Case Ref: 24 011 503 Category: Benefits and tax Sub Category: Council tax

• Remind the telephone team to inform other relevant teams, including the Resources team and the Digital team, as soon as possible if it experiences problems in accessing its systems.

Case Ref: 24 010 166 Category: Benefits and tax Sub Category: Council tax

• The Council has agreed to review whether any improvements can be made to its case management system to alert staff if customers are calling multiple times and there is anoutstanding call back required.

Case Ref: 24 004 238 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Residential care

• Further to the events covered by this complaint the Council had begun a review of its adult safeguarding procedures. It agreed that it would update us on what consideration this review gave to the time taken to complete adult safeguarding enquiries. It would also share any recommendations arising from that review designed to reduce or avoid delays in completing such enquiries, such as were present in this case (where enquiries took more than 12 months to complete).
• The Council also agreed to incorporate into that review, or undertake a separate piece of work, on its current arrangements for communicating with relatives when it undertakes safeguarding enquiries. It would review current advice given to practitioners and if this was sufficiently robust as to its expectations, and consider if it needed to brief them further on its expectations in this area. This followed a failure by the Council to inform the complainant in this case of the outcome of its enquiries, despite involving them in the initial stages of its investigation.
• The Council agreed that its contracting team would review any placements currently open for users of services at a named care home, to check the safety and suitability of their care. In particular, if any of those users required mouth care or feeding via a PEG tube, after investigation revealed significant failings in the care the complainant's father received in meeting those needs.

Case Ref: 24 003 954 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will remind relevant Special Educational Needs and Disability staff that the Council has a duty to secure the specialist provision in an Education, Health and Care Plan (section 42 Children and Families Act), not just tuition, when it has accepted an alternative provision duty (Section 19 Education Act) for a child with an Education, Health and Care Plan who is not attending school.

Case Ref: 24 003 200 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Council was at fault because it took 10 months to issue a Deferred Payment Agreement. It will review the time taken from the Deferred Payment Agreement request to issuing the Agreement contract to determine what caused delays and what action can be taken to reduce such delays in future.

Case Ref: 24 000 829 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• Within three months of the decision, the Council will review its process of reviewing EHC plans in accordance with its duties. It will refresh the knowledge of all relevant staff to ensure they are aware of the Council’s duties regarding EHC plan reviews generally, and specifically where the child or young person is transferring from their placement. The Council will provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

Case Ref: 24 000 137 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Housing team and Adult Social Care team should clarify what supporting evidence applicants need from Adult Social Care Services when asking the Council for an additional bedroom as per the allocations policy, and how applicants can go about obtaining this.

Case Ref: 23 021 072 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• Identify and implement learning from this complaint to improve the time taken to address disrepairs and communication between the Council and its residents.

Case Ref: 23 021 012 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council has agreed that it will issue a checklist to relevant staff to ensure they always deal with the issue of an applicant’s belongings when they move from their home into interim hotel accommodation and are unable to take their belongings with them.

Case Ref: 23 020 377 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council should send written reminders to relevant Housing staff that if 56 days have passed since it accepted the relief duty to an applicant, and no suitable accommodation offer has been made, it should accept the main housing duty to meet statutory timescales.
• The Council should send written reminders to relevant Housing staff that case officers should carry out and record thorough assessments of any support needs household members may have when considering the suitability of interim accommodation it places families in.