Case Ref: 20 008 763 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council agreed to ensure inspections by, or on behalf of, the Council are carried out along with necessary checks of accommodation.
• The Council agreed to ensure requests for repairs are referred promptly to landlords/management agents and followed up to ensure they are done.
• The Council agreed to ensure applicants in unsuitable accommodation are found suitable accommodation promptly.

Case Ref: 20 006 295 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• review the circumstances which led to its failure to respond to Ms Y and Mr Z’s complaint of June 2020 to identify why it did not respond and, if necessary, review its procedures to ensure it identifies complaints and responds to them in accordance with its complaints procedure.

Case Ref: 20 004 583 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Charging

• The Council has agreed to share its lessons learned with its adult social care and finance teams.

Case Ref: 20 004 145 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Council will ensure its reablement service is aware of the importance of keeping adequate records, including of planning conversations with service users and key reasons for its decisions;.

Case Ref: 20 012 124 Category: Benefits and tax Sub Category: Housing benefit and council tax benefit

• The Council has agreed to undertake a review into its policies and practices with respect to Housing Benefit appeals, to ensure they are responded to properly.

Case Ref: 20 001 417 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Child protection

• Within three months the Council will review lessons learned from the complainthandling in this case and takes steps to ensure that so far as possible theyare not repeated.

Case Ref: 19 018 513 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• The Council will remind staff in the housing department that the Council is required to respond to an applicant’s review request, in writing, within 56 days.

Case Ref: 19 017 691 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Child protection

• The Council agrees to issue a reminder to staff dealing with complaints of the circumstances when the statutory complaint procedure should be used for Children’s Services complaints.

Case Ref: 19 017 469 Category: Benefits and tax Sub Category: Housing benefit and council tax benefit

• The Council has agreed to highlight the failings in this case to relevant officers to ensure they: • properly deal with future benefit appeals; • notify claimants in writing when they decide to suspend benefits; and • do not suspend benefits when a revised decision will result in an increase in entitlement.

Case Ref: 19 014 205 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Council has not given satisfactory reasons for the delays in providing equipment following an Occupational Therapy assessment. To make sure significant delays do not happen again the Council should review the case, including how it monitors progress (such as from date of referral to assessment, and following up items that could not be fitted and needed re-ordering), and establish any learning. The Council should implement any identified improvements and update the Ombudsman accordingly.