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 - 8 of 8 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 (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.

  • London Borough of Enfield (23 017 143)

    Category: Housing Date: 16-Dec-2024

    Summary

    Mr Z complains on behalf of Mr X and Miss Y that the Council failed to act on their homelessness application after they received a Section 21 notice. Mr Z says the Council also failed to communicate with Mr X and Miss Y and the key worker was rude. Mr Z says this caused Mr X and Miss Y a great deal of distress. We have found fault in the actions of the Council for failing to act on Mr X and Miss Y’s homelessness application. The Council has agreed to issue an apology, pay Mr X and Miss Y a financial payment, review their priority date and complete service improvements.

    Service improvements

    In writing, remind relevant officers about the contents of paragraphs 6.35 to 6.38 of the Code.In writing, remind officers of the importance of making timely decisions in accordance with the Housing Act and having regular contact with applicants.

  • London Borough of Enfield (23 015 462)

    Category: Housing 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 (23 014 562)

    Category: Housing Date: 28-May-2024

    Summary

    Ms X complained about how the Council dealt with her homelessness application. The faults included delay, failure to properly communicate, failure to provide interim/temporary accommodation, producing an incomplete Personalised Housing Plan and failure to deal with a request for reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act. A suitable remedy is agreed.

    Service improvements

    Issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they are aware of the requirements to meet reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act; the need to provide suitable interim/temporary accommodation and what to include in a PHP.

  • London Borough of Enfield (23 013 143)

    Category: Housing Date: 27-May-2024

    Summary

    Miss X complained about how the Council has handled her housing application. She also complains about the Council’s poor communication and said it had failed to properly consider her and her mother, Ms Z’s medical information. We find the Council was at fault. This caused them significant distress. The Council has agreed to make several recommendations to address this injustice caused by fault.

    Service improvements

    The Council should issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they are aware of the timescales set out in its complaint’s policy.

  • London Borough of Enfield (23 010 555)

    Category: Housing Date: 09-Apr-2024

    Summary

    We found fault on Mrs L’s complaint about the way the Council handled her request to move property. It failed to assess the suitability of temporary accommodation before and during their stay there. It failed to assess the suitability of the accommodation it wanted her to return to following repairs sooner. It wrongly stopped paying rent on the temporary accommodation and failed to deal with her formal complaint promptly. The agreed action remedies the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to review procedures to ensure officers consider and assess the suitability of temporary emergency accommodation where medical information is provided which raises possible problems with a property due to health concerns i) before letting it and ii) when let.The Council agreed to ensure procedures are in place so referrals for a Housing and Welfare assessment from the Housing Options Panel are actioned and carried out.The Council agreed to review its complaint processing to ensure it has sufficient staffing levels to clear backlogs of complaints and respond promptly to correspondence.

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