Service improvements

London Borough of Enfield

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 16 cases with service improvements

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

  • London Borough of Enfield (24 011 503)

    Category: Benefits and tax Date: 10-Mar-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council took legal action regarding unpaid council tax without allowing for the postal system to deliver notification of proceedings. Mrs X also complained the Council failed to deal with the matter when she tried to resolve the issue. She says the Council’s actions caused avoidable stress and led to additional costs. The Council is not at fault regarding its notification to Mrs X. However, we found service failure regarding the Council’s subsequent communication. The Council has agreed to provide a financial remedy and make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    Remind the telephone team to inform other relevant teams, including the Resources team and the Digital team, as soon as possible if it experiences problems in accessing its systems.

  • London Borough of Enfield (24 010 166)

    Category: Benefits and tax Date: 03-Jan-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complains about the Council’s handling of her council tax account. She complains the Council did not update its records and wrongly took enforcement action. She says this caused distress and financial strain. We find the Council at fault which caused Mrs X injustice. The Council has agreed to make a payment to Mrs X.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review whether any improvements can be made to its case management system to alert staff if customers are calling multiple times and there is anoutstanding call back required.

  • London Borough of Enfield (24 004 238)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 02-Jan-2025

    Summary

    We upheld a complaint that Mr F received poor care while in a care home placement arranged by the Council. We also found the Council at fault for a flawed safeguarding investigation which followed. These faults caused injustice to Mr F who experienced a loss of a service and to his daughter who made the complaint, as distress. The Council has accepted these findings. At the end of this statement, we set out the action it has agreed to remedy this injustice and improve its service.

    Service improvements

    Further to the events covered by this complaint the Council had begun a review of its adult safeguarding procedures. It agreed that it would update us on what consideration this review gave to the time taken to complete adult safeguarding enquiries. It would also share any recommendations arising from that review designed to reduce or avoid delays in completing such enquiries, such as were present in this case (where enquiries took more than 12 months to complete).The Council also agreed to incorporate into that review, or undertake a separate piece of work, on its current arrangements for communicating with relatives when it undertakes safeguarding enquiries. It would review current advice given to practitioners and if this was sufficiently robust as to its expectations, and consider if it needed to brief them further on its expectations in this area. This followed a failure by the Council to inform the complainant in this case of the outcome of its enquiries, despite involving them in the initial stages of its investigation.The Council agreed that its contracting team would review any placements currently open for users of services at a named care home, to check the safety and suitability of their care. In particular, if any of those users required mouth care or feeding via a PEG tube, after investigation revealed significant failings in the care the complainant's father received in meeting those needs.

  • London Borough of Enfield (24 003 954)

    Category: Education Date: 10-Jan-2025

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council failed to provide his son, Y with a suitable education or the provision set out in his Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan after he stopped attending school in July 2023. The Council was at fault. It failed to provide Y with any education or the specialist provision in Y’s EHC Plan between September 2023 and June 2024. The Council agreed to apologise and make payments to acknowledge the impact this had on Y’s education.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind relevant Special Educational Needs and Disability staff that the Council has a duty to secure the specialist provision in an Education, Health and Care Plan (section 42 Children and Families Act), not just tuition, when it has accepted an alternative provision duty (Section 19 Education Act) for a child with an Education, Health and Care Plan who is not attending school.

  • London Borough of Enfield (24 003 200)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 17-Dec-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complained about the Council’s delay in considering his request for his mother (Y’s) residential care home fees to be paid through a Deferred Payment Agreement (DPA). He also complained of the Council’s poor communication in relation to this. The Council was at fault because it took 10 months to issue the DPA contract. The Council should make a payment to recognise the distress, frustration and uncertainty this caused. However, there is no fault in how the Council communicated with Mr X regarding the DPA.

    Service improvements

    The Council was at fault because it took 10 months to issue a Deferred Payment Agreement. It will review the time taken from the Deferred Payment Agreement request to issuing the Agreement contract to determine what caused delays and what action can be taken to reduce such delays in future.

  • London Borough of Enfield (24 000 829)

    Category: Education Date: 19-Dec-2024

    Summary

    Ms A complained about the way the Council has dealt with her daughter’s Education, Health and Care plan review as she came to the end of her college education. We found the Council is at fault and has caused an injustice to Ms A and to her daughter. The Council has agreed to carry out service improvements and make a payment to Ms A and her daughter in recognition of the impact on them.

    Service improvements

    Within three months of the decision, the Council will review its process of reviewing EHC plans in accordance with its duties. It will refresh the knowledge of all relevant staff to ensure they are aware of the Council’s duties regarding EHC plan reviews generally, and specifically where the child or young person is transferring from their placement. The Council will provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

  • London Borough of Enfield (24 000 137)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 23-Apr-2024

    Summary

    Mrs Y complained about the way the Council decided she was not entitled to an extra bedroom. Mrs Y says sharing a bedroom will have a negative impact on her health. The Council was at fault for not assessing Mrs Y’s care needs after being asked to. It was also at fault as its Housing and Adult Social Care teams both told her the other was responsible for assessing her needs. To remedy the injustice caused the Council agreed to apologise to Mrs Y and carry out an assessment of her care needs. Following this, the Council agreed to make a new decision on whether Mrs Y was entitled to an extra bedroom.

    Service improvements

    The Housing team and Adult Social Care team should clarify what supporting evidence applicants need from Adult Social Care Services when asking the Council for an additional bedroom as per the allocations policy, and how applicants can go about obtaining this.

  • London Borough of Enfield (23 021 072)

    Category: Housing Date: 08-Nov-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complained about how the Council has placed him and his family in an overcrowded and unsuitable temporary accommodation and how it had dealt with disrepairs in the property. There was fault by the Council which has caused injustice to Mr X and his family. The Council will take action to remedy the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    Identify and implement learning from this complaint to improve the time taken to address disrepairs and communication between the Council and its residents.

  • London Borough of Enfield (23 021 012)

    Category: Housing Date: 28-Oct-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complained that the Council failed to provide her and her family with interim accommodation when she first presented as homeless and later placed them in unsuitable interim accommodation. We found the Council placed the family in unsuitable interim accommodation in a hotel for longer than the law allows. In recognition of the injustice caused, the Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs X and make a payment to her.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed that it will issue a checklist to relevant staff to ensure they always deal with the issue of an applicant’s belongings when they move from their home into interim hotel accommodation and are unable to take their belongings with them.

  • London Borough of Enfield (23 020 377)

    Category: Housing Date: 29-Oct-2024

    Summary

    Ms X complained about the Council’s failure to provide suitable accommodation for her and her children when they were homeless. We found the Council at fault as they were placed in hotel accommodation for considerably longer than the law permits. The Council has agreed to our recommendations to remedy the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council should send written reminders to relevant Housing staff that if 56 days have passed since it accepted the relief duty to an applicant, and no suitable accommodation offer has been made, it should accept the main housing duty to meet statutory timescales.The Council should send written reminders to relevant Housing staff that case officers should carry out and record thorough assessments of any support needs household members may have when considering the suitability of interim accommodation it places families in.

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