Case Ref: 23 017 328 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• 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.

Case Ref: 23 015 086 Category: Education Sub Category: School transport

• 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.

Case Ref: 23 014 942 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• 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.

Case Ref: 23 009 513 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• 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.

Case Ref: 23 009 011 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• 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.

Case Ref: 23 008 082 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• The Council will remind relevant staff that it must issue a final amended Education, Health and Care plan within eight weeks of a review, in line with the statutory guidance.
• The Council will review how it consults schools where a child needs a change of placement to ensure it makes sufficient and timely consultations. The Council will produce an action plan with timescales for any improvements it identifies.
• The Council will present the Ombudmsan's investigation that found it had failed to provide education and specialist provision to a child, and its complaints policy not to provide a financial payment to remedy lost education or provision, at a relevant scrutiny committee meeting for discussion.

Case Ref: 23 006 836 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Charging

• The Council agreed to remind its social care staff of the importance of confirming important changes in care funding in writing, where possible, in good time before the changes are due to take effect.
• The Council agreed to remind its social care staff of the importance of making sufficiently detailed records of telephone conversations where important information, such as changes to care funding, are discussed.

Case Ref: 23 006 306 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Charging

• The Council has agreed to review its complaints procedure to ensure that when a complainant has provided evidence to support their complaint, the Council properly considers that evidence in conjunction with its own records. Furthermore if it intends to discount the complainant’s evidence it should provide full reasons for that decision with reference to its own records where appropriate.

Case Ref: 23 003 935 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council has agreed to remind its Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) staff that they must send their proposed changes to Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans for comments within 4 weeks of the annual review meeting.
• The Council has agreed to remind its SEND staff that EHC plans should be finalised within 12 weeks of annual review meetings.
• The Council has agreed to remind its SEND staff of the importance of carrying out the actions it says it will take following annual reviews.
• The Council has agreed to remind its SEND staff that where parents need advice regarding processes that are new to them such as personal budgets and Education Otherwise Than At School (EOTAS), this advice should be provided to them.

Case Ref: 23 001 973 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• Remind finance officers to fully consider the evidence they have received when carrying out the assessment.