Case Ref: 20 009 324 Category: Education Sub Category: COVID-19

• The Council agreed to: •review its payment policy to ensure looked after children who are ‘eligible’ children receive the free home to school transport they are entitled to, and foster and connected carers are not expected to use part of their fostering allowance to cover the cost of this; and
• •identify and reimburse foster and connected carers who made successful applications for transport expenses since October 2017 and who had the weekly transport allowance deducted before their claim was paid.

Case Ref: 20 005 587 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• In order to ensure that the Council is doing all that it can to meet the statutory timescales in future it will provide us with evidence to confirm: • it has addressed staffing issues it says was a factor in the delays in this case; and • what processes it has in place to try to ensure that professional advice for EHC Plan assessments are provided on time. For example, issuing professionals with timely reminders to provide their advice etc.

Case Ref: 20 004 319 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Council will send a reminder to officers that handovers need to take place between carer agencies and a carer assessment must be completed when a carer asks for one.

Case Ref: 20 006 260 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Domiciliary care

• Remind relevant adult social care staff of the importance of providing people using services, or a representative on their behalf, with information regarding paying for care, potential care charges, and the administrative charge where applicable. Information about the administrative charge will always be applicable where the Council is arranging care for someone who may be a full cost payer so it should ensure it draws attention to this so people can make an informed decision on whether to arrange their own care instead.

Case Ref: 20 003 690 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council agreed to issue a written briefing note to officers in the Housing Options service to remind them of: a) the need to make a written record of interviews and other significant contact with applicants; b) the legal threshold for taking a homelessness application and making inquiries; c) the duty to consider and respond to an applicant’s request for accommodation pending the outcome of a review.
• The Council will review all the letter templates currently in use to ensure they include a paragraph informing applicants of their right to request a review of homelessness decisions and the relevant timescale for doing so;

Case Ref: 19 016 743 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• Approve a procedure for the consideration of prosecutions for illegal evictions and ensure housing options and legal staff are aware of the procedure and how to use it.

Case Ref: 19 014 754 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Other

• The Council will arrange for officers handling complaints about children’s social care to receive training in the statutory complaints process.
• Once officers have undergone training, the Council will review all complaints about children’s services received in the previous 12 months. It will consider whether it has correctly identified those which should be investigated under the statutory complaints procedure. If the Council decides it has investigated complaints under the wrong procedure, it will consider offering an independent investigation to any complainants who remain dissatisfied. It will report the findings from its review and any resulting actions to the Ombudsman.

Case Ref: 19 014 457 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Other

• The Council is asked to tell me how it will ensure complaints are signposted to the right procedure in the future.

Case Ref: 19 010 475 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Charging

• Remind staff of the importance of promptly giving an indicative personal budget, and information to assist people in finding suitable, available social care accommodation. Remind staff that someone is not a self-funder unless they have over the current financial threshold available to fund their care, this is not the case if they have a property to sell and no other financial assets.

Case Ref: 19 009 122 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Adoption

• In conjunction with an agency that delivers adoption services on its behalf, the Council will introduce the offer of a meeting with any prospective adoptive parent whose application falls at Stage One of the process and issue a reminder to officers on the ingredients that should go into any letter sent at that point.
• In conjunction with an agency that delivers adoption services on its behalf, the Council will review the information provided about the extent of information needed from prospective adoptive parents at Stage One of the process; both in those procedures published on its website and in the information pack given to prospective adopters