Case Ref: 25 005 953 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council’s different departments failed to work collaboratively to plan for a young adult's transition to adult care services from an Education, Health and Care Plan. The Council has agreed to review its approach to planning transitions to adult care services for young people with an Education, Health and Care Plan. The Council should create an action plan identifying how its adult social care and Special Educational Needs teams will work together to ensure transitions are properly planned and implemented as set out in the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice and Care and Support Statutory Guidance.

Case Ref: 25 001 720 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council has agreed to create an action plan to address how it will reduce its delays in carrying out housing assessments.
• The Council has agreed to review its procedures to ensure it is communicating effectively with homeless applicants and sending key decision letters when it accepts or rejects a housing duty.
• The Council has agreed to review its procedures to ensure it is considering whether an applicant requires interim accommodation when it is making homeless inquiries and making a record of this decision.

Case Ref: 24 021 812 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• Ensure the Council has a process in place to monitor responses from schools following reviews of Education, Health and Care Plans, to ensure review reports are provided to the Council within the prescribed timeframe

Case Ref: 24 020 730 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Transition from childrens services

• The Council has agreed to review its procedures for transition planning for young people approaching 18. The review should focus on how staff will ensure assessments take place early enough so there are no gaps in provision, and an adult care package is in place for when the young person turns 18.

Case Ref: 24 018 050 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will identify the issues that led to the failure to arrange Occupational Therapy provision for a child in line with their Education, Health and Care Plan and report back to us on the steps it will take to avoid similar issues from happening in future.

Case Ref: 24 017 787 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will review its processes to consider what changes or action it needs to ensure that where a child with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan is not attending school that it has systems in place to secure the provision in the Plan as far as possible outside the school setting.
• The Council will remind relevant staff that where it asks another organisation to arrange and secure provision in an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan that the Council remains liable and therefore it should carry out sufficient oversight of that organisation.

Case Ref: 24 014 650 Category: Environment and regulation Sub Category: Refuse and recycling

• The Council will issue a staff briefing to remind relevant staff of the importance of record-keeping when monitoring collections. The Council should ensure clear records are kept of any monitoring it carries out, so it can evidence these actions in future if needed. This will help to ensure proper oversight of collections monitoring to prevent similar failings in future.
• The Council will issue a staff briefing to remind relevant staff of the importance of appropriately escalating and responding to complaints where the issues complained of persist. This will help to ensure service users receive appropriate and timely responses to their complaint.
• The Council will send us evidence of an investigation it says it is carrying out about the failure to keep records of the monitoring that was carried out in this case, and the outcome of the investigation. This will help to ensure the Council is considering the issues as it says it is, and putting in place actions to prevent similar failings in future.

Case Ref: 24 012 078 Category: Environment and regulation Sub Category: Refuse and recycling

• The Council will issue letters to residents who used its clinical waste service to dispose of their stoma bags before April 2025 to clarify that as of April, they can dispose of the bags in general waste.
• The Council will update its website on bins and recycling to remove stoma bags from the list of infectious or hazardous waste.

Case Ref: 24 011 655 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Direct payments

• The Council will:a) remind staff dealing with complaints about addressing all substantive complaints;
• b) remind relevant staff through a staff circular or team meetings about when to offer carer’s assessments and ensuring requests are followed through.

Case Ref: 24 010 129 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• Provide guidance to staff to consider any action required under the Council’s statutory duties when it becomes aware of non-attendance at schools, with reference to the Ombudsman's Focus Report ‘Out of school, out of sight?’ published in July 2022 and to record all actions, communication and decision making as part of this consideration.