Service improvements

Cornwall Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2027

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 1 - 5 of 5 cases with service improvements

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

  • Cornwall Council (25 002 018)

    Category: Housing Date: 26-Nov-2025

    Summary

    Miss D complains she has been placed in the wrong housing band and welfare need category. She wants the Council to house her in a bungalow. There is some fault by the Council because its decision letter to Miss D was inadequate, however it has assessed her case in line with procedures. The Council has already made service improvements including an improved template decision letter. The Council has agreed to apologise to Miss D.

    Service improvements

    The Council will adhere to published allocations scheme rather than using non-published policy on direct offers of housing

  • Cornwall Council (24 000 115)

    Category: Housing Date: 22-Sep-2024

    Summary

    We found fault on Mrs K’s complaint about the Council failing to allow her to bid for two-bedroom properties which left her in a property which does not meet her needs. It failed to show it properly considered her evidence when reaching its decision. The agreed action remedies the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review all the evidence sent and make a fresh reasoned decision on the request for a two-bedroom property showing it took account of all relevant evidence provided in support.The Council agreed to remind all relevant staff involved with the making of decisions about bedroom entitlement of the need to: i) give reasons in support of itsdecisions; and ii) show they considered all relevant evidence against the requirements of its policy.

  • Cornwall Council (23 001 505)

    Category: Housing Date: 16-Apr-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to correctly administer her homelessness application and assess her housing circumstances between 2021 and 2023. She also said the Council wrongly advised her not to apply to its Welfare Panel. We have found the Council at fault for how it administered Mrs X’s homelessness application. These faults caused uncertainty about whether the Council could have secured suitable interim accommodation for Mrs X in 2021. This uncertainty is an injustice to Mrs X. We have also found the Council’s faults led to Mrs X missing an opportunity to secure suitable permanent accommodation in 2023. We have made recommendations to remedy the injustice this caused. We have not found the Council at fault for wrongly advising Mrs X not to apply to its Welfare Panel earlier.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind officers of the importance of keeping proper, suitable records. It will ask its officers to review the Ombudsman's Principles of Good Administrative Practice when issuing this reminder.The Council will remind relevant officers the Council may engage the relief housing duty immediately, if it believes an applicant cannot reasonably remain in occupation in their current accommodation.The Council has agreed to review the findings of the Ombudsman's investigation at senior officer level, to identify wider points of learning.The Council will update its published housing allocations scheme document to reflect the change in priority banding it introduced in 2022 for applicants owed the main housing duty. This will bring the published scheme in line with updated information published on the Council's website.

  • Cornwall Council (22 000 133)

    Category: Housing Date: 19-Jan-2023

    Summary

    Ms X complains, on behalf of her father, Mr Y, about the Council’s decision not to award Mr Y a local connection regarding his housing register application and homelessness application. Mr Y is a former member of the Armed Forces. We do not find the Council at fault in its first decision not to award Mr Y a local connection for his homelessness application. But, we find the Council failed to arrange suitable accommodation for Mr Y when it accepted a second application from him. We also find the Council failed to award Mr Y an exemption from its housing register local connection criteria (based on his time since retiring from the Armed Forces). Because of this fault, we find the Council failed to have due regard to its commitments under the Armed Forces Covenant. This fault caused Mr Y and Ms X an injustice. To remedy the injustice, the Council has agreed to apologise to Mr Y and Ms X, make them several payments and certain service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review its housing allocations scheme to ensure there is clear guidance onwhen certain members of the Armed Forces community are exempt from any residency requirements under the Allocation of Housing (Qualification Criteria for Armed Forces) (England) Regulations 2012 . The Council will provide training to relevant staff in both its housing allocations team and homelessness team on handling applications where these Regulations may apply.The Council has agreed to circulate a reminder to staff about when the Council must arrange interim accommodation for a homelessness applicant following a referral to a second council at the relief duty stage.The Council has agreed to circulate a reminder to relevant staff that if a welfare award is increased following additional supporting information, the eligible band date should be the date the completed housing register application was received.The Council has agreed to ask a Senior Officer in both its housing allocations team and homelessness team to review the decision statement and share any identified learning with their team. The Council will report back on the outcome of this.

  • Cornwall Council (21 019 001)

    Category: Housing Date: 11-Oct-2022

    Summary

    We found fault by the Council on Mr J’s complaint about it failing to act on his reports about a neighbour’s behaviour. The Council failed to provide evidence in support of what it said it had done in response to his reports. The agreed action remedies the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to remind officers responding to our enquiries in the future of the need to send proper supporting evidence.

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