Service improvements

Birmingham City Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024

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 21 - 23 of 23 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 (22 005 052)

    Category: Housing Date: 08-Jun-2023

    Summary

    The Council failed to provide Miss B and her children with suitable accommodation when they were homeless. There were also failings in the way it carried out reviews of the suitability of the accommodation. The Council has agreed to apologise and make a payment to Miss B. It will also 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 ensure homeless families do not remain in accommodation with shared facilities for more than six weeks. It will also provide evidence to show the number of families who have been in such accommodation for more than six weeks, and the average length of time homeless families have to stay before self-contained accommodation is provided.The Council has agreed to review its processes to ensure that when it is carrying out a suitability of accommodation review and decides the applicant needs to be moved to alternative temporary accommodation, it writes to them with its decision on the review.

  • Birmingham City Council (22 003 460)

    Category: Housing Date: 24-May-2023

    Summary

    The Council failed to provide Miss B’s household with suitable accommodation when they were homeless. It also failed to tell Miss B that she had the right to request a review of the suitability of the accommodation. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a payment to Miss B and 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 ensure homeless families do not remain in bed and breakfast accommodation for more than six weeks. It will also provide evidence to show the number of families who have been in such accommodation for more than six weeks, and the average length of time homeless families have to stay before self-contained accommodation is provided.The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff that homelessness applicants must be told about their right to request a review of the suitability of the accommodation.The Council has agreed to review its processes for extending hotel bookings to ensure that, wherever possible, it does not wait until the date the homeless applicant is due to check out before trying to extend the booking.

  • Birmingham City Council (22 002 168)

    Category: Housing Date: 31-May-2023

    Summary

    The Council delayed reviewing its decision to close Mrs B’s housing application and delayed responding to her complaints about it. As a result, Mrs B remained living in temporary accommodation for longer than necessary. The Council has agreed to make a payment to Mrs B and to take action to prevent similar failings in future.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review its procedures to ensure that when it closes a housing application due to a housing related debt, its letter to the applicant includes a full description of the debt and the amount outstanding.The Council has agreed to provide an update on its performance in dealing with complaints along with details of the action it has taken over the last four months to reduce delays.The Council has agreed to provide an updated action plan showing the action it is taking to reduce delays in dealing with housing allocation applications and review requests. It will state how long it is currently taking to process housing applications and reviews and it will provide a report to show how the time it is taking has changed over the last year. If delays have not significantly reduced, it will explain the reason for this.

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