: Education Date: 27-May-2024

    Summary

    Miss B says the Council delayed completing her daughter’s annual review for her education, health and care plan, failed to ensure the alternative provider put in place provision and failed to respond to her communications. The Council delayed completing the annual review, failed to put in place alternative provision following the annual review and failed to respond to some of Miss B’s communications. An apology, payment to Miss B and introduction of a process to manage annual reviews is satisfactory remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will put in place a process to track when annual reviews for EHC plans are due and to ensure cases are followed up on once a review has taken place.

  • Worcestershire County Council (23 009 011)

    Category: Education Date: 17-Jun-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X said the Council failed to secure the special educational provision set out in her child’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan. She said this affected her child’s educational attainment and overall wellbeing. Mrs X also said the Council failed to effectively address her concerns about this. We have found the Council at fault for failing to ensure the special educational provision was in place, and for failing to adequately investigate Mrs X’s concerns. We have also found the Council at fault for misadvising Mrs X about the Council’s duties and for a lack of regard to the SEND Code of Practice in drafting Section F of the EHC Plan. We have made recommendations to remedy the injustice this caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind officers the SEN Code of Practice says special educational provision included in Section F must be detailed and specific and should normally be quantified, for example, in terms of the type, hours and frequency of support and level of expertise.The Council will remind officers of its duty to make sure a child or young person receives the special educational provision set out in Section F of an EHC Plan, under Section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014.The Council will review its processes to ensure it can show the special educational provision detailed in a young person's EHC Plan is in place, once a new EHC Plan is issued.

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