Case Ref: 22 010 846 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• The Council has agreed to remind officers to fully consider what statutory duties the Council owes applicants who have been approved for a housing management transfer. In particular, the Council will remind officers to consider whether applicants are owed a homelessness duty, in cases where the Council has decided they cannot reasonably remain in their homes.
• The Council has agreed to put in place a procedure to document the actions it takes to monitor and progress applications approved for housing management transfers.
• The Council has agreed to review and update its Allocations Scheme, to clarify the rights afforded to applicants approved for housing management transfers. In particular, the Council will ensure its scheme clearly sets out if and when an applicant can request a review of the Council's decisions. It will also clearly set out any restrictions on the type and location of properties offered through management transfers.

Case Ref: 22 009 164 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will consider making improvements in monitoring Annual Reviews timescales by aiming at sending proposed amendments to EHCPs four weeks from the date of the Annual Review meeting and implementing checks whether the process has been completed within twelve weeks from the date of the meeting.
• The Council will remind the front-line Special Educational Needs staff of the details of the Council’s corporate complaints policy and in particular what constitutes a complaint, which should be passed to the complaints team and responded in line with the Council’s policy.

Case Ref: 22 008 865 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Looked after children

• The Council will remind relevant staff of the need to consider exercising discretion to depart from its policies, depending on the circumstances of the individual case. Where it decided not to depart from its policy, it should record its reasons and explain them to the individual.
• The Council will remind relevant staff that where a complaint is considered under the children's statutory complaints process includes issues that would usually be out of scope for that process, relevant officers from the services involved should be available for interview at stage 2 and to attend a stage 3 panel, to ensure that all issues can be properly considered.

Case Ref: 22 005 414 Category: Housing Sub Category: Other

• The Council will remind its housing team that it should contact residents promptly once they disclose they are at risk of domestic abuse in their property and decide without delay whether the accommodation remains suitable for them to occupy. These conversations should be handled sensitively due to the often re-traumatising effects of discussing abuse.
• The Council will remind its housing team that its suitability decisions should clearly set out why it considers the accommodation to be suitable.
• The Council will remind its housing team that the Council has a duty to inspect where there is a risk of Category 1 or 2 hazards in residential accommodation within its area.

Case Ref: 22 002 639 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Council will undertake a full review of its handling of this case. The review will identify why concerns about the care package (including the request for help with antisocial behaviour) and the request for an Occupational Therapy assessment were not addressed sooner. It will also identify why the Council did not always make reasonable adjustments when communicating with the complainant. The Council will create an action plan explaining how it will prevent a recurrence of the fault we found.

Case Ref: 21 012 716 Category: Benefits and tax Sub Category: Council tax

• The should Council remind its enforcement agents that they should pass information they receive onto the Council for its consideration.

Case Ref: 22 013 072 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• The Council has agreed to remind officers of the need to fully explore local connections and an individual’s circumstances in reaching a decision on their homelessness application, and to action requests for a review of their decisions.
• The Council has agreed to review its procedures to ensure there are no significant delays in reaching decisions on housing register applications.

Case Ref: 22 009 191 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Other

• The Council will provide training for its staff dealing with the Children's Services complaints on the criteria to be applied when dealing with late complaints contained in the guidance 'Getting the best from complaints'. The Council will let us know when this training has been completed.

Case Ref: 22 005 978 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• Issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they are aware of: Point 12.22 of the care and support statutory guidance which says in all cases, the consideration of the request for direct payments should be concluded in as timely a manner as possible.

Case Ref: 22 004 880 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• The Council agreed to review the the information and guidance it provides to applicants and medical professionals about evidence for housing applications. It should ensure that the information does not discourage applicants and professionals from providing relevant information about the effects of health problems or disabilities for professionals who know them well.
• The Council agreed to review the requirements it places on its medical advisers to ensure the advice provided for housing allocation priority contains sufficient explanation of how the recommendation was reached to allow housing staff to fully understand the advice and make their own decision about priority.
• The Council agreed to remind its housing allocations staff that: all decisions about medical priority should be made by the Council, not by the Council's medical advisers; and while they can take into account any recommendations made by the Council's medical advisers, they should not give this any special weight, must also take into account all evidence provided by applicants and resolve any conflicts of evidence (including with the medical adviser’s recommendation) when making decisions.
• The Council agreed to review the resources it assigns to its housing allocations team to ensure it has sufficient staff to respond to applications and queries from applicants within a reasonable period of time.