Case Ref: 23 005 297 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Council will review procedures to ensure the significant delays experienced by the service user's family in allocating a social worker, carrying out a review of the care and support plan and identifying a new permanent residential placement do not recur. The Council has agreed to explain to the Ombudsman the action it has taken to improve its practice in this area.

Case Ref: 23 004 816 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council should review how it takes account of its Equality Act duties when considering the suitability of temporary accommodation for homeless families. It should present a report to the Council’s Cabinet to show what has been considered as part of this review and what steps will be taken to ensure Equality Act duties are properly considered when making decisions about temporary accommodation in future.

Case Ref: 23 003 676 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• Remind housing staff the duty to provide interim accommodation arises when the Council has ‘reason to believe’ an applicant is homeless and in priority need, not when it had confirmed this.
• Remind housing staff the relief duty lasts 56 days and at this point, the Council must decide if it owes homelessness applicants the main housing duty.
• Review its procurement policy to reduce the use of B&B accommodation and increase the supply of other types of temporary accommodation.

Case Ref: 23 002 189 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff that when deciding whether accommodation is reasonable to continue occupying, officers can and should consider any relevant information or circumstances of the applicant.
• The Council has agreed to review the advice and information available to staff responsible for dealing with complaints to ensure they can identify matters not subject to statutory homelessness reviews and so avoid delaying investigating complaints.

Case Ref: 23 000 560 Category: Environment and regulation Sub Category: Refuse and recycling

• The Council will take steps together with its contractor to remind all waste collection operatives of their responsibilities when providing an assisted waste collection.
• The Council will provide details of its plan to improve the assisted waste collection service when monitoring identifies repeated failures to collect and return bins.

Case Ref: 22 015 307 Category: Environment and regulation Sub Category: Antisocial behaviour

• The Council will write to its environmental health officers and remind them of the need to inform complainants of noise nuisance what information is required to enable it to progress its investigation and how the Council intends to investigate their reports of statutory nuisance.
• The Council will write to its environmental health officers and remind them that, where it receives a report of statutory noise nuisance, it should assess the merits of each report and exercise discretion to investigate where it decides it is proportionate to do so, even if the threshold of three reports in a rolling one-month period is not met.
• The Council will consider when and how it could inform complainants of noise nuisance about their right to take private action in the magistrate’s court under Section 82 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. This could be once the Council has exhausted all other avenues of investigation itself but continues to receive reports of statutory noise nuisance.

Case Ref: 22 015 080 Category: Benefits and tax Sub Category: Housing benefit and council tax benefit

• The Council agreed to share a copy of our final decision with all staff who work in its benefits, debt management, and complaints teams. It will remind them of the Council’s duties under the Equality Act 2010, including the reasonable adjustment duty.

Case Ref: 22 014 459 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• The Council will remind staff to give proper scrutiny to any relevant supporting evidence and explain their reasons for not relying on evidence where they decide not to.

Case Ref: 22 012 788 Category: Environment and regulation Sub Category: Antisocial behaviour

• The Council agreed that it would update its website to include information on what legal powers are potentially available to it to tackle anti-social behaviour.

Case Ref: 22 012 079 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Other

• The Council agreed to remind staff in its adult care services about the importance of record keeping and ensuring proper oversight when using third party care providers.
• The Council agreed to follow up with the National Autistic Society to ensure it has plans in place to support residents who enter the criminal justice system.