Service improvements

Birmingham City Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026

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 47 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 (24 021 047)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 03-Dec-2025

    Summary

    Mr X complained about how the Council handled his mother’s, Ms Y, residential placements’ care fees and its poor communication with him. There were some faults with how the Council dealt with Ms Y’s residential care fees, its poor communication with Mr X and delays with its complaint handling. This caused injustice to Mr X and Ms Y. The Council will take action to remedy the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    •remind the Council’s commissioned residential care homes not to demand payments from residents and/or their families in the absence of the Council arranged placement and care fees payment•train staff about the importance of adhering to the Council’s complaint procedure timescales.•review the Council’s systems and practice to ensure it completes financial assessments and ensure it allocates social workers to service users in a timely manner.

  • Birmingham City Council (24 020 825)

    Category: Benefits and tax Date: 19-Jun-2025

    Summary

    We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision on Mr X’s housing benefit entitlement. This is because Mr X has the right to appeal to a Tribunal and the Council agreed to restore Mr X’s appeal rights to enable him to appeal.

    Service improvements

    The Council also agreed to remind officers to refer cases to its appeals team if disputed decisions are not changed following a reconsideration request

  • Birmingham City Council (24 018 891)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 16-Jul-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about a failure to inform her and her family about care contributions and about short calls. We upheld the complaint because Mr Y’s care and support plan did not include his care contribution within his personal budget. The information the Council provided about charging before care started was too general. This caused avoidable distress. The Council accepted care calls were short which was fault causing Mr Y avoidable distress which cannot be remedied as he has died. Mrs Y also likely had to step in and provide some care. The Council will apologise, make symbolic payments for Mrs Y, offer a debt repayment plan and will complete contract monitoring to reduce the risk of recurrence.

    Service improvements

    The Council will complete contract monitoring checks to ensure a local adult care provider is adhering to call durations in council-commissioned care packages. This can be by a sample of care packages for the previous three months.

  • Birmingham City Council (24 017 769)

    Category: Education Date: 13-Oct-2025

    Summary

    There was fault and delay by the Council in implementing a Tribunal decision and securing provision in an Education, Health and Care Plan. As a result, a child missed out on provision for many months. The Council has agreed to apologise, make symbolic payments and carry out service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council will ensure it has robust procedures to check provision is secured after a Tribunal decision within the time limit.The Council will keep clear records of its decisions following Tribunal recommendations in ‘extended appeals’ and ensure it provides detailed reasons in writing to the family within five weeks of the recommendation.Children’s social care assessments and care plans will be completed in a timely way with provision put in place as soon as possible.The Council will review how it manages complex EOTAS packages to ensure provision is co-ordinated and monitored as set out in the Plan by a suitably experienced officer.

  • Birmingham City Council (24 017 706)

    Category: Housing Date: 11-Dec-2025

    Summary

    Mr B complained that the Council failed to take appropriate action when he was homeless and seeking housing assistance. We find that on several occasions, the Council failed to carry out a housing needs assessment and decide what duty it owed him. This prevented Mr B from joining the housing register. The Council also failed to provide clear information about the documents it needed to support his housing application. These failings caused Mr B significant distress and left him homeless for longer than necessary. The Council has agreed to apologise and make a symbolic payment to Mr B. It has also agreed to make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review its handling of homelessness approaches to ensure that housing needs assessments are carried out and formal decisions regarding what duty is owed are made, even if an applicant has not provided all requested documents, and even when a single applicant states that they will not live in shared accommodation.The Council has agreed to review learning from this case and take action to prevent recurrence.

  • Birmingham City Council (24 017 036)

    Category: Housing Date: 18-Sep-2025

    Summary

    Mr B and Ms X complained that the Council had failed to provide them with suitable accommodation. We find that the Council failed to properly consider whether to make a direct offer of accommodation, and failed to secure suitable accommodation after accepting it had a duty to do so. Mr B and Ms X have been left with uncertainty about whether suitable accommodation would have been provided if there had been no fault by the Council. The Council has agreed to apologise and make a symbolic payment to Mr B and Ms X. It has also agreed to make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff of the process to follow when a request is made for a direct let.

  • Birmingham City Council (24 016 918)

    Category: Housing Date: 17-Nov-2025

    Summary

    Miss B complained about the Council’s decision to reduce her housing priority when she refused an offer of accommodation. We find that the Council failed to properly record her reasons for refusing the offer, wrongly reduced her housing priority and failed to properly consider her request for a review of the decision. As a result, Miss B has remained living in unsuitable accommodation and she has suffered significant distress. The Council has agreed to apologise and make a symbolic payment to Miss B. It has also agreed to make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to remind relevant officers to accurately record the reason housing applicants have given for refusing offers of accommodation.The Council has agreed to remind relevant officers that the 21-day timescale for considering reviews of housing priority decisions starts from the date of the decision, not the date the accommodation was refused.The Council has agreed to amend its housing allocation scheme to make it clear that all applicants in Band A will be demoted to Band D if they refuse a suitable offer of accommodation.

  • Birmingham City Council (24 016 565)

    Category: Housing Date: 11-Jun-2025

    Summary

    Miss X complained that the Council kept closing Mr B’s housing applications. We find that the Council closed Mr B’s applications without allowing him to explain why he could not provide the documents it was requesting to support his application. Then, after it was aware of his circumstances, it again requested evidence he was unable to provide. These failings caused Miss X and Mr B frustration. However, there was no fault in the way the Council decided that Mr B did not qualify to join the Council’s housing register. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr B and Miss X and to make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to ensure housing applicants are able to provide their reasons if they are unable to provide all the documents the Council requires them to submit. The Council will then consider this information before deciding whether to close their housing application as incomplete due to missing documents.

  • Birmingham City Council (24 016 538)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 09-Feb-2026

    Summary

    Mr Y complains about the Council’s poor handling of his child’s transition from Children’s Services to Adult Social Care. Mr Y also complains about the Council’s handling of his complaint. The Council has now upheld all aspects of Mr Y’s complaint and there is no further fault for us to find. Our investigation has therefore focussed on the Council’s remedy. We find the remedy already provided to be proportionate and ask the Council to send evidence that the agreed outcomes have been completed.

    Service improvements

    The Council has already identified and implemented appropriate service improvements as a result of this complaint, and we do not propose any further recommendations. However, two service improvements remain outstanding. Those are:The appointment of an ‘Independent Investigating Officer’ to complete a review and completion and adoption of a new joint working protocol regarding complaints involving more than one service area.To ensure the injustice caused by the fault is fully addressed, the Council has agreed to provide evidence that these two actions have been completed.

  • Birmingham City Council (24 015 382)

    Category: Housing Date: 31-Aug-2025

    Summary

    Mr B complained that the Council delayed processing his homelessness application, which affected his priority on the housing register. We find that the Council failed to properly deal with Mr B’s homelessness application and delayed awarding Mr B additional priority on the Council’s housing register. The Council has agreed to apologise, backdate Mr B’s housing priority and make a payment to Mr B. It has also agreed to make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to amend its housing allocation scheme to make it clear which housing priority band will be awarded when a homeless applicant is owed the relief duty but has not been placed in temporary accommodation.The Council has agreed to ensure staff are aware that while it is appropriate to manage the expectations of homelessness applicants regarding the type of accommodation likely to be provided, they should not actively discourage applicants from accepting accommodation. Staff should provide clear and accurate information to allow applicants to make informed decisions.

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