Case Ref: 20 013 462 Category: Housing Sub Category: Private housing

• The Council agreed to remind its housing advice staff that they should not make statements to applicants which imply the Council has decided what action to take, when the Council has not yet made a decision or inappropriately encourage applicants to withdraw homelessness applications.

Case Ref: 20 013 446 Category: Benefits and tax Sub Category: COVID-19

• The Council will provide training or guidance to staff to ensure they keep contemporaneous records of decision making and publish relevant policies in future.

Case Ref: 20 012 749 Category: Housing Sub Category: Private housing

• The Council should review how it handles communications from members of the public and how they are then entered on CRM systems in order to ensure they are properly assessed and actioned and then report back to the Ombudsman regarding its findings and proposed action.

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.