Case Ref: 23 007 469 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Disabled facilities grants

• Provide the Ombudsman with evidence of the following service improvements the Council has put in place to prevent future delays, as mentioned in its responses to Ms X and Ms Y’s complaint:a)recruit additional staffb)review the way specialist adaptations were orderedc)arrange an external provider to carry out OT assessments on its behalf.
• Share a copy of this decision with staff in the relevant departments to identify lessons learnt from Ms X and Ms Y’s complaint.
• By training or other means remind relevant staff of the importance of communicating effectively with service users and in a timely manner about their DFG applications and explain the stages of the DFG process.
• Provide the Ombudsman with an action plan to demonstrate how the Council will prevent significant delays for dealing with DFG applications and completing agreed and suitable adaptations for service users.

Case Ref: 23 001 938 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• Put in place new procedures to ensure that people are kept up to date when they request an assessment of their care needs, and are told of any delays in processing this request.

Case Ref: 23 001 282 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• Issue guidance to staff to ensure homeless applicants in temporary accommodation are not treated as secure tenants and not prevented from bidding.

Case Ref: 23 009 665 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Other

• Remind relevant officers of the guidance regarding ordinary residence and the expectations in terms of timescales for assessments.

Case Ref: 23 009 249 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• Issue a reminder to staff that complaints about the condition and suitability of temporary accommodation should be signposted to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, not the Housing Ombudsman.

Case Ref: 23 005 402 Category: Benefits and tax Sub Category: Housing benefit and council tax benefit

• •provide the Ombudsman with an action plan (with timescales) setting out how the Council will: a)resolve its ongoing technical / system issues b)reduce the current claimants’ appeal application backlogc)continue to deal with claimants’ appeal applications in a timely manner.

Case Ref: 23 005 297 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Council will review procedures to ensure the significant delays experienced by the service user's family in allocating a social worker, carrying out a review of the care and support plan and identifying a new permanent residential placement do not recur. The Council has agreed to explain to the Ombudsman the action it has taken to improve its practice in this area.

Case Ref: 23 004 816 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council should review how it takes account of its Equality Act duties when considering the suitability of temporary accommodation for homeless families. It should present a report to the Council’s Cabinet to show what has been considered as part of this review and what steps will be taken to ensure Equality Act duties are properly considered when making decisions about temporary accommodation in future.

Case Ref: 23 003 676 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• Remind housing staff the duty to provide interim accommodation arises when the Council has ‘reason to believe’ an applicant is homeless and in priority need, not when it had confirmed this.
• Remind housing staff the relief duty lasts 56 days and at this point, the Council must decide if it owes homelessness applicants the main housing duty.
• Review its procurement policy to reduce the use of B&B accommodation and increase the supply of other types of temporary accommodation.

Case Ref: 23 002 189 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff that when deciding whether accommodation is reasonable to continue occupying, officers can and should consider any relevant information or circumstances of the applicant.
• The Council has agreed to review the advice and information available to staff responsible for dealing with complaints to ensure they can identify matters not subject to statutory homelessness reviews and so avoid delaying investigating complaints.