Service improvements

Birmingham City Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023

Find out more about service improvements

When we find fault, we can recommend improvements to systems and processes where they haven’t worked properly, so that others do not suffer from these same problems in future. Common examples are policy changes; procedural reviews; and staff training. Service improvements from decisions are published for 5 years and those from reports are published for 10 years.

Showing 11 - 20 of 44 cases with service improvements

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Downloads the current filtered list of service improvement decisions for Birmingham City Council as a CSV file.

  • Birmingham City Council (22 003 062)

    Category: Housing Date: 02-Oct-2022

    Summary

    The Council failed to provide suitable accommodation for Mrs X’s family when they were homeless. The Council has agreed to make a payment to Mrs X and to take action to prevent similar failings in future.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to provide an update on the action it is taking to end the use of bed and breakfast as accommodation for homeless households. If the Council has not significantly reduced the length of time homeless families are staying in bed and breakfast accommodation since it last provided an update in April 2022, it will review its action plan and tell the Ombudsman what further steps it will take to address this issue.

  • Birmingham City Council (22 002 998)

    Category: Housing Date: 05-Dec-2022

    Summary

    Miss X complained about the support the Council provided after she became homeless in 2019. There were delays in how the Council considered Miss X’s requests for a review of its decision and how it responded to her complaint. This caused Miss X to miss out on the opportunity to move into a more suitable property and caused her avoidable distress, time and trouble. The Council agreed to pay Miss X a financial remedy and offer her a suitable property. It also agree to tell similarly affected people of their right to complain and review its practices.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to write to all people who asked for a review of their homelessness decision since March 2021 where the Council overturned its original decision outside the allowable time to complete a review. It should apologise for the delays in completing the review and tell those affected that they can complain if they believe any delays had an impact on them.The Council agreed to develop a plan to complete all outstanding homelessness reviews which have been waiting more than the maximum time allowed in law. It will share its plan with the Ombudsman and keep the Ombudsman updated on the process towards completing those reviews.The Council agreed to review its information sharing arrangements between its choice based letting scheme and the Council's housing team. It should consider whether it can better share information about decisions made by its homelessness team which affect applicants' priorities under the choice based letting scheme so that such priority changes are made as quickly as possible and the correct priority dates are used.

  • Birmingham City Council (22 002 927)

    Category: Planning Date: 03-Jan-2023

    Summary

    Ms B and her neighbours complained the Council failed to control development of two properties on their road. They complained the Council did not consider planning applications correctly or take enforcement action against breaches of planning. Ms B and her neighbours said this negatively affected their amenity. We found the Council delayed its planning and complaint investigations. The Council will apologise to Ms B and her neighbours and make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    Remind those involved in responding to complaints of the stage one and stage two response deadlines.Review its procedure for investigating alleged breaches of planning to ensure these are completed without delay.Review its procedure for responding to member enquiries. It should consider whether it should send responses to both the councillor and the person they are representing.

  • Birmingham City Council (22 001 700)

    Category: Education Date: 03-Feb-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about the way the Council assessed, issued and reviewed her daughter Z’s Education, Health and Care Plan, that it failed to ensure the specified provision was in place and refused her request for a personal budget. The Council failed to ensure the specified provision was in place. The Council agreed to pay Mrs X £2,150 to recognise the impact of the lost provision and the anxiety and distress this caused to Z, to be used for Z’s benefit, and Mrs X £700 to recognise the frustration, distress, time and trouble and financial cost caused to her.

    Service improvements

    The Council will create an action plan to ensure where a change of caseworker is necessary for children with education, health and care plans that decisions, reasons and actions about the plan are accurately and thoroughly recorded and followed through by the following caseworker.

