Case Ref: 22 012 825 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council should share its action plan, and provide an update, on its proposed improvements to address the delays in processing homeless applications. It should also explain how it will monitor the effectiveness of the new framework.
• The Council should implement a process to ensure the Council picks up and covers cases when an officer is off sick or on prolonged leave. It should communicate this to relevant staff.

Case Ref: 22 012 158 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council will remind its staff of the Council’s duty to provide advice and support to residents approaching its services regarding homelessness and access to the Council’s Housing Register. This includes properly considering eligibility for housing assistance for complainants who may already hold a tenancy, but believe the accommodation is unsuitable due to disrepair or rodent infestations.
• The Council will remind its complaints handling staff to respond to complaints in line with the timescales set out in the Council’s Complaints Policy. Including ensuring complainants are informed about delays in providing its responses and the reasons for such delays.

Case Ref: 22 011 652 Category: Environment and regulation Sub Category: Refuse and recycling

• Remind staff of the importance of maintaining accurate records regarding bulky waste collections.
• Remind staff to adhere to the Council’s complaints policy.

Case Ref: 22 010 846 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• The Council has agreed to remind officers to fully consider what statutory duties the Council owes applicants who have been approved for a housing management transfer. In particular, the Council will remind officers to consider whether applicants are owed a homelessness duty, in cases where the Council has decided they cannot reasonably remain in their homes.
• The Council has agreed to put in place a procedure to document the actions it takes to monitor and progress applications approved for housing management transfers.
• The Council has agreed to review and update its Allocations Scheme, to clarify the rights afforded to applicants approved for housing management transfers. In particular, the Council will ensure its scheme clearly sets out if and when an applicant can request a review of the Council's decisions. It will also clearly set out any restrictions on the type and location of properties offered through management transfers.

Case Ref: 22 009 164 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will consider making improvements in monitoring Annual Reviews timescales by aiming at sending proposed amendments to EHCPs four weeks from the date of the Annual Review meeting and implementing checks whether the process has been completed within twelve weeks from the date of the meeting.
• The Council will remind the front-line Special Educational Needs staff of the details of the Council’s corporate complaints policy and in particular what constitutes a complaint, which should be passed to the complaints team and responded in line with the Council’s policy.

Case Ref: 22 008 865 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Looked after children

• The Council will remind relevant staff of the need to consider exercising discretion to depart from its policies, depending on the circumstances of the individual case. Where it decided not to depart from its policy, it should record its reasons and explain them to the individual.
• The Council will remind relevant staff that where a complaint is considered under the children's statutory complaints process includes issues that would usually be out of scope for that process, relevant officers from the services involved should be available for interview at stage 2 and to attend a stage 3 panel, to ensure that all issues can be properly considered.

Case Ref: 22 005 414 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council will remind its housing team that it should contact residents promptly once they disclose they are at risk of domestic abuse in their property and decide without delay whether the accommodation remains suitable for them to occupy. These conversations should be handled sensitively due to the often re-traumatising effects of discussing abuse.
• The Council will remind its housing team that its suitability decisions should clearly set out why it considers the accommodation to be suitable.
• The Council will remind its housing team that the Council has a duty to inspect where there is a risk of Category 1 or 2 hazards in residential accommodation within its area.

Case Ref: 22 002 639 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Council will undertake a full review of its handling of this case. The review will identify why concerns about the care package (including the request for help with antisocial behaviour) and the request for an Occupational Therapy assessment were not addressed sooner. It will also identify why the Council did not always make reasonable adjustments when communicating with the complainant. The Council will create an action plan explaining how it will prevent a recurrence of the fault we found.

Case Ref: 21 012 716 Category: Benefits and tax Sub Category: Council tax

• The should Council remind its enforcement agents that they should pass information they receive onto the Council for its consideration.

Case Ref: 22 013 072 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• The Council has agreed to remind officers of the need to fully explore local connections and an individual’s circumstances in reaching a decision on their homelessness application, and to action requests for a review of their decisions.
• The Council has agreed to review its procedures to ensure there are no significant delays in reaching decisions on housing register applications.