Case Ref: 24 012 404 Category: Environment and regulation Sub Category: Antisocial behaviour

• The Council should send written reminders to relevant staff to signpost complainants to the anti-social behaviour case review process after a complainant has made a number of reports and continues to be dissatisfied with the outcome.

Case Ref: 24 005 241 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council has agreed to review its procedures to ensure interim/emergency reviews of Education, Health and Care Plans are arranged in a timely manner when it is clear a placement is ending and a new placement is yet to be identified.
• The Council has agreed to review how it consulted schools to identify whether any lessons can be learned particularly in relation to the better targeting of consultations for a school place, following up responses to consultations and ensuring the reasons given for refusing a place are adequately provided.

Case Ref: 24 005 013 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council agreed to decide what changes are needed to its Education, Health, and Care (EHC) Plan processes, or staff training, to ensure it has systems in place to:ensure its staff are clear about its non-delegable duty to ensure EHC Plan provision is in place;check EHC Plan provision is in place when it issues a new or substantially different EHC Plan, and properly investigate complaints or concerns that provision is not in place at any time;ensure arrangements are clear for how support from therapy services will be provided where it maintains an EHC Plan for a child that attends a school in a different council’s area; andensure effective case management of EHC Plans when staff leave and are replaced, so statutory timescales are met and issues responded to in good time.

Case Ref: 23 020 264 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• The Council has agreed to circulate our ‘Guide for Practitioners: Medical assessments for housing applications (July 2024)' to all staff involved in making decisions on medical priority;
• The Council has agreed to arrange a training session to those staff on the content of the guidance to ensure the Council:1. makes its own decisions on medical priority and does not simply adopt the medical adviser’s view;2. considers all the evidence submitted in reaching its decision; and3. provides clear reasons why a person does not qualify and why their evidence has been discounted.
• The Council has agreed to remind medical advisers that their role is to make a recommendation (not a decision) on medical priority based on the evidence provided with clear and relevant reasons.

Case Ref: 23 019 692 Category: Other Categories Sub Category: Leisure and culture

• The Council will review its Community Trigger procedure to ensure this is aligned with the relevant legislation and guidance.

Case Ref: 23 016 743 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Other

• The Council will remind relevant officers and managers of the need to swiftly and properly investigate concerns raised about care being delivered by adult care providers acting on its behalf. This will help to ensure concerns are acted on in a timely and transparent manner.
• The Council will review its stance that quality alerts about adult care providers are not investigated when those receiving adult care delivered on behalf of the Council are hoping to move or have been placed out of the Council’s own area.

Case Ref: 23 016 007 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Safeguarding

• Share the decision with all staff involved in safeguarding investigations to ensure lessons are learn and similar delays do not occur in the future

Case Ref: 23 015 313 Category: Housing Sub Category: Managing council tenancies

• The Council will considerand plan how it can better communicate with landlords and manage theirexpectations about when they might receive their empty property back.

Case Ref: 23 013 539 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council agreed to develop and share with the Ombudsman an action plan to ensure it can process housing register review requests within the timescales set out in its allocations policy.
• The Council agreed to ensure all relevant staff have read our practice guidance on Medical assessments for housing application.
• The Council agreed to remind relevant staff that when making decisions about medical priority :for housingit is for the Council to make the decision about priority;decision makers should not simply accept the view of the Council’s medical adviser, but should weigh all the evidence, including any medical advice, before making their own decision; andthey should ensure there is a clear record of the issues considered and how the decision was made.

Case Ref: 23 011 292 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Safeguarding

• The Council should ensure a local adult social care provider has adequate health and safety checks in place to prevent a reoccurrence of the faults identified in this case.
• The Council should work with a local adult social care provider to ensure it has a process in place to inform Social Services when residents refuse care.
• The Council should remind its staff to consider personal remedies where it identifies, in the course of its safeguarding or complaints process, a person has experienced an injustice.