Case Ref: 23 010 319 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Friends and family carers

• The Council has agreed that it will publish a written policy on family and friends foster carers.
• The Council has also agreed to publish a leaflet for potential family and friends foster carers settingout the different options for children who cannot live with their parents andexplaining the financial implications of each for the carer.

Case Ref: 23 009 592 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Direct payments

• The Council agreed to review the information it provides to people who received direct payments for adult social care. It should ensure it provides sufficient clear, accessible information (for example, a straightforward user guide) that people can properly understand how direct payments work and what they need to do.
• The Council agreed to arrange refresher training for its social workers on how direct payments work and what people receiving them need to do to properly manage their payments.
• The Council agreed to review how its social work and direct payments teams work together to ensure that both teams understand their different responsibilities, that people are provided with consistent information, and that there are clear procedures to resolve disputes between the two teams.

Case Ref: 23 009 269 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council has agreed to review its guidance to officers about the Council’s duties (as set out in paragraphs 15 & 16) to take homelessness applications and make inquiries into the applicant’s homelessness;
• The Council has agreed to review its procedures to ensure it does not have ‘gatekeeping’ practices in place, for example, failing to take a homelessness application at the earliest opportunity
• The Council has agreed to share the learning from this case with its officers.

Case Ref: 22 016 980 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• The Council will review its corporate complaint handling to ensure:• It responds at both stages within the timescales set out in the Council’s complaint policy;• When upholding complaints it offers suitable remedies.

Case Ref: 23 005 701 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• Create action plan to clear housing register application backlog
• Provide applicants assessed as band 2 or higher financial remedy

Case Ref: 23 005 539 Category: Benefits and tax Sub Category: Council tax

• The Council agreed to remind its complaint and council tax staff that complaints should be processed in line with the Council’s complaints procedure and decisions about fault on the Council’s part should only be made after a proportionate investigation into a complaint.
• The Council agreed to review its procedures for identifying unallocated payments in its council tax receiving account to ensure that unallocated payments are traced within a reasonable period of time.

Case Ref: 23 004 731 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Other

• The Council will share with relevant staff statutory guidance Getting the best from complaints to ensure:when a complainant has requested desired outcomes of their complaint, they should be addressed as part of the stage two adjudication response;where recommendations have been made at stage two, the adjudication response should set out the Council’s answer to each one; andcomplaints are completed within the statutory timescales.

Case Ref: 22 015 672 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council has agreed to provide training or guidance to relevant staff on identifying and making reasonable adjustments for people with disabilities.
• The Council has agreed to ensure all frontline staff are aware of the low threshold for the duty to make inquiries into homelessness and how to direct such cases to the relevant service.
• The Council has agreed to ensure all decisions of the Exceptional Needs Panel about priority under the allocations scheme are communicated in writing and set out the right to ask for a review.

Case Ref: 22 015 504 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council is developing staff guidance covering the arrangements for alternative provision when they span across academic years to ensure it restarts in September. The Council has agreed to provide the Ombudsman with a copy of the guidance.
• The Council will review its approach to consulting schools for children needing a placement. This should ensure that appropriate, timely steps are taken to widen the scope of consultation when insufficient responses are received from an initial round.

Case Ref: 22 015 112 Category: Education Sub Category: Alternative provision

• The Council will remind all staff within children's services of the duties under section 19 of the Education Act 1996.