The Council has agreed to consider whether it can streamline the assessment process where repeat visits and requests are made by the same person;The Council has agreed to ensure family members and carers are adequately consulted and their views properly balanced where conflicting evidence is given.The Council has agreed to ensure that decisions are given to service-users and their family members/carers in writing with reasons and that full records are kept of the decision-making process.The Council has agreed to review its complaints process and consider introducing a checking mechanism to ensure thorough responses are provided within a reasonable timescale.

The Council agreed to review any letter templates it uses for adult safeguarding outcomes, to ensure outcome letters use language which can be understood by both professionals and members of the public.The Council agreed to share our final decision with relevant adult safeguarding staff to ensure they are aware of the Ombudsman’s findings in this case. It should ensure staff are aware of the Council’s learning points from our decision and the importance when investigating adult safeguarding issues of:gathering accurate and relevant information;properly considering evidence;clear and accurate record-keeping, including recording decision reasons;keeping to timescales, monitoring delays, and keeping the subject of the concern and/or their representative(s) informed;communicating outcomes to the subject and/or their representative(s); and telling people how to make a complaint via the Council’s complaints procedure where they are raising concerns it considers to be about the quality of Council-commissioned care, rather than safeguarding issues.The Council agreed to issue a reminder to relevant quality staff that where people raise concerns about the quality of Council-commissioned care they should be told how to make a complaint via the Council’s complaints procedure.