Case Ref: 22 002 246 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Council should remind officers in adult social care of the provisions of the care and statutory support guidance relating to the power the Council has to provide care support in an emergency even when an assessment has not been completed.

Case Ref: 22 001 582 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 dealing with claimants’ applications in a timely manner in line with the Council’s appeal process timescales. Explain what steps the Council will take to monitor performance against timescales
• •as regards the Council’s statement in its stage 1 response to Miss X’s complaint dated 23 March 2022, confirm if any staff training to improve the Council’s overall service has been completed. Provide evidence.

Case Ref: 22 000 443 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council has agreed to share this decision with staff in the relevant departments.
• The Council has agreed to ensure staff communicate any delays completing statutory reviews of homeless decisions and agree extensions.
• The Council has agreed to ensure communications about statutory reviews tell the applicant about their right to appeal to the County Court if the Council fails to meet the deadline for a decision. Amend any template letters and emails as necessary.

Case Ref: 22 000 355 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Council will review its safeguarding process to ensure it provides a timely response to future reports and communicates the outcome with clear reasons to affected parties.

Case Ref: 21 018 559 Category: Benefits and tax Sub Category: Council tax

• The Council will remind its officers of its manual process to suspend recovery action with its enforcement agent. This is to ensure no further demand letters are sent to customers after the recovery process has been put on hold, in particular in circumstances where the Council finds it was responsible for an error.

Case Ref: 21 018 130 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Council has agreed to review its processes to ensure preparing care and support plans for people with eligible care needs is an integral part of the assessment process. It should make sure all front-line staff are aware that assessments must be carried out in line with the statutory guidance.
• The Council has agreed to provide details of its process for prioritising assessments and reviews, and details of actions taken to reduce waiting times. The Council has already provided this information in response to my draft decision. It advises that it has reduced the waiting times and has achieved 80% of assessments within 28 days.
• The Council has agreed to put in place an ongoing programme of training in autism so that all assessors and their managers, have regularly updated specialist training. All staff should receive autism awareness training within the general equality and diversity training programme.
• The Council has agreed to review its complaint handling to ensure complaints are responded to in line with the Council’s policy.

Case Ref: 21 016 885 Category: Benefits and tax Sub Category: Housing benefit and council tax benefit

• the Council has also agreed to review its DHP Scheme to ensure it is clear to staff how to handle requests for a DHP when the applicant has: a shortfall between their weekly rent and the housing benefit/housing element of UC awarded; and weekly overpayment deductions to their account that are less than the applicant’s housing benefit/housing element of UC entitlement
• the Council has also agreed to circulate a reminder to relevant staff that complaints concerning discretionary relief payments and discretionary housing payments should be signposted to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman at the end of the complaints process (not the Housing Ombudsman); and,
• the Council has also agreed to share this decision with relevant staff.

Case Ref: 21 016 847 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Domiciliary care

• The Council will hold a quality assurance meeting with a Council-commissioned care provider to discuss: the safe adminstration of medications;record keeping;its response to complaints.It will take appropriate action to assure itself that the care provider is delivering a safe and high quality service and provide evidence to the Ombudsman of the meeting and any resulting action plan.

Case Ref: 21 014 395 Category: Benefits and tax Sub Category: Council tax

• Provide training to staff about considering and implementing reasonable adjustment requests.

Case Ref: 21 012 867 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council has agreed to review the way it structures the content of section F (for example the use of headings and sub-headings to identify and separate the specified provision from strategies) with a view to making it clear to parents and all those working with the child which part of section F sets out the specified provision and which the strategies.