Case Ref: 22 001 734 Category: Planning Sub Category: Enforcement

• The Council will take action to ensure it has a process in place to inform planning enforcement complainants of any significant delays in casework, to manage expectations.
• The Council will take action to ensure it has a process in place to monitor service complaint outcomes; that is to ensure agreed actions are completed.
• The Council will publish its complaints policy on its website.

Case Ref: 22 001 561 Category: Housing Sub Category: Homelessness

• The Council will make arrangements to actively monitor all cases where families are in Bed and Breakfast to find alternative accommodation before the six week limit is reached.

Case Ref: 21 019 077 Category: Children's care services Sub Category: Child protection

• Remind staff of the need to consider exercising discretion when considering historic matters which fall within the remit of the statutory children’s complaints process.

Case Ref: 21 018 143 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• the Council has also agreed to review its Home to School/College and Adult Learner Transport Policy to ensure it is clear to staff that the cost and suitability assessment of school transport arrangements should be clearly recorded. There should be clear guidance on the statutory guidance’s requirement that for travel arrangements to be suitable, Council staff must be satisfied the travel arrangement is “safe and reasonably stress free, to enable the child to arrive at school ready for a day of study”.

Case Ref: 21 017 734 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• Reviews its housing allocations policy to:•ensure applicants are aware that registered providers may have their own occupancy and eligibility criteria and the Council can skip a bid if an applicant does not meet the registered providers eligibility criteria;•ensure it operates in accordance with the Equality Act 2010 and address the potential discrimination risk to applicants with medical priority who may not be considered for all the properties they bid on due to registered providers’ eligibility criteria.

Case Ref: 21 017 233 Category: Education Sub Category: Special educational needs

• The Council will remind relevant staff of the government guidance in considering and responding to school travel assistance requests and appeals, including telling the applicant about the factors the Council considered and how it made its decision.
• The Council will provide training to relevant staff about Special Educational Needs travel eligibility where the qualifying school is named on an Education, Health and Care plan.
• The Council will review all Special Educational Needs transport requests it has declined since September 2021 and identify if it has declined travel assistance to schools named on Education, Health and Care plans. If any are identified the Council will take appropriate steps to remedy any injustice caused by that decision.

Case Ref: 21 012 086 Category: Benefits and tax Sub Category: Council tax

• The Council agreed to tell officers to place a minimum 28 day hold on recovery action on council tax accounts when it received a resident's council tax appeal. The Council also agreed to a senior officer reviewing such cases before removing a hold on recovery action from a council tax account.

Case Ref: 21 012 757 Category: Planning Sub Category: Building control

• The Council should review its current procedures to ensure it publishes documents in line with the The Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014.
• The Council should review practices by services services whose work is caught by Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014 and ensure they are operating lawfully.

Case Ref: 21 009 484 Category: Benefits and tax Sub Category: Housing benefit and council tax benefit

• The Council was at fault in how it considered an application for Discretionary Housing Payment. It has agreed to remind staff considering these applications that: i.Universal Credit is calculated and paid in arrears so Universal Credit award statements can include income received some time before; ii.they should properly consider information provided by applicants, or discrepancies in applications; and iii.they should consider asking for alternative evidence to resolve any such discrepancies.
• The Council was at fault in how it considered an application for Discretionary Housing Payment. It has agreed to review its application form and decide if amendments are necessary to properly capture recent changes of circumstance which might affect the evidence required from applicants.

Case Ref: 21 001 960 Category: Housing Sub Category: Allocations

• The Council has agreed to ensure that when key decisions are made to take action outside of Council policy, a clear record is made of the decision and the reasons for it, so all staff are aware of it.