Case Ref: 24 010 085 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council agreed to review its procedures around how it considers and decides requests from parents/carers and schools for early annual reviews of Education, Health and Care Plans. The Council should consider whether it is necessary to provide guidance to schools on how they can request an early review.

Case Ref: 24 009 625 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• The Council has agreed to improve the clarity of information shared between housing and homelessness teams to ensure the housing team can clearly see when the homelessness team has decided an applicant is homeless, and therefore qualifies to join the housing register.
• The Council has agreed to remind officers that a person is homeless if they have no accommodation in the UK or elsewhere which is available for their occupation and which that person has a legal right to occupy.
• The Council has agreed to remind officers that councils should not consider it reasonable for a homelessness applicant to remain in their occupation until eviction by a bailiff.

Case Ref: 24 009 205 Category: Environment and regulation Sub Category: Other

• The Council will introduce a written policy and/or procedure for how it and its contractors deal with abandoned vehicles.

Case Ref: 24 007 520 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• The Council has agreed to ensure officers can record the actual reason a housing applicant has not been offered a property, and not just one from a pre-populated list.
• The Council has agreed to ensure Green Square Accord is aware that if it is considering an application from a Council nominated applicant, it must allocate the property in accordance with the nominations agreement.
• The Council has agreed to ask Green Square Accord to keep a record of all telephone contact with nominated housing applicants.
• The Council has agreed to consider improving its systems to allow better information sharing between Registered Providers and the Council.

Case Ref: 24 005 304 Category: Education Sub Category: Other

• The Council should remind staff to note children’s responses fully or keep a record about why it was not appropriate to seek further information;
• Ensure all documents on an investigation are kept together so they can be retrieved if needed;
• Remind staff to send complaint responses as set out in the Council’s policy, or if investigation takes longer, to let the complainant know.

Case Ref: 24 002 649 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Disabled facilities grants

• • Remind relevant staff of the importance of effective complaint handling.
• • Remind relevant staff of the importance of fully considering the needs of the wider family when completing OT assessments for DFG applications.
• • Provide guidance to staff about the Council’s responsibilities when completing DFG applications and works, referencing the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) Delivery: Guidance for local authorities in England.

Case Ref: 23 020 349 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Other

• The Council failed to properly explain the outcome of its assessment of a child to the parent. The Council has agreed to develop an action plan to address the persistent confusion over the explanations it gives to parents concerning its assessment processes and how it meets a child’s eligible needs, regardless of resource or the thresholds of the children with disabilities team. The Council will share a copy of the action plan with the Ombudsman.

Case Ref: 23 016 021 Category: Education Sub Category: School transport

• In writing, remind officers of the importance of responding to and issuing correspondence in a timely manner.

Case Ref: 24 016 073 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• •Remind relevant staff of the Council’s duties to adhere to statutory timescales in the annual review process.
• •Remind relevant staff of the Council’s duties under section 19 of the Education Act 1996 and section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014.
• •Remind relevant staff of the importance of effective complaint handling.

Case Ref: 24 012 349 Category: Transport and highways Sub Category: Parking and other penalties

• The Council will update information on its website to include information about the backlog of approved applications for dropped kerbs and give an approximate timescale for completion of works following payment of the agreed fee.