Case Ref: 23 005 066 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• Ask its commissioned alternative provider(s) to inform the Council when its placement reaches full capacity. This is to ensure the Council retains sufficient oversight of its commissioned alternative provision.
• Review and monitor the Council’s alternative provision process. Provide the Ombudsman with an action plan to demonstrate how the Council will meet statutory timescales for providing children who are unable to attend school with alternative provision in line with section 19 of the Education Act 1996
• Finalise the Council’s draft policy on ‘Education for pupils unable to attend school for medical reasons’. The Council should publish the final copy of the policy on its website and send a copy to the Ombudsman.

Case Ref: 23 003 615 Category: Transport and highways Sub Category: Other

• The Council will remind officers they should provide the correct reasons for refusal for a footway crossing when sending a decision to an applicant.

Case Ref: 23 003 569 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Direct payments

• The Council has agreed to take action to ensure officers make complete and accurate records in future.
• The Council has agreed to consider what action to take to make the process of recruiting a PA more streamlined and less bureaucratic.
• The Council has agreed to identify the action it is going to take to ensure communication between it and the support agency is improved and that the recruitment of PAs is not delayed in the way it was for Mr Y.

Case Ref: 23 003 084 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council failed to offer advice and support about securing a new tenancy when the person was at risk of violence. The Council will share the decision with staff in its allocations and discretionary housing payments teams so they can learn from what went wrong in this case and prevent a recurrence of the failure of the teams to work sufficiently closely.

Case Ref: 23 003 061 Category: Housing Sub Category: Private housing

• The Council will review the accommodation finding service literature, to ensure it details in full any incentive package, the duration of the incentives provided and how the incentive package will be confirmed. And to improve case management practices to ensure case documentation is accessible to the team and records are complete.

Case Ref: 23 001 070 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• The Council has agreed to provide an action plan detailing the action it is taking to reduce delays in carrying out reviews of homeless decisions.

Case Ref: 23 000 253 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• The Council has agreed to remind officers that where an applicant has indicated they have a housing need, and it is decided to not make a band award for that housing need, the reasons are included in the housing priority decision letter.
• The Council has previously provided action plans to show the action it is taking to reduce delays in processing housing applications and reviews. In August 2023, the Council also provided a report showing how long it was taking to process new housing applications and reviews, and how this had changed over the last year. The Council has agreed to provide an updated action plan and an updated report to show whether delays are reducing, and if not, it will explain the reason for this. The report will include how long it is taking to process change in circumstance forms.

Case Ref: 22 018 160 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• The Council has agreed to investigate why an email was not added to a housing file for several weeks and why a request for a review was not processed. It will then take action to prevent such failings in future.
• The Council has agreed to explore whether its systems can evidence that a letter has been emailed to a housing applicant, and if it can, it will provide details to officers who may need to check such evidence.
• The Council has agreed to review its procedures to ensure that when an applicant suggests they are at risk of violence, the Council attempts to obtain evidence of this itself, or tells the applicant how to obtain the required evidence.
• The Council has agreed to discuss this case with the complaints officers involved to ensure it properly responds to complaints in future.
• The Council has previously provided action plans to show the action it is taking to reduce delays in processing housing applications and reviews. In August 2023, the Council also provided a report showing how long it was taking to process new housing applications and reviews, and how this had changed over the last year. The Council has agreed to provide an updated action plan and an updated report to show whether delays are reducing, and if not, it will explain the reason for this. The report will include how long it is taking to process change in circumstances forms.

Case Ref: 22 017 526 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council has agreed to remind staff of the importance of properly following the Council’s procedures for dealing with disputes between residents at homeless centres. In particular, it will ensure it agrees an appropriate course of action with the residents involved.
• The Council has agreed to remind relevant officers to offer a review if they are contacted about the suitability of temporary accommodation.

Case Ref: 22 017 487 Category: Transport and highways Sub Category: Parking and other penalties

• •Review its process for checking progress of dropped kerb survey requests to utility companies. Its process should ensure orders are reviewed more frequently, the account is checked to be clear whether invoices have been paid and a single, clear record should be kept of contact with the utility company and all actions taken by the Council on the case.