Service improvements

London Borough of Camden

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2021 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 11 - 20 of 50 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 (24 015 121)

    Category: Education Date: 25-Nov-2025

    Summary

    Miss X complained about the Council’s failure to deliver special educational provision included in Section F of her son’s (Y) Education Health and Care Plan. We found fault with the Council. This fault caused injustice to Y and Miss X. The Council has already offered some suitable remedies. The Council has also agreed to make a symbolic payment to Miss X to recognise her distress, arrange a meeting with Miss X to review Y’s education and carry out further service improvement.

    Service improvements

    The Council will complete service improvement actions offered in the Council’s final complaint response of October 2025 listed in paragraph 37c) of this decision.The Council will review its complaint handling process to ensure timeliness of the Council’s responses.

  • London Borough of Camden (24 009 936)

    Category: Environment and regulation Date: 25-Aug-2025

    Summary

    Mx Y complained about the Council’s response to reports of anti-social behaviour they made it aware of. We upheld the complaint, finding the Council communicated poorly with Mx Y and failed to ensure meetings it arranged focused on the behaviour Mx Y reported. These faults caused Mx Y an injustice, as avoidable distress. The Council has accepted these findings. At the end of this statement we set out action it has agreed to take to remedy Mx Y’s injustice and improve its service to avoid a repeat of the faults.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed that it would revise its current policy for responding to reports of Anti Social Behaviour to address three current omissions. First, that the policy does not explain how it will respond to reports of ASB where the alleged perpetrator is a social landlord tenant. Second, that the policy does not explain what enforcement powers the Council has to deal with ASB. Third, it does not explain the role or purpose of Community Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Meetings (CMARAC), which consider certain complex cases of ASB involving vulnerable victims or perpetrators of ASB.The Council also agreed to brief staff who regularly attend ASB Case Reviews or CMARAC meetings on behalf of the Council to emphasise key learning points from this complaint. That such meetings should aim to ensure there is clarity about the nature of reports of ASB, steps taken so far to investigate those reports and why agencies have not taken enforcement action to date.

  • London Borough of Camden (24 009 776)

    Category: Housing Date: 10-Apr-2025

    Summary

    Mr and Mrs X complained about the Council’s handling of their homelessness application. We found the Council was at fault for issuing a decision letter which was unclear. This caused frustration to Mr and Mrs X for which the Council has already apologised. The Council has agreed to a service improvement to prevent further fault.

    Service improvements

    To ensure, by training or other means, the relevant staff are clear about the difference between the prevention and relief duties when it accepts a duty. The decision letters must clearly state which duty has been accepted.

  • London Borough of Camden (24 001 962)

    Category: Housing Date: 27-May-2025

    Summary

    Mr B complained the Council failed to move him from unsuitable accommodation, wrongly closed his homeless application, failed to tell him about his right to request a review, delayed awarding medical priority and delayed responding to his complaint. The Council delayed providing Mr B with suitable accommodation, failed to follow the right process when closing his homeless application, failed to tell him about his review rights, failed to properly consider his medical priority and delayed responding to his complaint. That meant Mr B stayed in unsuitable accommodation for longer than necessary which caused him distress. An apology and payment to Mr B, alongside a reminder to officers is satisfactory remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will send a memo to officers dealing with homeless applicants in temporary accommodation to remind them of:the need to ensure applicants are informed of their review and appeal rights;the need to complete a suitability review if a person in temporary accommodation raises concerns about the suitability of it; andwhen the Council accepts temporary accommodation is unsuitable it needs to arrange alternative accommodation immediately rather than just try to do so or wait until something suitable becomes available.The Council will put in place a process to ensure management of those cases where a homeless applicant has been placed in unsuitable temporary accommodation to ensure alternative temporary accommodation is promptly sought.The Council will remind officers dealing with medical assessments of the need to ensure a formal decision is issued with review rights and that those decisions should ensure all the information the applicant has provided is taken into account.

  • London Borough of Camden (24 011 470)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 24-Mar-2025

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council failed to properly consider Disabled Facility Grants he requested in 2022 and 2023. We found there was delay in responding on both occasions. We did not find fault in the handling of the 2022 application. We also found no fault in the decision to refuse the grant in 2023. However, we recommended the Council should apologise for the delays and provide guidance to staff about to ensure they applied the correct tests and explained the Councils decisions appropriately.

