Case Ref: 21 017 084 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• The Council will review Mrs X and Mr D complaint against its Repairs Policy to identify learning and ways to ensure any delays in the inspection and repairs process are limited and consistent with its Policy. Including, how the Council communicates any delays outside its control to individuals affected.

Case Ref: 21 016 662 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council will review its processes to ensure it decides homelessness applications without undue delay, keeps proper records of all key information relevant to the application, and has a system to identify when cases need reallocating, for example, due to the unexpected absence of staff.

Case Ref: 21 009 125 Category: Other Categories Sub Category: Commercial and contracts

• The Council was at fault for poor record keeping and failures to respond to complaints. It has agreed that agreed that it will review its procedures, record keeping and systems to see how it can improve internal communication to prevent similar errors occurring in future and to write to the Ombudsman to inform us of any changes made.

Case Ref: 21 008 319 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Domiciliary care

• The Council will provide us with evidence that is has completed the actions it identified as necessary following a safeguarding enquiry. This includes: the Council writing to the rehabilitation team manager about communicating and coordinating when other care agencies are involved with people it is supporting; the local adult social care provider providing refresher training for a care worker on medication administration, promoting choice, communicating and accessing service users' property; and the local adult social care provider writing an apology letter to the complainant about how they felt about the care they were provided.
• The Council will remind relevant staff to:take timely action when someone requests to cancel a care package, even where it may be an unwise decision; andensure the complainant is aware when one element of their complaint is put on hold for the conclusion of an enquiry in to another element of the complaint.
• The Council will remind the local adult social care provider of the importance of keeping accessible records for people it has provided domiciliary care to.

Case Ref: 21 001 866 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Friends and family carers

• The Council has agreed to review its procedures to ensure that when it carries out monitoring of free early education providers, it checks that they are providing parents with clear, transparent and itemised invoices which clearly show the free hours taken for the period, and the fees for any additional hours. It will also check the free entitlement is not represented to parents as a monetary subsidy.

Case Ref: 21 014 433 Category: Housing Sub Category: Other

• Review its internal procedure for ensuring compliance with, and providing evidence of, any future recommendations made by the Ombudsman.

Case Ref: 21 009 299 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Safeguarding

• The Council will remind its safeguarding investigation officers of the importance of ensuring safeguardingdecisions are based on evidence and thorough assessment to reach robustconclusions.

Case Ref: 21 006 276 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Safeguarding

• The Council has agreed to ensure all frontline staff and their immediate managers receive full training, or refresher training, in: a)communicating with adults and their families or representatives. This should include understanding who should be involved in which discussions or decisions, and when they must be involved. For example, someone with a relevant power of attorney and with capacitated and incapacitated individuals. b)Services for self funding people, for example, what must the Council do, what else does it offer. c)Complaint handling, including recognising a complaint, identifying safeguarding concerns, alerting relevant managers, being clear about the key issues. d)Consent and when it is needed and not needed.
• The Council has agreed to review its complaint handling procedures to ensure complaints involving ongoing risks to individuals are dealt with promptly.

Case Ref: 21 001 950 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Domiciliary care

• The Council agreed it failed to consider offering a remedy for the failings of its commissioned care provider who failed to alert a family when its care worker could not gain entry to the client’s home. The Council agreed to within three months improve its review of complaints resolved by its commissioned care provider by reviewing the complaint, resolution offered and lessons learned. It will also consider offering an improved remedy where it agrees the care provider acted with fault.

Case Ref: 20 006 910 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Other

• The Council, Clinical Commissioning Group and Trust will notify all relevant staff of the updated section 117 aftercare policy.
• The Council, Clinical Commissioning Group and Trust will develop and deliver staff training on section 117 aftercare.
• If an automated records search is possible, the Council, Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Trust will update the section 117 aftercare plans of those patients who do not have up-to-date aftercare plans. If an automated records search is not possible, the Council, CCG and Trust will follow this alternative. They will ensure that, as part of every section 117 patient's annual care review, there is a comprehensive documented section 117 aftercare plan on their record. If there are good reasons for not being able to update a particular service user's aftercare plan, the organisations will ensure there is clear record of this.