Case Ref: 21 005 087 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Child protection

• The Council agreed to carry out an audit of cases which had been through Stage 2 of the statutory procedure for investigating complaints about Children's Services to ensure it was now following up on agreed actions in a timely way. This followed its failure to do so in this case.
• The Council agreed that it would ensure relevant staff were briefed on the importance of following the pan-London child protection procedures and Multi Agency Public Protection Protocols on working with sex offenders. Also, to follow pan-London protocols on transferring cases between authorities. As a key learning point from this complaint was that these procedures had not been followed in this case.
• The Council agreed it would review its current procedure for keeping in touch with parents whose children are on a child protection plan and who do not live with the child, to ensure it has effective communication in place to share relevant decisions and reports.

Case Ref: 21 006 556 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Charging

• The Council will review its policies and practices with respect to sharing care reviews, conducting financial assessments in a reasonable time, andissuing invoices at regular intervals. The purpose of the review is to implement services improvements (including training) for the benefit of customers in the future.

Case Ref: 21 006 085 Category: Benefits and tax Sub Category: Council tax

• Remind its council tax officers (and any other relevant staff) of the Council’s reasonable adjustment duty under the Equality Act 2010. It should use this case as an example.

Case Ref: 21 005 720 Category: Transport and highways Sub Category: Parking and other penalties

• The Council has agreed to review how it ensures PCN’s are cancelled where appropriate proof is received. This should include how it ensures PCN’s are not missed and does not result in inappropriate court and bailiff action.

Case Ref: 21 005 670 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• e)remind it staff the Council remains responsible for the actions taken by its Housing and Temporary Accommodation Agent on its behalf, or as part of the exercise of the Council’s functions; and f)remind its Agent to ensure it only places individuals in temporary accommodations which have been set up to facilitate individual billing of utilities and council tax, unless in circumstances where such charges are included in the rent.

Case Ref: 21 005 622 Category: Environment and regulation Sub Category: Noise

• The Council will consider what minimum standards its public protection service should adopt for keeping in touch with those who report potential nuisance taking place and consider how it can incorporate such service standards into existing policies.

Case Ref: 21 004 301 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• The Council will remind staff they must consider whether someone's accomodation is affordable when deciding to end the relief homelessness duty.
• The Council will remind staff that significant rent arrears and threats of eviction should both trigger consideration of whether the Council owes a person a homelessness duty.

Case Ref: 20 014 123 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council will review its procedures to ensure that correct informationis given to homeless applicants and that Personal Housing Plans are fullycompleted to ensure that it complies with the duty to take reasonable steps tohelp applicants secure accommodation.

Case Ref: 20 014 023 Category: Planning Sub Category: Planning applications

• By training or other means, ensures the chair of the PAC is aware they should consider all relevant information when deciding whether to call in an application and, in making that decision, be alert to the risk of pre-determination.
• Provides evidence of the Council’s record keeping of its consideration of whether to call in an application to PAC under its terms of reference.

Case Ref: 20 012 977 Category: Planning Sub Category: Enforcement

• The Council will consider what minimum standards its planning enforcement service should adopt for keeping in touch with those who report potential breaches or offences taking place and consider how it can incorporate such service standards into existing policies.