    Service improvements

    The Council should draft and circulate guidance to all relevant staff dealing with Disabled Facilities Grants about the works that may be considered under a grant and the tests that should be considered when deciding on eligibility

  • London Borough of Camden (24 005 110)

    Category: Housing Date: 06-Mar-2025

    Summary

    Miss X complained about delays in how the Council assessed her priority for social housing. There was fault in how the Council took too long to assess Miss X’s medical priority and review its decision and in how it communicated with Miss X. The Council agreed to apologise, pay Miss X a financial remedy, and produce an action plan to address its backlog of overdue reviews.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to produce an action plan for addressing the backlog of medical priority assessments and reviews. This should set out time-limited targets for how the Council will reduce the backlogs and include arrangements for the plan to be monitored by a suitably senior council officer.The Council agreed to share my findings about the Council’s complaints handling with staff responsible for responding to housing complaints and remind them they:should address the key points raised by complainants; and where they find further action by the Council is necessary, ensure these actions are effective and are implemented.

  • London Borough of Camden (24 000 438)

    Category: Education Date: 13-Jan-2025

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council failed to provide her son with any education and provision between September 2022 and February 2023. She also says it delayed dealing with her complaint about the matter. We find the Council was at fault for failing to provide Ms X’s son with any education and provision. It was also at fault for its significant delays in responding to Ms X’s complaint about the matter. The Council has agreed to our recommendations to address the injustice caused by fault.

    Service improvements

    The Council will issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they understand the Council’s legal and non-delegable duty to provide a child or young person with the special educational provision set out in section F of an EHC Plan.The Council will issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they understand the Council’s duty to provide full-time education where a child cannot attend school because of exclusion, medical reasons or otherwise.

  • London Borough of Camden (23 021 195)

    Category: Housing Date: 28-Jan-2025

    Summary

    Mr X complained about how the Council handled his homelessness after he received an eviction notice in 2022 and 2023. The Council failed to take steps to provide Mr X with appropriate help and support to alleviate his risk of homelessness between October 2022 and January 2024. This meant Mr X and his family remained in a property with the risk of eviction. The Council agreed to apologise and make a payment to Mr X to recognise the distress and uncertainty this caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to remind officers of the importance of notifying homelessness applicants of the correct homelessness duty and ensuring the Council accepts and ends the correct duties at relevant times.The Council has agreed to remind housing officers of the importance of making the main housing duty after 56 days, only extending this in the specific circumstances in line with the Homelessness Code of guidance.The Council has agreed to review its processes to ensure Personalised Housing Plans are reviewed in a timely manner and appropriate oversight is maintained of homelessness cases where the relief duty extends over 56 days.

  • London Borough of Camden (23 018 496)

    Category: Housing Date: 09-Dec-2024

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council delayed considering the environmental health concerns she raised about her previous property. Ms X is also unhappy with how the Council considered her application for social housing and said it did not give her the correct priority points. Ms X said this impacted her mental and physical health. The Council did accept some fault and offered Ms X £250. There was fault in the way the Council delayed making decisions about Ms X's homelessness and did not suitably act to resolve the condition of the property. There was also fault in the priority points allocation and complaints process. Ms X was distressed and frustrated by the Council’s actions. Ms X and Y remained living in an insanitary property. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a financial payment and train its staff in the Council’s responsibilities.

    Service improvements

    Remind relevant staff of the importance of effective complaint handling.Remind staff of the importance of keeping records of all actions, including property inspections.Provide training or guidance to all relevant staff of the Council’s responsibilities to homeless applicants and those in insanitary private rented accommodation.

  • London Borough of Camden (23 016 957)

    Category: Housing Date: 20-Feb-2025

    Summary

    Miss X complains about the Council’s handling of her homelessness application. We find fault with the Council for delay with the points review, and for sending correspondence to her old address after she told it not to. We have agreed a symbolic payment for the frustration and distress caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council should advise the Ombudsman of what action it has taken to ensure correspondence is sent to the correct address and flag up change of address is domestic abuse cases.

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