Service improvements

London Borough of Ealing

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025

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 - 10 of 10 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 (24 008 364)

    Category: Education Date: 18-Dec-2024

    Summary

    There was fault in the way the Council considered an application and appeal for home to school transport on special educational needs/disability/mobility grounds. This casts doubt on the decision reached. The Council will apologise, hold a fresh appeal, make a time and trouble payment, and carry out service improvements.

    Service improvements

    Remind all officers who carry out transport appeals, and those who send decision letters, of the requirement to consider all the evidence presented and properly record and evidence how it reached the decision, in line with statutory guidance.Remind officers that applications on SEN /disability / mobility grounds must consider health, safety, sensory and behavioural difficulties and not just physical mobility problems when deciding if a child is able to walk to school.

  • London Borough of Ealing (24 002 632)

    Category: Housing Date: 05-Feb-2025

    Summary

    Mr X complained about the Council’s assessment of, and review of its decision about, his medical priority on the housing register. We have found fault by the Council, causing injustice in the way it carried out the review. The Council has agreed to remedy this injustice by apologising to Mr X, making a payment to reflect his upset and uncertainty, carrying out a fresh review and making a service improvement.

    Service improvements

    the Council has agreed to remind all reviewofficers to make sure they refer to the correct version of the housingallocations policy and not use out of date review letter templates

  • London Borough of Ealing (24 000 008)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 20-Aug-2024

    Summary

    Mrs Y complained the Council failed to arrange suitable care for her mother, Mrs X, when she was discharged from hospital. Mrs Y said this meant she and her sister, Ms W, had to provide the care instead. The Council was at fault for delay in arranging a new care provider to help Mrs X, when the original provider did not work out. This caused Mrs Y and her sister Ms W avoidable frustration and upset, for which the Council will apologise. The Council will also identify why the delay happened and what steps it needs to take to prevent similar fault in future.

    Service improvements

    The Council will consider why the miscommunication that led to the Council's delay in arranging a new care provider for the complainant's mother occurred. The Council will identify any steps that are needed to prevent the fault happening again in future. It will send the Ombudsman details of those actions, when they will be completed by, and who is responsible for them.

  • London Borough of Ealing (23 017 512)

    Category: Education Date: 29-Sep-2024

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council failed to secure J’s special educational provision and delayed issuing a final Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan. Ms X also said the Council failed to discharge its education duties when J stopped attending school. We have found the Council at fault for the delay in issuing J’s EHC Plan and for parts of its complaint handling. We have made recommendations to remedy the injustice we believe this caused. We have found the Council at fault for not properly recording its decisions about alternative education provision. However, this did not cause an injustice. We have not found the Council at fault for failing to secure the special education provision in J’s EHC Plan. There are parts of Ms X’s complaint we cannot investigate. We explain why in our decision statement.

    Service improvements

    The Council will share the Ombudsman's decision and a copy of our focus report Out of school, out of sight? with relevant officers, to emphasise the Council's section 19 duties and identify wider learning.

  • London Borough of Ealing (23 013 867)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 26-Mar-2025

    Summary

    We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about a delay in providing information about the cost of his mother’s care. We asked the Council to take action to resolve the complaint early and it has agreed to apologise, make a payment to Mr X and make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind relevant staff of the importance of giving as much information as possible about the likely costs of adult social care at the time the care is arranged and keeping a record of the advice and information given. This should include explaining that, if a person moves into residential care, the value of their property will be considered when deciding how much they should pay towards the cost of their care, which is likely to mean they will need to pay the full cost of their care.

  • London Borough of Ealing (23 013 270)

    Category: Education Date: 08-Apr-2024

    Summary

    Ms A complained that in March 2023 the Council wrongly stopped her son, B’s, school transport. She also said the Council took a long time to overturn its decision and it did not accept her complaints about the appeals process she made in November 2023. The Council was at fault for deciding to end B’s school transport. We also found the Council’s appeals policy and corporate complaints policy were misleading. The Council has already agreed to provide school transport for B and to our further recommendations at the end of this decision on how to remedy the injustice its actions caused to Ms A and B.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to remind its staff that members of the public may submit corporate complaints about the quality of service they received regardless of any appeals they submitted. In those cases, the Council should still consider the corporate complaint as per its travel assistance policy.

  • London Borough of Ealing (23 011 160)

    Category: Housing Date: 07-Oct-2024

    Summary

    Miss X complained about the way the Council dealt with her housing application. We found no fault in the way the Council made its decision. However, we found fault with the Council’s delay in completing a review. This caused frustration to Miss X and the Council will apologise for this and make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council will develop an action plan to reduce any delays in completing housing reviews and to ensure these can be completed within the eight weeks recommended by statutory guidance.

  • London Borough of Ealing (23 007 815)

    Category: Planning Date: 10-Jun-2024

    Summary

    X complains about the way the Council has dealt with their communications about a planning decision made in 2020, and a subsequent complaint. We have concluded the investigation on the basis the Council is at fault and has caused an injustice.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review how planning queries are responded to and implement processes to ensure they do not go unanswered.

  • London Borough of Ealing (23 005 023)

    Category: Planning Date: 22-Apr-2024

    Summary

    We found fault on Mrs B’s complaint about the way the Council considered a Minor Material Amendment application for a neighbour’s development. It failed to record her concerns made during a call, pass them to the decision maker, or carry out a third site visit. It missed an opportunity to establish the correct site ground levels and did not deal with her complaint correctly. The agreed action remedies the injustice caused. I am satisfied it considered her main representations and properly considered whether this was the correct application to make.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to remind officers of the need to record concerns raised by neighbours making representations so these are available for the decision maker.The Council agreed to remind officers of the need to clearly record any agreement reached with those making representations about site visits.The Council agreed to review why her complaint did not follow the timescales set out in the complaint procedure, so these failures are not repeated in future.

  • London Borough of Ealing (23 004 153)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 21-Jan-2025

    Summary

    The Council was at fault for delay installing the level access shower Ms X needs. The Council was also at fault for significant delay responding to Ms X’s complaint. The Council has agreed to apologise, make payments to Ms X, and act to improve its services.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to produce a joint service agreement and/or operating procedure for social care andthe adaptations service which clearly identifies how each service contributesto delivering DFGs and ensures services work together to provide a joined-upand timely service to Disabled people.The Council has agreed to produce a leaflet or other form of information to provide DFG applicants which sets out the process and what the applicant can expect, likely timescales, the services involved and who has oversight or is the main point of contact throughout the application.The Council has agreed to provide training or guidance to staff responsible for responding to stage two complaints about the Council’s expected timescales, keeping complainants informed, and giving complaints appropriate priority.The Council has agreed to identify and implement a means of ensuring the Council keeps sufficient central oversight of complaints to identify and address delays responding.

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