Case Ref: 25 014 016 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Other

• The Council will consider the range of people who may be appointed to undertake stage 2 statutory complaint investigations, as summarised in paragraph 3.6.4 and Annex 1 of the statutory guidance, Getting the best from complaints. The Council will also consider the actions it will take to expand the pool of investigators it can call upon to consider statutory complaints.

Case Ref: 25 005 458 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council will identify what changes it needs to make to its computer system to allow housing officers to record their rationale of whether homelessness accommodation it provides is suitable for the homeless applicant's needs. The Council will tell the Ombudsman what those changes will be and when it intends to complete them by.

Case Ref: 24 018 819 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Council will remind officers dealing with complaints of the need to follow the timescales set out in the Council’s complaints procedure and to ensure complaint responses cover all the issues raised.
• The Council will put in place a process to manage/monitor request for care assessments so urgent cases are prioritised and cases are not left to drift.
• The Council will carry out a training session for those completing adult social care assessments to cover the interplay between adult social care and children’s services and the circumstances in which a combined assessment might be appropriate.

Case Ref: 24 015 570 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• •ensure thorough investigations of recurring disrepairs are completed and resolved in a timely manner
• •remind relevant staff of the importance of ensuring all disrepair issues have been resolved before the case is closed on the Council’s system
• •by training or other means, remind relevant staff of the Council’s duty to keep the suitability of applicants’ temporary accommodation under review.

Case Ref: 24 015 121 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will complete service improvement actions offered in the Council’s final complaint response of October 2025 listed in paragraph 37c) of this decision.
• The Council will review its complaint handling process to ensure timeliness of the Council’s responses.

Case Ref: 24 009 936 Category: Environment and regulation Sub Category: Antisocial behaviour

• The Council agreed that it would revise its current policy for responding to reports of Anti Social Behaviour to address three current omissions. First, that the policy does not explain how it will respond to reports of ASB where the alleged perpetrator is a social landlord tenant. Second, that the policy does not explain what enforcement powers the Council has to deal with ASB. Third, it does not explain the role or purpose of Community Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Meetings (CMARAC), which consider certain complex cases of ASB involving vulnerable victims or perpetrators of ASB.
• The Council also agreed to brief staff who regularly attend ASB Case Reviews or CMARAC meetings on behalf of the Council to emphasise key learning points from this complaint. That such meetings should aim to ensure there is clarity about the nature of reports of ASB, steps taken so far to investigate those reports and why agencies have not taken enforcement action to date.

Case Ref: 24 009 776 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• To ensure, by training or other means, the relevant staff are clear about the difference between the prevention and relief duties when it accepts a duty. The decision letters must clearly state which duty has been accepted.

Case Ref: 24 001 962 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council will send a memo to officers dealing with homeless applicants in temporary accommodation to remind them of:the need to ensure applicants are informed of their review and appeal rights;the need to complete a suitability review if a person in temporary accommodation raises concerns about the suitability of it; andwhen the Council accepts temporary accommodation is unsuitable it needs to arrange alternative accommodation immediately rather than just try to do so or wait until something suitable becomes available.
• The Council will put in place a process to ensure management of those cases where a homeless applicant has been placed in unsuitable temporary accommodation to ensure alternative temporary accommodation is promptly sought.
• The Council will remind officers dealing with medical assessments of the need to ensure a formal decision is issued with review rights and that those decisions should ensure all the information the applicant has provided is taken into account.

Case Ref: 24 011 470 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Disabled facilities grants

• The Council should draft and circulate guidance to all relevant staff dealing with Disabled Facilities Grants about the works that may be considered under a grant and the tests that should be considered when deciding on eligibility

Case Ref: 24 005 110 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• The Council agreed to produce an action plan for addressing the backlog of medical priority assessments and reviews. This should set out time-limited targets for how the Council will reduce the backlogs and include arrangements for the plan to be monitored by a suitably senior council officer.
• The Council agreed to share my findings about the Council’s complaints handling with staff responsible for responding to housing complaints and remind them they:should address the key points raised by complainants; and where they find further action by the Council is necessary, ensure these actions are effective and are implemented.