Service improvements

London Borough of Ealing

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026

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 11 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 (24 022 609)

    Category: Housing Date: 18-Nov-2025

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council left her and her children in unsuitable accommodation. She also complained the Council failed to respond to her emails and requests for a review of the accommodation. We find the Council was at fault for its significant delay in dealing with Ms X’s request to review the suitability of the accommodation. This caused Ms X frustration, upset and uncertainty. The Council has agreed to make a payment to Ms X and implement a service improvement.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind staff who deal with suitability review requests that they should respond to the requests within eight weeks. If there are going to be delays, they should keep the person who requested the review informed.

  • London Borough of Ealing (24 022 545)

    Category: Housing Date: 24-Sep-2025

    Summary

    Miss D says the Council failed to properly inform her, and make reasonable adjustments, relating to a property viewing in 2024. I have found the Council at fault because it failed to keep records of contact with Miss D and has not evidenced that it ensured reasonable adjustments were made with a Property Agent. The Council has agreed to make service improvements and to pay Miss D redress for uncertainty.

    Service improvements

    remind officers, and provide training or guidance if needed, to document telephone calls with applicants and relevant third partiesremind officers, and provide training or guidance if needed, to ensure reasonable adjustments are in place for applicants

  • London Borough of Ealing (24 020 882)

    Category: Housing Date: 09-Dec-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council kept her family in unsuitable bed and breakfast accommodation for seven months and wrongly told her that housing benefit would cover the full cost of the accommodation. Mrs X and her family were in unsuitable accommodation for 18 weeks longer than the law allows causing distress. However, there is no evidence Mrs X was told there would be no charge for this accommodation.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to remind staff of the importance of ensuring housing benefit claims for homeless accommodation are made in a timely manner.

  • London Borough of Ealing (24 019 615)

    Category: Housing Date: 12-Oct-2025

    Summary

    There was fault by the Council, because it did not contact the complainant to discuss whether she would find bed and breakfast accommodation suitable as interim accommodation, told her she needed to submit documents before it could book interim accommodation for her, and did not respond helpfully when she informed the Council she could not access her housing register account. The Council has agreed to offer the complainant a financial remedy and apologise to her for this, and also to issue guidance to its staff.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to issue guidance to relevant staff, to remind them they should not delay the arrangement of interim accommodation to await the submission of documents which can be collected later. The Council should circulate a copy of my decision statement as part of this guidance.

  • London Borough of Ealing (24 018 272)

    Category: Housing Date: 17-Jul-2025

    Summary

    On behalf of Ms X, Ms Y complained the Council provided Ms X and her children with unsuitable interim and temporary accommodation for a prolonged period. Ms Y also complained the Council failed to keep the household’s circumstances under review, failed to appropriately respond to concerns about the accommodation, and failed to offer Ms X appropriate advice and support. We have found the Council acted with fault. Because of these faults, Ms X and her children lived in unsuitable accommodation for longer than they should, affecting their wellbeing and causing avoidable distress, uncertainty and incurred costs. The Council has agreed to provide a written apology to Ms X and her children, increase the financial remedy previously offered, and issue guidance to relevant officers.

    Service improvements

    The Council will share the findings of the Ombudsman's investigation with relevant officers, emphasising the Council's duty to secure suitable accommodation is immediate, non-deferable and unqualified. The Council will also emphasise that bed-and-breakfast accommodation can only be used for households which include a pregnant woman or dependant children when no other accommodation is available, and then for no longer than six weeks. Finally, the Council will emphasise it has a continuing obligation to keep the suitability of accommodation under review, and to respond to any relevant changes that may affect suitability.

  • London Borough of Ealing (24 016 625)

    Category: Housing Date: 10-Jul-2025

    Summary

    We found fault on Ms Y’s complaint about the Council’s delay dealing with the information submitted in support of her request for a higher banding under its housing allocation scheme. It failed to show officers reached their own decisions after considering Medical Advisors’ recommendations. It also failed to action her request for a statutory review following a Social Welfare Panel decision. The Council agreed to send her an apology, pay £100 for her distress, remind officers about recording their decisions, review why two forms and a request for a review were not actioned, and ensure these failures cannot be repeated. It also agreed to review the panel decision. There was no fault on her remaining complaints.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to remind relevant officers of the need to ensure there is a record of their decision on a medical assessment request from an applicant following a Medical Advisor’s recommendation.The Council agreed to establish why two online completed medical assessment forms were not actioned promptly when submitted and act to ensure the failures cannot be repeated on future cases.The Council agreed to establish why the statutory review request was not actioned and take steps to ensure this failing cannot be repeated on future cases.The Council agreed to carry out a review of the Panel’s decision.

  • London Borough of Ealing (24 014 229)

    Category: Housing Date: 08-Jun-2025

    Summary

    We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s offer of accommodation. It would have been reasonable for Mr X to ask the Council for a review.

    Service improvements

    The Council will send a reminder to officers dealing with homeless applications of the need to ensure when a homeless applicant raises concerns about the suitability of the property offered to them the Council follow the review process. That should include consideration of whether the review is out of time. The Council should then write to the person to explain its decision.

  • London Borough of Ealing (24 013 692)

    Category: Housing Date: 24-Jun-2025

    Summary

    Ms D complained the Council failed to provide assistance with her homelessness application. I have found fault by the Council causing Ms D avoidable distress. The Council has agreed to pay redress to Ms D and make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    improve logging and responding to complaintsensure housing solutions officers maintain contact with housing applicants

  • London Borough of Ealing (24 011 887)

    Category: Housing Date: 10-Jul-2025

    Summary

    Mr X complained that the Council left him and his family in unsuitable accommodation for more than a year. We found that the Council was at fault in failing to move the family to suitable accommodation. This caused them injustice, particularly in terms of the needs of their disabled child. The Council has agreed to the recommendations we made to remedy this injustice.

    Service improvements

    The Council should also remind its officers of the distinction between its duties under Part VI and Part VII of the Housing Act 1996.

  • London Borough of Ealing (24 010 877)

    Category: Housing Date: 09-Oct-2025

    Summary

    We found fault on Mrs Y’s homeless complaint about the Council’s decision to end the housing duty it owed her. It delayed identifying she had not been evicted from her property, failed to realise the significance of the tenancy agreement when she first sent it, failed to tell her she had review rights against its decision she was not homeless, and failed to act on her request for a statutory review of her accommodation’s suitability. It delayed responding to her complaint. The Council agreed to send her a written apology; reissue the decision and set out her review rights; back date any increased priority and carry out a suitability review should the review find in her favour; review why it failed to decide it owed her no main housing duty sooner; review why there was a delay responding to her complaint. It also agreed to pay her £100 for the delays with her complaint. These actions remedy the injustice caused. There was no fault on her complaint about it reducing her banding or about it failing to find her alternative suitable accommodation.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to review its processes to identify why it failed to make the decision that it did not owe the complainant the main housing duty sooner and take steps to ensure this failure cannot be repeated in the future.The Council agreed to remind officers of the need to explore, clarify, and act on contact from applicants which raises issues of suitability to establish whether they wish for a suitability review outside of the complaints process.The Council agreed to review why there was a delay responding to the complaint and act to ensure it cannot be repeated on future cases.

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