Service improvements

London Borough of Croydon

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022

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 - 7 of 7 cases with service improvements

Export results (CSV)

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

  • London Borough of Croydon (26 003 692)

    Category: Housing Date: 18-Jun-2026

    Summary

    We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of the Miss X’s homelessness application. This is because the injustice has been remedied during our consideration.

    Service improvements

    Review the complaint handling of the two primary evidence documents and feedback within one month if the Council considers complaints handling training may be necessary.

  • London Borough of Croydon (25 016 605)

    Category: Environment and regulation Date: 13-Jul-2026

    Summary

    Miss X complained about the Council's handling of her reports of noise nuisance from a neighbouring business since 2024. We found the Council failed to take reasonable steps to investigate whether the reported noise amounted to a statutory nuisance, did not follow its own noise nuisance procedure, failed to reach a decision on whether a statutory nuisance existed, and communicated poorly with Miss X, including in its complaint handling. These faults caused Miss X avoidable distress, uncertainty, frustration, and time and trouble pursuing the matter. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a financial payment to Miss X, complete its investigation, and take action to improve its handling of future noise nuisance complaints.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review its procedures for investigating noise nuisance complaints and produce an action plan setting out how it will ensure officers properly investigate, assess evidence and reach timely decisions on potential statutory nuisances in future.

  • London Borough of Croydon (25 009 604)

    Category: Housing Date: 21-Jun-2026

    Summary

    The Council was at fault. It failed to ensure the interim accommodation offered met Mr X’s wife, Mrs X’s medical needs. It also failed to complete a suitability review within 56 days which delayed securing suitable temporary accommodation. It also delayed its stage two complaint response to Mr X. These failings caused Mr and Mrs X avoidable distress, uncertainty, and prolonged unsuitable living conditions. The Council was not at fault for refusing to review the suitability of the accommodation. The Council agreed to apologise, make a payment, and implement service improvements to remedy the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    Through training, the Council will remind officers of their responsibilities to complete suitability assessments before offering interim or temporary accommodation, monitor and comply with statutory deadlines of completing suitability reviews, issue suitability review decisions advising applicants of their review rights, and adhere to its published complaint handling timescales.

  • London Borough of Croydon (25 007 422)

    Category: Housing Date: 21-Jun-2026

    Summary

    Ms Y complained about the Council’s handling of her homelessness application. We have found fault, causing injustice, by the Council in: failing to deal with her application in a timely way; follow correct processes and lack of communication about her application; and its complaint handling failures. The Council has agreed to remedy this injustice by apologising, making a payment to recognise the upset caused and a service improvement.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to establish the reasons for the delay completing the review of its decision Ms Y was not in priority need;The Council has agreed to establish the current timescales for completing reviews of homelessness decisions and report to us on these current timescales.The Council has agreed to report to us on any action it is taking to ensure reviews are completed within the required timescales.

  • London Borough of Croydon (25 006 602)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 24-Jun-2026

    Summary

    The Council was at fault in how it considered what funds Mrs W should have to pay for her social care support. It was also at fault in how it reviewed Mrs W’s needs. The fault caused Mrs W’s representative, Miss X avoidable frustration and meant Mrs W went without support she should have had. The Council will apologise to Miss X, make symbolic payments and make service improvements to prevent fault in future.

    Service improvements

    The Council was at fault in how it considered what funds a service user should have to pay for her social care support, and in how it reviewed her needs.The Council will add to its website information about how people can ask for direct payments for adult social care, in line with the care and support statutory guidance, paragraph 12.7.The Council will clarify with complaints staff that if they receive a complaint from a resident and a member's enquiry from a councillor about the same matter, they must still respond to the complaint using the appropriate complaints procedure.The Council will review this complaint and identify why it failed to issue amended care and support plans after the November 2024 and February 2025 reviews, and why the it failed to implement the change to single-handed care for the service user at lunchtime and afternoon visits after the November 2024 review. The Council will consider what steps it needs to take to prevent similar fault in future, and tell the Ombudsman what those steps are and when it will complete them by.The Council will consider what management oversight occurred in this case and what improvements need to be made so that in future cases, the Council does not make many different decisions in a short period of time about what a person’s direct payments should be, where there have been no changes to the person’s needs. The Council will tell the Ombudsman what steps it will take to prevent similar fault in future and when it will complete them by.

  • London Borough of Croydon (25 006 534)

    Category: Housing Date: 09-Jun-2026

    Summary

    The Council failed to review Ms X’s banding when she provided further evidence, failed to discuss the option of a disabled facilities grant for adaptations and delayed responding to some of her communications. That caused Ms X distress and leaves her with some uncertainty. An agreement to reconsider Ms X’s banding, a discussion about adaptations with the housing association, apology and payment to Ms X are satisfactory remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will provide guidance to occupational therapists carrying out assessments for housing adaptations to make clear what government guidance says about what matters can be taken into account.

  • London Borough of Croydon (24 006 632)

    Category: Education Date: 19-Apr-2026

    Summary

    We upheld a complaint from Ms X, finding the Council slow to address her dissatisfaction with a personal budget she received to provide occupational therapy for her daughter. Also, it was slow to address how her daughter could attend therapy sessions when her school said it could not transport her. We found as a result Ms X and her daughter suffered an injustice as Ms X did not receive a budget sufficient to meet her daughter’s needs and who lost provision as a result. The Council accepted these findings. At the end of this statement we set out the action it agreed to remedy Ms X’s injustice and improve its service to avoid a repeat.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed that it would review its existing processes to ensure that its Special Educational Needs (SEN) Caseworkers considered adjusting a personal budget following an annual review of an Education, Health and Care Plan (or where it had otherwise issued an amended plan) which changed provision covered by the personal budget. It would let us know if it had changed procedures as a result and what advice it had given, or proposed to give, to its SEN Caseworkers following the review.

LGO logogram

Review your privacy settings

Required cookies

These cookies enable the website to function properly. You can only disable these by changing your browser preferences, but this will affect how the website performs.

View required cookies

Analytical cookies

Google Analytics cookies help us improve the performance of the website by understanding how visitors use the site.
We recommend you set these 'ON'.

View analytical cookies

In using Google Analytics, we do not collect or store personal information that could identify you (for example your name or address). We do not allow Google to use or share our analytics data. Google has developed a tool to help you opt out of Google Analytics cookies.

Privacy settings