Case Ref: 21 006 652 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Council and Integrated Care Board have agreed to provide an Action Plan with details of the review of their children's continuing care procedures, to ensure assessments are carried out in a joined up and holistic way in line with the 2016 National Framework for Continuing Care. This review should address how the organisations will ensure assessments represent a holistic and multi-agency consideration of a child’s needs alongside those of their family. The results of this review, and details of any remedial action taken, should be shared with the complainant and the Ombudsmen when completed

Case Ref: 21 001 734 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Child protection

• The Council has agreed to issue a briefing to relevant staff to learn lessons from this complaint that they are reminded of the need: to be clear with parents about the role of a Local Authority Delegated Officer (LADO) in any cases whichhave LADO involvement; to take care with language and not to misrepresent facts when socialwork staff find themselves having conversations or email communications with parentsthey may find challenging; to ensure that assessments clearly distinguish between facts andopinion; and where an opinion relies on facts that the facts are clearly setout in the body of the document.
• The Council will also provide the Ombudsman with further details on how it looks to ensure that recommendations it has agreed during the complaint process are carried out within a suitable timescale. In this case the Council had agreed to an earlier recommendation to amend or place a statement on its social work records but had failed to carry that out.

Case Ref: 20 011 993 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Child protection

• Remindrelevant staff of the importance of issuing EHC plans within the timescales setout in the SEN code of practice.

Case Ref: 20 005 950 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will share the final decision with all staff involved in the EHC process and highlight the findings at a team meeting, or equivalent.

Case Ref: 20 001 990 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• a) Review its processes to ensure annual review decisions and any draft EHCPs following that decision are issued within the timescales set down by the Code of practice
• b) Consider whether its procedures are robust enough to enable it to take prompt action when it has a duty, under Section 19 of the Education Act 1996.

Case Ref: 20 000 817 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council should review how it monitors whether Achieving for Children is meeting the statutory requirements related to EHCPs, including meeting timescales and securing provision.

Case Ref: 20 003 563 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council should review all homelessness applications within the past 12 months to identify , whether the Council has properly considered whether it is reasonable for an applicant to continue to occupy their accommodation.

Case Ref: 20 001 726 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Other

• Issue a guidance note to staff who deal with children and complaints about the requirements of the statutory guidance.

Case Ref: 19 021 123 Category: Benefits and tax Sub Category: Housing benefit and council tax benefit

• The Council has delayed sending housing benefit appeals to the Tribunal. The Council has agreed to: • Prioritise any outstanding requests over four weeks old; • Tell the Ombudsman by when it will refer these cases to the Tribunal; and • Where there has been delay which impacts on a claimant’s current entitlement, offer a remedy proportional to the delay.

Case Ref: 19 015 973 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• Share this decision with its staff so homeless decisions must be clearly made and it must be clear about starting times for eligibility waiting periods under its housing allocation policy.