Service improvements

London Borough of Camden

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 1 - 8 of 8 cases with service improvements

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Downloads the current filtered list of service improvement decisions for London Borough of Camden as a CSV file.

  • London Borough of Camden (22 009 421)

    Category: Housing Date: 01-Mar-2023

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council has failed to correctly assess his housing application. We find the Council was at fault for failing to consider all relevant evidence and failing to follow its policy. The Council has agreed to apologise for the injustice caused, review the application and implement service improvements to prevent the fault reoccurring.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind staff to give proper scrutiny to any relevant supporting evidence and the need to explain their reasons for not relying on the evidence where they decide not to.The Council will remind staff of its policy for social need and hardship points. This includes the importance of considering all the factors listed in the policy and ensuring the decision reasons are recorded in full.

  • London Borough of Camden (22 004 833)

    Category: Education Date: 19-Dec-2022

    Summary

    Mr Y complained the Council unreasonably refused his application for a free school travel pass for his daughter. We found fault in how the Council consider his application. But this fault did not alter the outcome of Mr Y’s application and so we have completed our investigation.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its school transport policy to ensure that it clarifies the 75-minute journey time referred to is for a one-way journey and not for both legs of the journey combined.The Council will provide guidance to all staff considering applications and appeals for free school travel passes to make sure they are applying the 75-minute journey time and the nearest qualifying school criterion correctly.

  • London Borough of Camden (22 001 475)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 02-Feb-2023

    Summary

    Miss B complained about the actions of the Council in providing support to her and daughter, C, when they experienced difficulties. She said the Council victimised her and failed treat her in a transparent and fair manner. We found the Council delayed excessively in dealing with her complaint through the three stage statutory complaints procedure. The Council has agreed to pay Miss B £200 and improve its procedures for the future.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review the operation of its three stage complaints process to identify where it can make changes to prevent delays.

  • London Borough of Camden (22 000 368)

    Category: Housing Date: 08-Dec-2022

    Summary

    Miss X complains the Council failed to make sure the managing agent of her temporary accommodation provided a satisfactory repairs service. She says, due to persistent issues with her immersion heater and the managing agent’s failure to resolve these, she received a very high energy bill. The Council has already accepted some fault around the handling of the disrepair issues and its handling of Miss X’s complaint. However, we find the Council failed to assess the affordability of the temporary accommodation. We find the Council has suitably remedied the injustice caused by delays in the complaint handling. However, the Council has also agreed to make Miss X a higher payment than the one offered for the disrepair issues and apologise to her to remedy the injustice she experienced. The Council has agreed to carry out several related service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to establish a responsive repairs schedule classifying categories of repairs andtime scales to repair with Managing Agent B. This should provide clear guidance to Council officers on how to handle reports of persistent disrepair issues with Managing Agent B from homeless applicants, including details of when to consider inspecting the property. The Council should consider publishing this repairs policy on its website so it is easily accessible to relevant homeless applicants and report back on this.The Council has agreed to circulate a reminder to relevant staff on the need to retain robust records of suitability assessments of temporary accommodation, including with regards to affordability.The Council has agreed to circulate a reminder to relevant staff on the duty to keep the suitability of temporary accommodation under review and to respond to suitability review requests in writing with clear reasons for any decision that is made. This reminder should clearly set out the circumstances when the Council must notify the applicant of their right to request a section 202 review of a suitability decision.

  • London Borough of Camden (22 000 208)

    Category: Other Categories Date: 15-Sep-2022

    Summary

    Miss X complains the Council unfairly placed her on its Unreasonable Complainant Behaviour register. Although we have not seen any evidence of fault in the Council’s decision to place Miss X on the register, we cannot see that it considered an appeal from Miss X in line with its policy, and we have therefore made a finding of fault. The Council has agreed to the recommendations we proposed.

    Service improvements

    The Council should explain what it will do to improve its record keeping and internal sharing of information, in light of the inaccurate findings in its stage 2 review.The Council should amend its decision template letter to clearly give complainants their appeal rights, or to sign post directly to where the appeal rights can be found.

  • London Borough of Camden (21 013 025)

    Category: Environment and regulation Date: 30-May-2022

    Summary

    The Ombudsman found fault by the Council on Ms K’s complaint about how it responded to her reports of noise nuisance. It failed to: respond to her query about a breach of bylaw: give her examples of her behaviour it was concerned about either in its first email or in the initial warning letter; deal with her formal complaint under its complaints procedure properly. The agreed action remedies the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council confirmed it reminded officers of the need to fully respond to queries raised in noise reports by members of the public.The Council confirmed it reviewed the initial warnings, and the first warning letters it sends out, so they now give examples of the person’s behaviour the Council is concerned about.The Council confirmed it accepts dealing with complaints was severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic but, work was done by the complainant's ward councillor and a service manager to resolve the complainant's concerns.The Council confirmed it introduced a new case management system for logging and processing complaints which has improved its complains handling from January 2022.

  • London Borough of Camden (21 009 953)

    Category: Housing Date: 15-May-2022

    Summary

    Miss X complained about how the Council considered her application to join the housing register and for failing to consider reasonable adjustments. There was fault in how the Council communicated its decision not to allow Miss X to join the housing register, and when it delayed in reviewing that decision. The Council agreed to pay Miss X £400 to recognise the injustice caused by the faults. There was no fault in how the Council allocated Miss X housing points or how it considered the reasonable adjustment she requested.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind relevant staff of the importance of providing applicants with clear information explaining how it has made decisions relating to awarding, or not awarding, housing points.

  • London Borough of Camden (21 008 097)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 25-Oct-2022

    Summary

    Ms B complained how the Council handled concerns she raised about its handling of her foster care placement. We find the Council was at fault as it significantly delayed responding to Ms B’s complaint. It also failed to provide the stage two officers with all the relevant files, and it wrongly interpreted some of her concerns. This means her complaint has not been considered properly. The Council has agreed our recommendations to address the injustice caused by fault.

    Service improvements

    The Council wil issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they are aware of the timescales under the statutory complaints procedure.The Council will issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they are aware all relevant files must be sent to the Independent Officer and Independent Person when they are conducting a stage two investigation.

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