Case Ref: 22 009 383 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council will remind relevant staff of the importance of ensuring they properly consider whether there is reason to believe a homeless applicant may be in priority need, keep a proper record of how it considered this, and confirm in writing a decision it does not owe a duty to provide interim accommodation.
• The Council will remind relevant staff of the importance of ensuring they store records of all telephone calls and emails on the applicants housing file to ensure a clear audit trail of actions taken.
• The Council will remind relevant staff of the importance of ensuring they make appropriate enquiries before deciding whether the Council owes a main housing duty, and specifically that it seeks information from the applicant before deciding they are not in priority need.
• The Council will remind relevant staff of the importance of ensuring they send all decision letters to applicants by email, where an email address is available, or in cases where an email address is not available, issues the decision letter to the applicant in person if at all possible.
• The Council was a fault in the way it handled a homelessness application. It will review whether there are any lessons to be learned from the complaints handling in this case and, in particular, consider why it did not identify any failings in its complaints process at stage 1 or stage 2, although it identified a number of failings in response to Ombudsman enquiries.

Case Ref: 22 006 243 Category: Transport and highways Sub Category: Other

• The Council should review the policies and procedures it has for working with its enforcement agents
• The Council should have systems in place for ensuring that its records are updated when informed of a service-users change of address and that all known methods of communication with a service-user are utilised before applying storage charges for keeping a car in storage when it has been released for collection.

Case Ref: 22 003 446 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council has agreed to review whether it needs to develop guidance and information for homelessness applicants to outline what information, including photos, may be requested by the Council.
• The Council will review how it will ensure that complaints which are escalated receive a timely response.

Case Ref: 22 003 113 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Residential care

• The Council agreed that it would bring to the attention of the responsible senior officer and elected Member our concern at a shortage of residential care beds in the Borough, because care homes the Council contracts with have been closed to new placements because of building works for over two years. They agreed to write to us with an update to to explain the cause of any ongoing shortage of such beds, how long this is expected to last and any further action being taken to keep any ongoing shortage of beds to a minimum.
• The Council agreed to give a reminder to relevant social work staff and those who work with complaints about our expectations around openness and transparency. We found the Council had not been clear with the complainant about the reason for a shortage of residential care beds in the Borough and we did not want it to repeat this in communications with others who may be similarly affected.
• The Council agreed to give a reminder to staff responding to complaints on the importance of giving specific commitments when proposing action to remedy a complaint. This was to avoid giving vague promises of action that did not specify what the Council proposed doing, by when and by whom in order to remedy a complaint.

Case Ref: 22 002 539 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• the Council has agreed to review its procedures for, and guidance to officers on providing information about the availability of, and considering and offering support to applicants moving to accommodation offered under its Housing Act duties
• the Council has agreed to review its procedures for referrals from other services to ASC for care and support need assessments and safeguarding enquiries
• the Council has agreed to review its procedures for considering and recording reasonable adjustments for service users and how agreed adjustments can be accessed by all parts of the Council

Case Ref: 22 001 218 Category: Environment and regulation Sub Category: Antisocial behaviour

• The Council will remind its staff they must promptly communicate the outcome of anti-social behaviour cases to the complainant.

Case Ref: 21 017 685 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Safeguarding

• Within three months, the Council will review its section 42 safeguarding enquiries policy and guidance to make sure that the Council contacts a deceased person’s representative or next of kin with the outcome of any safeguarding referral or decision (in the same way it would if the person at risk was not deceased) and keep them informed.
• Within three months, the Council will remind relevant staff (including managers from the adult social care team and the complaints team) that they must contact and inform the person’s representative or next of kin with the outcomes of safeguarding decisions, even if they did not make the referral themselves.

Case Ref: 20 011 497 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Other

• provide us with evidence it has: a) shared the learning from this decision with CFAM managers. b) reviewed the guidance issued to the CFAM team in July 2021 and made any appropriate additions or changes in the light of the findings in this decision. c) reviewed its procedures for oversight and monitoring by CFAM managers of finance officer’s management of client accounts where benefit claims have been stopped because of capital limits.

Case Ref: 20 011 052 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Disabled children

• The Council should deliver training to all its officers processing blue badge applications. This training should consider when to refer a case to an expert assessor and to ensure each case is considered on an individual basis. It should ensure any mitigating factors it considers when making decisions are discussed with the applicant and, if necessary, health care professionals to ensure the suggestions are relevant to the case.

Case Ref: 20 009 041 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Other

• Review its arrangement with the equipment provider to ensure any problems with the delivery are fed back to the sensory team and resolved.
• Issue the sensory team with guidance about their responsibility to signpost or refer adults with an appearance of need for care and support for a Care Act assessment.
• Review how it shares information with those with visual impairments to ensure it is meeting its duties under the Equality Act 2010.