Case Ref: 24 010 862 Category: Transport and highways Sub Category: Traffic management

• Remind staff to consider the Public Sector Equality Duty as part of the Council’s decision-making process.

Case Ref: 24 005 624 Category: Benefits and tax Sub Category: Council tax

• The Council will remind complaints officers to address the full complaint in its complaint responses and provide responses in line with the timescales set out in the Council’s corporate complaints policy.

Case Ref: 24 003 907 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• The Council has agreed to ensure all frontline staff understand the Council’s duty to make reasonableadjustments and know how to identify, record, and act on a request forreasonable adjustments. It will provide training or guidance as needed.

Case Ref: 24 003 027 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• Within three months of the decision, the Council will review the causes of the delays identified and produce a plan to avoid a recurrence.

Case Ref: 24 000 559 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Other

• The Council will remind social workers and their managers of the Council’s duties for people who are placed in the community settings and who lack mental capacity to make decisions about their care arrangements.

Case Ref: 23 021 071 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council has agreed to review its procedures for withdrawing a personal budget and ensure that clear notification is given to a service user when the Council intends to withdraw a personal budget with full substantiated reasons and a right of review or appeal.

Case Ref: 23 019 942 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Assessment and care plan

• The Council will review the wording of its direct payment and personal budget policy regarding those who receive direct payments. It will clarify how oncosts related to being an employer are calculated. This will help service users to understand whether oncosts are a standard amount or assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Case Ref: 23 019 868 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council has agreed to provide training or guidance to relevant staff on the expectations of Chapter 21of the Homelessness Code of Guidance relating to gathering evidence and making inquiries about domestic abuse.
• The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff that the Homelessness Code of Guidance explicitly directs that the council should not approach alleged perpetrators of domestic abuse.
• The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff that if they are departing from the Code of Guidance, they should record detailed reasons for doing so in a particular case.

Case Ref: 23 019 552 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• The Council will apologise to the 46 housing register applicants whose reviews of its priority decision were delayed between January and July 2024. The apologies should meet the standards set out in the Ombudsman's guidance on remedies.
• The Council will backdate the priority banding of the three housing register applicants whose reviews of the it's priority banding decision was delayed between January and July 2024 and ultimately upheld.
• The Council will review the template letter it uses for medical priority decisions and review outcomes. The review letter should ensure that where staff are refusing an application, they are prompted to explain, in enough detail, how they considered medical information and why the information was either discounted or insufficient to demonstrate a need for medical priority. The Council may want to consider the Ombudsman's recent focus report 'Medical assessments for housing applicants' as part of the review.
• The Council will remind housing staff that when a housing applicant says their health is being affected by disrepair in their property, they should share the details of its Environmental Services team, who can carry out hazard inspections.
• The Council will send the Ombudsman an action plan setting out how it will reduce the wait time for housing register priority banding reviews. The plan should set out the steps the Council will take, who will complete them and by when.

Case Ref: 23 018 987 Category: Adult care services Sub Category: Transport

• The Council will remind staff in its parking and mobility services about the importance of sending all relevant evidence to the Council’s expert assessors for blue badge applications.