Service improvements

London Borough of Ealing

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2026 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 - 8 of 8 cases with service improvements

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

  • London Borough of Ealing (25 017 710)

    Category: Benefits and tax Date: 20-Apr-2026

    Summary

    We will not investigate this complaint about the Council failing to take Miss X’s daughter’s lunch fees into account when calculating her housing benefit. This is because the Council has provided a suitable remedy to recognise the injustice caused by the delays.

    Service improvements

    The Council will issue reminders to staff to ensure childcare costs are processed efficiently to prevent similar delays.

  • London Borough of Ealing (25 013 132)

    Category: Education Date: 09-Jul-2026

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council did not review Mr B’s Education Health and Care Plan within statutory timescales and did not provide suitable education. He said this impacted Mr B’s education and emotional wellbeing and has also caused him avoidable stress. We find the Council at fault which caused injustice. The Council agreed to apologise, provide missed provision, make a payment and take service improvement action to remedy the injustice.

    Service improvements

    The Council will tell us what action it will take to improve its transition assessment and planning for young people with EHC Plans with reference to lessons learned from this case.

  • London Borough of Ealing (25 012 819)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 05-Jul-2026

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council delayed telling him about his care charges. We find the Council was at fault for its delay in completing Mr X’s financial assessment and for its delay in contacting him for his financial information. This meant Mr X lost the opportunity to make a fully informed decision about his care package before it started. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr X and implement a service improvement.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure, wherever possible, that people have the necessary information about what they will be expected to pay towards their care before the care package starts.

  • London Borough of Ealing (25 008 622)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 02-Jul-2026

    Summary

    Mr X complained about how the Council considered concerns about his son, Y. He said the Council had access to evidence from multiple medical professionals saying there was no medical evidence to support the suspicion of abuse, but it continued to take child protection action. Mr X said this distressed him and his family. There was fault in the way the Council produced reports and assessments using incorrect information and its complaint handling was poor. This frustrated and distressed Mr X and his family. The Council agreed to apologise, make a financial payment, place a letter on the children’s case file and send it to other professionals, and create an action plan to quality assure its assessments.

    Service improvements

    •Produce a plan on how the Council will quality assure assessments to ensure they are an accurate reflection of the concerns raised and ensure they are suitably monitored.•Share a copy of this decision with staff in the relevant departments to consider the lessons that can be learned from this case.

  • London Borough of Ealing (25 007 988)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 10-Jun-2026

    Summary

    Mr Y complained about the Council’s actions following his father’s (Mr X) discharge from hospital. Mr Y said the Council delayed Continuing Healthcare assessment, unlawfully charged for care services provided to Mr X, failed to reassess Mr X’s needs, failed to communicate with him and mishandled his complaint. We found fault with the delay in sending information needed for the Continuing Healthcare assessment and with the Council’s complaint handling. The Council’s fault caused injustice to Mr X and Mr Y. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a symbolic distress payment and carry out some staff training.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind social workers, including the members of the Reablement Assessment team, of the Continuing Healthcare process so they can advise people and support them in completing checklists.The Council will remind Adult Social Care staff of the details of the complaint procedure to follow when responding to Adult Social Care complaints and in particular for which complaints this procedure should be applied.

  • London Borough of Ealing (25 003 373)

    Category: Housing Date: 27-Apr-2026

    Summary

    Miss Y complained about the Council’s handling of her homelessness and housing applications. We have found fault by the Council, causing injustice, in failing to: provide Miss Y with suitable interim and temporary accommodation from March 2024 to November 2025; properly consider her medical information before making a decision about her priority in January 2025; and tell her about her right to ask for a review of the decision. The Council has agreed to remedy this injustice by: apologising; making payments to recognise the impact of the failures to provide suitable accommodation, and when making and notifying Miss Y about its medical priority decision; and service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review its homelessness procedures and make any changes needed to ensure:• homeless applicants: with dependent children; aged 16 &17; or pregnant are only placed in B&B accommodation when no other accommodation is available, and for a maximum of six weeks;• it actively searches for suitable alternative accommodation for those households placed in B&B accommodation or unsuitable accommodation; and• it records and monitors the length of time households remain in B&B accommodation and the action being taken to move them to suitable accommodation.The Council has agreed to review its housing allocation procedures and make any changes needed to ensure:• its officers properly follow the process set out in its published scheme when making decisions about an applicant’s medical priority band – in particular that medical advisers give recommendations which the Council should consider together with the information provided before making a decision;• officers record their decisions about medical priority; and• when applicants are notified of a decision about their priority band they are also told about their right to ask for a review of the decision.

  • London Borough of Ealing (25 001 150)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 06-Jul-2026

    Summary

    We have upheld Miss X’s complaint the Council did not respond properly to concerns she raised about the foster care placement she was staying in with her baby. The Council agreed a proportionate remedy.

    Service improvements

    3) Issue guidance to relevant staff reminding them complainants accepted into the Children Act Statutory Complaints procedure have the right to pursue their complaint through all three stages and that staff should not refuse or delay escalation because they disagree with the complainant's reasons for seeking a review - within 4 weeks of final decision.

  • London Borough of Ealing (24 015 544)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 27-May-2026

    Summary

    Mr and Mrs X complained that the London Boroughs of Ealing, Hounslow and Southwark failed to manage properly the proposed adoptive placement with them. This led to them not having a child placed with them, as they had expected. We find some fault causing avoidable distress, grief and time and trouble for the complainants. The Councils have agreed the recommended ways to remedy their injustice, and to implement service improvements to prevent a recurrence of faults in this case. We have therefore completed our investigation and are closing the complaint.

    Service improvements

    Adopt London West (ALW) with Adopt London South (ALS) will:work together to prepare a written leaflet (and/or online guidance) specifically for prospective adopters, setting out the procedures for meet before match meetings, their purpose and how they will be introduced to the child, and emphasising that a child will not be placed with them until formal approval by an adoption panel and agency decision maker. It should also be made clear in any guidance that decisions about a second meet before match meeting should be formally approved by management to properly assess and analyse why this might be necessary. The guidance should also explain that there are no payable expenses, and no adoption certificate will be issued until formal approval;if photographs/video are to be taken at the meet before match meetings, prospective adopters should consent in writing and be told what will happen to the photographs. It should be acceptable for prospective adopters not to agree to be photographed without concern that this would be regarded negatively. And, if prospective adopters decide that, in light of the information above, they would prefer to wait until formal approval, they should be offered the option of virtual observations of the child instead of a meet before match meeting.obtain prospective adopters’ formal written consent to the use of telephone messages, and be told that messages (including theirs) will be placed on relevant files. Also arrange a meeting with the medical advisor early in the process and consider whether prospective adopters should meet the foster carer before meeting the child.only arrange a family zoom meeting/appreciation day, and other transitional arrangements, once formal approval has been given.should develop a complaints policy that recognises relevant adoption-relatedmatters should be considered under the statutory Children Act complaintprocedures, and that there should be a joint, coordinated investigation (whenmore than one Council/RAAs is involved) led by the corporate parent, or in other cases, where the child resides.

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