Case Ref: 23 006 763 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Residential care

• 2. The Council will:a) review the safeguarding investigation in this complaint and our decision statement and produce an action plan to improve future safeguarding investigations to minimise delay, and improve communication with families;
• b) provide evidence of the actions the Council agreed to take including the revised contract in response to this complaint;
• c) arrange a meeting with Bondcare to share our decision with it and discuss if there are any further lessons learnt from this complaint including how the Council responded to the complaint.

Case Ref: 23 001 845 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Council will remind staff in its Adult Social Care team of its section 9 duty under the Care Act 2014. This is to ensure needs assessments for individuals are properly assessed and the outcomes are shared with individuals without delay.

Case Ref: 22 017 741 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council has agreed to send us the findings of an external review into its EHC assessment processes. It will also send us an action plan which, in light of the review’s findings, sets out what the Council will do to improve its service.

Case Ref: 23 012 516 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Charging

• When planning a man's discharge from hospital to a care placement, the Council did not communicate effectively with the family about how long funding would be in place, and what would happen after the man left hospital. It accepted this during the complaints process and undertook to learn from the complaint and take steps to prevent recurrences. We asked the Council to provide evidence of the work it has done to improve its communication and to prevent similar failings in the future.

Case Ref: 23 010 727 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council has agreed to explain what steps it has taken or is taking to ensure it complies with the statutory timescales in the EHC Plan process and its section 19 duty to provide alternative education.

Case Ref: 23 009 924 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they are aware of the Council's section 19 duty

Case Ref: 23 005 638 Category: Environment and regulation Sub Category: Trees

• The Council failed to show comments from its nature team were considered before a planning decision was made. The Council agreed to:review its practices, policies and procedures to ensure comments from consultees are properly considered and records kept before condition discharge decisions are made; andensure planning officers are aware of working practices, policies and procedures, including any that result from the review.

Case Ref: 23 005 153 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council has agreed to update the Ombudsman on its progress against its plan to address its backlog of requests for Education Health and Care needs assessments.
• The Council has agreed to ensure the Council keeps people awaiting EHC decisions updated about the status of their case.

Case Ref: 23 004 572 Category: Planning Sub Category: Enforcement

• The Council agreed to review its planning systems to ensure they can record information about a member of the public’s disabilities and reasonable adjustments needed who reports a breach of planning consent or is entitled to receive notification of a planning application.
• The Council agreed to review the training of officers in the planning team to ensure they are alert to the need to clarify, explore, and record disabilities and reasonable adjustments when dealing with someone reporting a breach of consent or wanting to make representations.
• The Council agreed to remind officers of the need to send information promptly when requested because of a reasonable adjustment need.

Case Ref: 23 003 818 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council has agreed to consider how it monitors annual reviews which it delegates to schools so it can identify potential failings at the earliest opportunity.