Case Ref: 24 020 635 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Charging

• The Council has agreed to arrange training for adult social care staff (including the financial assessment team) on the Council’s reasonable adjustment duty, using our Focus Report: ‘Equal Access: Getting it right for people with disabilities’, as a guide.

Case Ref: 24 017 518 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Disabled children

• • By training or other means remind relevant staff of the importance of completing the actions recommended at stage 2 and stage 3 of the statutory complaints procedure in a timely manner and within agreed timescales.
• • Provide the Ombudsman with evidence that the Council has completed the stage 2 recommendation “implement service improvements to ensure needs assessments are properly completed by gathering sufficient information from relevant service users and professionals. And the Council to ensure assessment reports are correctly completed and the contents explained to service users to ensure they understand the contents and how the Council’s decisions were reached”.

Case Ref: 24 015 809 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will complete staff training for how it investigates, checks and records Section F provision from a child’s Education, Health and Care Plan is in place when a new or amended plan is issued, during the annual review process and when a person raises concern with it about provision not being in place
• The Council will complete staff training for how it processes annual reviews of an Education, Health and Care Plan when there is an appeal to the Tribunal or when a child is due to transition to a stage in life which would bring into question the responsibility to continue an Education, Health and Care Plan

Case Ref: 24 013 950 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Safeguarding

• The Council agreed to review how it makes best interest decisions where it has decided someone does not have capacity to understand or manage their finances. It will produce a dated action plan of any changes it decides are needed to its policies and processes. As part of the review, it will consider:how it can ensure it involves family members where appropriate, or an independent advocate if not;how it can ensure it properly records decisions to refer to a third-party financial appointee service. This includes reasons for referral to any particular organisation, and consideration of the financial implications of this for the service user; how it can ensure it properly supports service users without capacity to secure third-party appointee services, where they cannot enter into a contract themselves; andwhether it should have more formal contractual arrangements in place with third-party appointee services it directs its service users without capacity to.

Case Ref: 24 011 770 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Domiciliary care

• The Council will send a reminder to officers about the process to follow if the need for a mental capacity assessment is identified by either Council officers or care providers.
• The Council will find out why the reasons for the delay addressing the complaint between March 2024 and November 2024 and put in place a process to ensure the same issues do not occur again.

Case Ref: 24 006 871 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• 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.

Case Ref: 24 006 129 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

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

Case Ref: 24 005 022 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• 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.

Case Ref: 24 002 995 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• 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.

Case Ref: 23 019 340 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• 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.