Case Ref: 25 001 115 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• By training or other means, the Council will ensure relevant staff are aware of the Council’s responsibility to provide assessments and continuity of care to service users for whom it retains responsibility.

Case Ref: 24 014 676 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Domiciliary care

• Remind relevant staff of the importance to forward complaints about care providers to the care provider, if the complainant has not sent the complaint to the care provider directly.
• Remind the Agency of its duty under its Accident and Emergency policy.

Case Ref: 24 007 211 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will introduce a process to track reviews of EHC Plans to ensure the timescales set out in the code of practice are adhered to.

Case Ref: 24 006 799 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• The Council will ensure procedures are in place to ensure the suitability of temporary accommodation is kept under review. Relevant staff should also be reminded

Case Ref: 24 001 003 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council has agreed to develop an action plan to ensure its officers are reliably considering whether the Council owes a duty to children under section 19 of the Education Act 1996 when they are missing education and ensure officers are aware that - whether the Council decides it owes a duty or not – it must record how it came to this decision and keep this under review as needed.
• The Council has agreed to remind its education staff of the Council’s duty under section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014 to deliver all the special educational needs provision in section F of Education, Health and Care Plans and act promptly in response to reports that this is not being delivered.
• The Council has agreed to outline action it is taking, or has taken, to prevent delays in issuing Education, Health and Care Plans in the future.
• The Council has agreed to outline action it is taking or has taken to reduce future complaint handling delays and deal with any existing backlog of complaints.

Case Ref: 23 005 121 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• • Share this decision with relevant housing, ASB and complaints staff and remind them:a) To complete a risk assessment when investigating ASB and be clear in communicating the approach to the victim.b) To properly consider interim accommodation requests.c) To be clear with homelessness applicants how it will assess their case in accordance with the Homelessness Code of Guidance for Local Authorities.
• • Refresh training to housing and complaints staff on the Council’s duty to anticipate and make reasonable adjustments under The Equality Act. The Council should also consider how it records these.

Case Ref: 24 003 197 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Transport

• The Council will review its procedure in the event it experiences difficulties sourcing support in a care and support plan. We recommend it puts in place a clear process for escalating concerns when the Council receives reports that care and support services are not being provided.

Case Ref: 24 002 773 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council agreed that it would liaise with a school the complainant's child attended, to address flaws in how the school was approaching the annual review of children's Education, Health and Care Plans. It needed to ensure arrangements were in place that parents were properly consulted as part of a review, that it asked for reports from any third parties responsible for delivering provision identified in a Plan and that it convened meetings as part of the review.
• The Council agreed to provide an update on measures it said it had begun introducing since the events covered by this complaint to identify where the review of a child's Education, Health and Care Plan had become overdue and to monitor overall trends in its performance in meeting statutory timescales for holding reviews and decision making following reviews. It would also explain to us what measures it had put in place to expedite reviews or decision making, where it knew it had exceeded the statutory targets.

Case Ref: 23 017 287 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• The Council will makes its voids team aware that all necessary equipment must be in full working order before a property is allocated.

Case Ref: 23 017 249 Category: Education Sub Category: School transport

• The Council has agreed to review its school transport appeal procedure to ensure all those involved are aware of the differences in the guidance for post-16 transport and the need to record the decision-making process so it is clear how and why the decision was made.