Case Ref: 22 013 345 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council agreed to write to all Special Educational Needs and Disability officers and remind them of recent caselaw R (L, M,and P) v Devon County Council [2022] EWHC 493 which says Councils must, from March 2022, send the decision letter alongside any proposed changes to the Education, Health and Care Plan within four weeks of the review meeting and issue a final plan no later than eight weeks after the decision letter is sent.

Case Ref: 22 013 007 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council has agreed to send a reminder to staff working in its SEN team that the Council remains responsible for ensuring that all support outlined in Section F of an EHC plan is provided, including where a young person is attending school that is not in the Council’s area. If a school or NHS service is no longer able or willing to provide the support, the Council must ensure it identifies suitable alternative provision.

Case Ref: 22 012 950 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council has agreed to provide guidance to staff working in children’s education on the need to consult and name a school during the Education Health and Care Plan process and the test to apply when considering whether to name a school that is parental preference.

Case Ref: 22 012 228 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council has agreed to provide the Ombudsman with evidence of the actions it is taking to increase educational psychology capacity and reduce waiting times and to increase capacity for specialist school places.

Case Ref: 22 011 444 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will produce an action plan to address delays in its process for completing Education Health and Care Plans, including timeframes for completion.
• The Council will act to ensure there is oversight or monitoring in place during its assessment or review of any Education Health and Care Plan so that senior staff are promptly alerted to any delay.

Case Ref: 22 009 996 Category: Education Sub Category: School transport

• The Council will review its home-to-school travel policy to ensure it provides clear information about the tests it must apply when deciding to pay for school transport.
• The Council will provide staff training, to ensure all relevant staff which includes those carrying out school transport decisions/appeals as well as the Special Educational Needs Disability team are aware of the three stage test process. The decision which this service improvement resulted from will be shared as part of the training.

Case Ref: 22 005 703 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Friends and family carers

• The Council should review its procedures for handling statutory complaints about children’s services so they are clear that complainants can progress to stage two if they are unhappy with the outcome of Alternative Dispute Resolution.
• The Council should review the use of mediation/Alternative Dispute Resolution and ensure that the process sets out how recommendations of an independent facilitator are to be considered, actioned and communicated to a complainant.

Case Ref: 22 004 105 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Council will provide the Ombudsmen with a copy of its revised record-keeping guidance for staff, along with the accompanying email from the Caldicott Guardian.

Case Ref: 22 003 115 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• At asenior level, the Council will undertake a detailed written review into thefailings identified in this statement. This will focus on its delays inimplementing timely alternative provision and the effective monitoring andrecording of decisions relating to what provision is suitable in thecircumstances. The Council will adopt measures to identify when alternativeprovision must be implemented and what arrangements are needed to ensure thisis provided. The review will also inform service improvements and policychanges, as well as specific feedback and areas of needed training to thoseinvolved in the case.

Case Ref: 22 014 808 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Council should create an action plan addressing the delays that have occurred in assessing Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards requests. The Council should state how it will reduce the backlog of outstanding requests and respond to ongoing new requests in a timely manner.
• The action plan should consider a remedy in line with our published Guidance on Remedies for those cases where a request is not approved, and an unlawful deprivation of liberty has had a potentially harmful impact on that person.
• The action plan should consider a remedy in line with our published Guidance on Remedies for those cases where a request is approved but with less restrictive measures, and an unlawful restriction of liberty has had a potentially harmful impact on that person.