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.

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

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.

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.

The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff that refuge accommodation is not reasonable to continueto occupy beyond the short term and that therefore people living in refuges arehomeless for the purposes of part 7 of the Housing Act 1996.The Council has agreed to ensure any changes in allocated housing officer are communicated to theapplicant promptly, including contact details for the new officer.

The Council has agreed to identify and implement a way of ensuring the actions agreed in an Ombudsman investigation are progressed promptly following a final decision.The Council has agreed to ensure the Council tells the Ombudsman in response to draft decisions if it will not be able to complete any recommended actions within the suggested timeframe.

The Council will arrange for its Adult Social Care team to review this case to establish how it can prevent delays in the Adult Social Care assessment process such as: 1.considering reasonable adjustments in its triage process and ensuring its staff are familiar with any adjustments which has been agreed; 2.avoiding unnecessary delays to allocate social workers; and 3.avoiding unnecessary delays when it intends to quality review assessments or seek legal advice: and 4.updating policies and procedures as relevant and provide training to staff in its Adult Social Care to ensure existing and amended policies and processes are clear and followed without unnecessary delay

The Council has agreed to review its procedures to ensure:it is able to respond to changes in circumstance which may affect an applicant’s housing priority within eight weeks; andit provides written notification if it is suspending a person from the housing register giving clear reasons why and a right of review.

The Council will review and amend any internal policy documents, which say people should not be allowed to view any temporary accommodation (as opposed to interim accommodation) properties in advance of accepting them.The Council will review and amend any internal policy documents it has about the checks that should take place to ensure properties are in a reasonable condition before being offered to tenants.The Council will also carry out a review, to establish what went wrong in this case inrespect of the complaint handling. It should provide the Ombudsman with a report setting out what action it will take to ensure complaints are dealt with properly.

The Council has agreed to remedy complaints from others affected by the delay making a main housing duty decision in line with our published guidance on remedies and the approach n this decision.The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff that the suitability of accommodation provided to homeless applicants must be kept under review and records kept showing decision making.The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff that the suitability of interim and temporary accommodation includes more than medical suitability and should consider all the relevant needs and circumstances of the applicantThe Council has agreed to provide a report to the Ombudsman showing the Council’s progress to address the backlog of cases waiting for a main housing duty decision, including the extent of the backlog. The Council will also share this decision and a copy of the report with the relevant cabinet member or scrutiny committee.