Southampton City Council (24 004 797)

Statement Upheld Charging 27-Aug-2024

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council including a home’s value in a financial assessment for social care charges. We cannot achieve more about the Council’s delay and its misdirecting Miss X to the wrong Council procedure. The Council properly reached its decision not to disregard the home’s value.

Southampton City Council (23 018 411)

Statement Upheld Licensing 02-Oct-2024

Summary: Mrs B complained the Council failed to properly deal with her concerns about her neighbour running an unlicensed home boarding business for dogs and the noise disturbance this has caused. She also says the Council delayed handling her complaint about the matter. We do not find fault with the way the Council handled Mrs B’s concerns about the boarding business and the noise disturbance. However, it was at fault for its delay in responding to Mrs B’s complaint. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs B to remedy her injustice.

Southampton City Council (24 001 037)

Statement Upheld Other 14-Oct-2024

Summary: There was fault in the Council’s actions as the Council failed to take all the appropriate action when an emergency call was made and did not let Mrs C know that it had called an ambulance for her mother. The Council has agreed to apologise, pay a financial remedy and carry out a service improvement.

Southampton City Council (24 003 976)

Statement Upheld Homelessness 11-Dec-2024

Summary: Mr B complained that the Council failed to properly consider his medical condition when considering the suitability of his current accommodation. We found the Council delayed in carrying out a review of its decision but we do not consider this caused Mr B an injustice as the decision remained the same.

Southampton City Council (24 000 074)

Statement Upheld Assessment and care plan 16-Dec-2024

Summary: Mr X complains the Council failed to arrange a package of care for him when he returned home in December 2023 and unreasonably increased the charges for his care. The Council failed to give Mr X copies of his assessment and care and support plan in 2023. It failed to provide timely information about the cost of and charges for his care. It also failed to take account of the fact it had been told Mr X’s stay in a care home would be for two weeks. These failings caused avoidable distress and prevented Mr X from making informed decisions about his care. The Council needs to apologise and make a symbolic payment for the distress. It also needs to improve its working practices.

Southampton City Council (23 014 153)

Statement Upheld Friends and family carers 14-Jan-2025

Summary: The Council was at fault for the support it offered Mrs B while she privately fostered a child. It delayed her financial support and the child’s support plan. And it failed to do a safeguarding investigation after saying it would. It has agreed to apologise to Mrs B and will pay her a symbolic financial remedy to recognise her injustice. It will also take steps to improve its service.

Southampton City Council (23 017 741)

Statement Upheld Friends and family carers 28-Jan-2025

Summary: Mr X complained about the Council’s administration of his home improvement loan. He said the Council paid the contractor before they completed the necessary works. This meant that Mr X did not have enough money left to hire another contractor to complete his home improvements. Additionally, Mr X said the Council did not communicate with him effectively about his complaints. We found the Council was at fault for sending the money to Mr X’s contractor before checking they had completed the required works. Additionally, we consider there was fault in the Council’s stage two investigation into Mr X’s complaint and overall drift in how the Council progressed Mr X’s case.