Case Ref: 23 011 801 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Charging

• The Council has agreed to remind relevant officers of the importance of providing clear communication and responding in a timely manner.

Case Ref: 23 009 039 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Domiciliary care

• The Council has agreed to reflect on the issues raised in this decision statement and identify any areas of service improvement, particularly in respect of collaborative working between different Council departments. The Council should prepare a short report setting out what the Council intends to do to ensure similar problems do not reoccur. This report should be sent to the Ombudsman.
• The Council will provide a copy of this decision statement to complaints officers to ensure they are aware of the Council’s ongoing responsibility when commissioning statutory services.

Case Ref: 23 004 795 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Council has agreed to speak with Kumari Care to seek assurances that its care staff will record medication administration clearly in its care records in future, and show that managers have communicated this to the organisation’s frontline care workers.
• The Council has agreed to remind its adult social care staff of the importance of best interests decisions being carried out promptly where recommended following mental capacity assessments and these decisions being properly considered and recorded, in line with Section 4 of the Mental Capacity Act.
• The Council has agreed to hold a lessons learned meeting to establish why best interests decisions were frequently not carried out in this case, and put learning in place to ensure against this happening in future.
• The Council has agreed to remind its adult social care staff that care needs assessments should be carried out promptly in response to significant, new circumstances which change a person’s care needs.
• The Council has agreed to demonstrate what steps it has taken or intends to take, to reduce its adult social care complaint backlog and ensure it is able to investigate these complaints within reasonable timeframes.

Case Ref: 23 008 905 Category: Benefits and tax Sub Category: Housing benefit and council tax benefit

• Review its auto-generated benefit decision notices to ensure that they clearly identify the nature and specific details of the decision they are intended to advise a claimant about; and
• Provide guidance to staff to consider whether or not claims should be flagged as vulnerable where there is knowledge or evidence that a claimant has required support in the past.

Case Ref: 23 002 949 Category: Environment and regulation Sub Category: Refuse and recycling

• The Council will review its waste and recycling contract arrangements and how compliance is monitored to ensure systemic issues are picked up and addressed at an earlier stage.

Case Ref: 23 001 531 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will issue a reminder to relevant council officers if the statutory timescales for Education, Health and Care needs assessments and plans.
• The Council will remind relevant council officers of the importance of keeping parents updated during the Education, Health and Care Plan process, particularly in situations where statutory timescales are not met.

Case Ref: 23 000 854 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Other

• Issue written reminders to staff to ensure they are aware of the care and support statutory guidance which states • assessment should be carried out over an appropriate and reasonable timescale taking into account the urgency of needs and a consideration of any fluctuation in those needs. Councils should inform the individual of an indicative timescale overwhich their assessment will be conducted and keep the person informed throughout the assessment process; and • In addition to monitoring direct payments generally to ensure they are being used to meet care and support needs, the Regulations set out that local authorities must also review the making of the direct payment within the first six months of making the first payment.

Case Ref: 22 017 341 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will provide training and updated guidance to staff about the Dudley test to be applied for considering eligibility for school transport when a child has an Education, Health and Care plan.
• The Council will check its information for parents references the Dudley test to be applied for considering eligibility for school transport when a child has an Education, Health and Care plan and parents are signposted to accurate information about transport at the time they need to express a preference for a particular school.
• The Council will review whether other families were potentially affected by the fault in this case and if so, offer a remedy.

Case Ref: 22 014 194 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will arrange a staff training session or a briefing paper for officers dealing with personal budget requests involving managed accounts to fund packages of EOTAS (Education other than at school). The purpose is to ensure that officers are equipped with the knowledge required to set up personal budgets without unnecessary delay.

Case Ref: 22 013 084 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council has agreed to provide evidence of the changes it said it made to how it procures hydrotherapy and physiotherapy services, so that service users can access these more promptly when needed.
• The Council lacked a clear understanding of the procedure at the relevant NHS team with regards to assessing physiotherapy needs. The Council has agreed to demonstrate that it has improved its understanding with the NHS team involved with regards to the procedures around assessments for adults with Education Health Care Plans, in particular during key transfers and transition years.