  • Birmingham City Council (22 001 224)

    Category: Housing Date: 09-Jan-2023

    Summary

    There was fault in the way the Council decided not to provide Miss B with interim accommodation when she told the Council she was homeless. The Council also failed to respond to Miss B’s correspondence and gave her incorrect information about her homelessness application. The Council has agreed to apologise and make a payment to Miss B and to take action to prevent similar failings in future.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to provide training and/or guidance to its officers about the duty to provide interim accommodation. The Council should ensure officers are aware that the legal test for having 'reason to believe' someone is or may be homeless is very low, and if the Council needs to make enquiries to establish if a person is homeless, there must be a reason to believe they may be homeless and so the interim accommodation duty applies.The Council has agreed to remind relevant officers of the importance of clear record keeping and responding to correspondence in a timely manner.

  • Birmingham City Council (22 000 363)

    Category: Housing Date: 24-Jul-2022

    Summary

    Miss X complained about Council delay in reassessing her priority band on the housing register. The Council was at fault. It will apologise and pay Miss X £500 to remedy the extra month she remained in unsuitable accommodation as a result of its delay, and her time and trouble pursuing the Council. It will review its processes to ensure it prioritises cases where applicants may be in unsafe or unsuitable accommodation as a result of domestic abuse.

    Service improvements

    The Council will provide an updated action plan to show the action it has taken and continues to take to reduce delays in dealing with housing allocation applications and review requests.The Council will review its process for identifying cases where there is an urgent move, for example, because the applicant's accommodation is unsafe due to the risks of domestic violence, to ensure that such applications are prioritised.

  • Birmingham City Council (21 018 614)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 30-Jan-2023

    Summary

    We consider Birmingham City Council and Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust acted with fault when handling Mrs X’s request to better support her son’s Section 117 aftercare needs. That fault caused Mrs X time and trouble and caused Y uncertainty.

    Service improvements

    The Council should explain what action it has taken to ensure service users receive continuity of care, when their social worker takes extended leave.The Council should (jointly with the Trust and ICB) review the ‘S117 Mental Health Aftercare Funding ApplicationProcess’ and the Memorandum of Understanding. Each organisation should ensure those policies do notcontradict each other and ensure service users receiving PHBs for their Section117 aftercare do not experience similar fault.The Council should ensure relevant staff are aware of the local policy to assess/review PHBs for service users receiving Section 117 aftercare.

  • Birmingham City Council (21 018 573)

    Category: Environment and regulation Date: 25-Oct-2022

    Summary

    Mr X complains about how the Council investigated his complaints of smoke nuisance. The Council is at fault as its communication with Mr X lacked clarity and led him to believe it could investigate the complaints as a statutory nuisance. This raised his expectations and caused avoidable time and trouble to him. The Council has agreed to remedy this injustice by apologising to Mr X and making a payment of £150.

    Service improvements

    Seek legal advice on the implications of the Environment Act 2021 for investigating complaints of smoke nuisance and consider how it should investigate such complaints in light of that advice.

  • Birmingham City Council (21 018 334)

    Category: Benefits and tax Date: 31-Aug-2022

    Summary

    Mr X complains about how the Council handled his council tax account. There were some faults by the Council in how it managed Mr X’s council tax account and how it responded to his concerns. This caused Mr X distress, uncertainty, frustration and time and trouble chasing the Council for clarification. The Council’s failings also denied Mr X his right of appeal. The Council will take action to remedy the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to:•by training or other means remind staff of the importance of:omanaging council tax accounts in a timely and efficient manneroensuring it communicates effectively with taxpayersofollowing the Council’s complaint handling process and procedures•review and ensure the Council’s communication strategy(s) is clear and effective between its various departments. For instance, between Revenue Services and Benefit Services. This is to ensure taxpayers’ concerns are dealt with appropriately, effectively and in a timely manner.

  • Birmingham City Council (21 018 046)

    Category: Environment and regulation Date: 04-Aug-2022

    Summary

    Miss X complained the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her recycling on the scheduled days, whilst collecting her neighbours. The Council’s repeated failure to collect Miss X’s recycling or to explain the reason for this by tagging the bins or engaging with Miss X amounts to fault. This fault has caused Miss X an injustice.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to remind depots of the need for collection crews to tag contaminated bins so that residents are immediately aware of the reason for non-collection.

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