Case Ref: 20 001 298 Category: Education Sub Category: School transport

• The Council will consider providing information about the routes it has measured to parents appealing against refusal of help with home to school transport as a matter of course when home to school distance is an issue in the appeal. It should provide this information unless there is good reason not to.

Case Ref: 19 021 234 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Child protection

• The Council will remind all relevant staff about the importance of ensuring that information shared with third parties during child protection proceedings should be evidence based.

Case Ref: 19 020 833 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Child protection

• The Council has agreed to: • to remind all child protection staff about the importance of meeting the timescales for risk assessments and child protection visits.
• • complete amendments to the supervision form on the Social Care recording system, setting out how statutory records will be checked and monitored during supervision sessions with managers.
• • audit all open cases as part of the supervision process to ensure statutory visits have not been delayed or missed. Action should immediately be taken on any case where a visit has been missed or delayed to ensure the safety of the child concerned.

Case Ref: 19 020 100 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Charging

• The Council has agreed to review the policy it recently adopted about residential care home top-up fees.
• The Council will repay 8 of the 12 week top up fee deposits, to those clients who had to pay this to the Council, under its new residential care charging policy, before they could enter into a top up agreement with the Council.
• The Council has agreed to provide more information on its website about its charging policy, choosing care home accommodation and paying top up fees.

Case Ref: 19 019 873 Category: Transport and highways Sub Category: Highway repair and maintenance

• The Council has agreed to review its process for passing over reports of defects or inadequacies at a roadworks site to its investigatory inspectors to ensure the information received by the inspectors is correct to ensure that inspections take place at the correct site.

Case Ref: 19 018 252 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Charging

• The Council has agreed to remind its adult social care stuff of the importance to provide sufficient, clear and comprehensive information about charging and the financial assessment before the care package starts, and sufficiently record this conversation. This should include a reasonable estimate of likely costs if a financial assessment has not been completed yet.

Case Ref: 19 017 612 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council agreed to take steps to ensure staff keep families informed of progress in the Education Health and Care Plan process and discuss the option with parents of issuing a Plan before school consultations are complete in case they wish to appeal.

Case Ref: 19 016 789 Category: Environment and regulation Sub Category: Other

• The Council agreed to review its procedure for community engagement on local flood management schemes at the pre planning application stage. The aim of the review being to ensure such engagement is part of the forward plan for a scheme and takes place in timely, effective, and proportionate manner.

Case Ref: 19 016 753 Category: Education Sub Category: School transport

• The Council will ensure that at the end of the second stage of its education transport appeals process it advises appellants of their right to complain to the Ombudsman.

Case Ref: 19 016 036 Category: Education Sub Category: School transport

• The Council agreed to confirm what arrangements it has in place for considering whether transport remains suitable for a child when the transport provider proposes long-term changes, such as the size of a vehicle used
• The Council agreed to discuss with the transport operator in this case how it will ensure all drivers, including temporary cover drivers, are familiar with the technology for finding the route.
• The Council has told transport operators to instruct drivers on how to deal with emergency situations arising during a journey. They should call in to their office to receive instructions. No passengers should be left unattended without authorisation.
• The Council has agreed to tell the Ombudsman the result of its monitoring of the transport operator’s contract. It should say whether there is evidence of a repetition of the problems experienced in the complainant's case and explain any action it plans to take.