Case Ref: 22 001 700 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will create an action plan to ensure where a change of caseworker is necessary for children with education, health and care plans that decisions, reasons and actions about the plan are accurately and thoroughly recorded and followed through by the following caseworker.

Case Ref: 22 001 224 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council has agreed to provide training and/or guidance to its officers about the duty to provide interim accommodation. The Council should ensure officers are aware that the legal test for having 'reason to believe' someone is or may be homeless is very low, and if the Council needs to make enquiries to establish if a person is homeless, there must be a reason to believe they may be homeless and so the interim accommodation duty applies.
• The Council has agreed to remind relevant officers of the importance of clear record keeping and responding to correspondence in a timely manner.

Case Ref: 22 000 363 Category: Housing Sub Category: Other

• The Council will provide an updated action plan to show the action it has taken and continues to take to reduce delays in dealing with housing allocation applications and review requests.
• The Council will review its process for identifying cases where there is an urgent move, for example, because the applicant's accommodation is unsafe due to the risks of domestic violence, to ensure that such applications are prioritised.

Case Ref: 21 018 614 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Other

• The Council should explain what action it has taken to ensure service users receive continuity of care, when their social worker takes extended leave.
• The Council should (jointly with the Trust and ICB) review the ‘S117 Mental Health Aftercare Funding ApplicationProcess’ and the Memorandum of Understanding. Each organisation should ensure those policies do notcontradict each other and ensure service users receiving PHBs for their Section117 aftercare do not experience similar fault.
• The Council should ensure relevant staff are aware of the local policy to assess/review PHBs for service users receiving Section 117 aftercare.

Case Ref: 21 018 573 Category: Environment and regulation Sub Category: Pollution

• Seek legal advice on the implications of the Environment Act 2021 for investigating complaints of smoke nuisance and consider how it should investigate such complaints in light of that advice.

Case Ref: 21 018 334 Category: Benefits and tax Sub Category: Council tax support

• The Council has agreed to:•by training or other means remind staff of the importance of:omanaging council tax accounts in a timely and efficient manneroensuring it communicates effectively with taxpayersofollowing the Council’s complaint handling process and procedures
• •review and ensure the Council’s communication strategy(s) is clear and effective between its various departments. For instance, between Revenue Services and Benefit Services. This is to ensure taxpayers’ concerns are dealt with appropriately, effectively and in a timely manner.

Case Ref: 21 018 046 Category: Environment and regulation Sub Category: Refuse and recycling

• The Council has agreed to remind depots of the need for collection crews to tag contaminated bins so that residents are immediately aware of the reason for non-collection.

Case Ref: 21 016 368 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will remind staff within its Special Educational Needs team of the need to keep minutes of key meetings, such as annual reviews.
• The Council will consider how it can improve access to special school places in its area and devise an action plan to share with the Ombudsman. This should include timeframes for action.

Case Ref: 21 016 008 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• The Council has agreed to take action to ensure its officers are aware that mobility awards can be removed at an applicant’s request without having another Occupational Therapy assessment.
• The Council has agreed to take action to ensure that applicants are provided with the Occupational Therapist’s recommendations following a mobility assessment.

Case Ref: 21 015 968 Category: Planning Sub Category: Enforcement

• The Council should also carry out appropriate refresher training about Permitted Development Rights with the officers involved in this case.