Case Ref: 22 017 713 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• The Council will remind officers in education of the Council's duties to provide alternative provision when a child of statutory school age is out of school. The Council should consider sharing a copy of our focus report 'Out of school…. Out of sight?' and our final decision with the reminder.
• The Council will remind officers dealing with EHCPs of the need to follow the code of practice when receiving annual review paperwork from schools.
• The Council will draw up a plan, to be shared with the Ombudsman, to show how it will deal with similar cases in future to ensure drift does not occur when a child is out of school. This should set out a clear pathway for taking timely action to decide whether to either take enforcement action for non-attendance, plan for re-integration into school, seek an alternative placement, or offer alternative provision for medical or other reasons;
• The Council will ensure it has procedures in place for checking it takes the necessary action following review meetings to issue amendment notices and draft and final EHCPs.

Case Ref: 22 017 446 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Council has agreed to provide the Ombudsman with evidence it has shared with the principal social worker the need to review practice in the operational teams to encourage early carer referrals.
• The Council has agreed to provide the Ombudsman with evidence it has developed a step by step overview of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards process to be shared with families, carers and relatives of those subject to assessment.
• The Council has agreed to provide the Ombudsman with evidence it has reminded senior managers to have conversations with families and carers who have concerns where matters are escalated to them.

Case Ref: 22 016 843 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• Produce an action plan to demonstrate how the council will meet statutory timescales for EHCP annual reviews.

Case Ref: 22 015 764 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will reflect on the issues raised in this decision statement and identify any areas of service improvement, particularly around communications, complaint handling and delay in the EHCP process.

Case Ref: 22 015 377 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Safeguarding

• •Remind relevant staff of the importance of keeping the adult who is the subject of a safeguarding enquiry at the centre of the enquiry.

Case Ref: 22 015 189 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council agreed to review how its SEND Therapies team process and approve personal budgets for Education Health and Care plans to ensure these are processed promptly and families are kept aware of any delays.
• The Council agreed to review the working arrangements between its SEND and SEND Therapies teams to ensure that communication between the two teams are effective and that any complaints involving both teams are responded to jointly.

Case Ref: 22 014 981 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• We decided that the Council's failure to arrange an Occupational Therapy assessment for the complainant was a result of a service failure which may have affected other pupils with special educational needs. the Council will:if another person complains about the delay in an Occupational Therapy assessment, it will accept fault and remedy any injustice in line with our guidance on remedies and how it remedied the complainant's injustice.
• the Council will :provide a prompt way whereby those in receipt of personal budgets, who are unhappy with the amount offered, can have the decision reviewed, as required by the guidance.

Case Ref: 22 014 793 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will provide us with the details of any steps undertaken to ensure better communication with parents as stipulated in the Council's Accelerated Progress Plan.
• The Council will review the way it handles Personal Budget requests to ensure that:a) when requesting Personal Budget parents/young people are provided with the advice on:1. Provision for which a Personal Budget may be available;2. Details of the organisations that provide advice and assistance on Personal Budgets;3. Conditions which must be met before direct payments may be made;4. Right to ask for a review of the decision refusing direct payments.b) Personal Budget requests are considered within reasonable timescales. The Council will provide the evidence that this has happened.

Case Ref: 22 014 771 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• Review the care and financial assessment processes to enable the financial assessment to be completed prior to a care package starting.

Case Ref: 22 014 492 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• Issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they are aware of:The Council’s duty to decide whether to keep, cease or amend the EHC plan within four weeks of the review meeting, and to notify the parents in writing and include what the proposed changes are. The Council’s duty to issue an amended plan as quickly as possible and within eight weeks ofthe original amendment notice. The Council’s complaints policy which states the Council will acknowledge complaints within three working days and will provide a response within 20 working days at stage one. Where this is not possible, it will inform complainants at the earliest opportunity.
• Provide us with evidene of the Councils recent implementation of the SEND structure