Service improvements

London Borough of Hounslow

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024

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 Hounslow as a CSV file.

  • London Borough of Hounslow (23 005 701)

    Category: Housing Date: 03-Sep-2023

    Summary

    Mr X complained about the Council’s delay in assessing his housing register application causing him stress. We will not investigate this complaint because the Council accepted fault and agreed to resolve Mr X’s complaint early by providing a suitable remedy.

    Service improvements

    Create action plan to clear housing register application backlogProvide applicants assessed as band 2 or higher financial remedy

  • London Borough of Hounslow (23 005 539)

    Category: Benefits and tax Date: 06-Dec-2023

    Summary

    Miss X complained about recovery action the Council took against her for council tax arrears. There was fault in how the Council took recovery action and responded to Miss X’s complaints. This caused her avoidable distress, upset, time and trouble for which the Council agreed to apologise and pay a financial remedy. It will also credit other payments Miss X had made to her account and review its procedures.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to remind its complaint and council tax staff that complaints should be processed in line with the Council’s complaints procedure and decisions about fault on the Council’s part should only be made after a proportionate investigation into a complaint.The Council agreed to review its procedures for identifying unallocated payments in its council tax receiving account to ensure that unallocated payments are traced within a reasonable period of time.

  • London Borough of Hounslow (23 004 731)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 31-Jan-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council did not properly consider his complaint about the lack of support it provided to him when he inherited a large amount of money from his late father. He also complained the Council delayed investigating his complaint. The Council was at fault. It did not explain to Mr X how it was going to implement the recommendations and it did not address Mr X’s desired outcomes in its investigation process. The Council also delayed investigating Mr X’s complaint by approximately nine months. This caused Mr X distress, frustration and uncertainty. The Council has already apologised to Mr X and offered him a symbolic payment which was appropriate. The Council has not provided supporting evidence it actioned the recommendations made during the investigation. It has agreed to provide us with evidence it has actioned the recommendations. The Council will also share the statutory guidance with staff to prevent a recurrence of fault.

    Service improvements

    The Council will share with relevant staff statutory guidance Getting the best from complaints to ensure:when a complainant has requested desired outcomes of their complaint, they should be addressed as part of the stage two adjudication response;where recommendations have been made at stage two, the adjudication response should set out the Council’s answer to each one; andcomplaints are completed within the statutory timescales.

  • London Borough of Hounslow (22 015 672)

    Category: Housing Date: 20-Jun-2023

    Summary

    The Council was at fault in how it considered Mr X’s request to move home due to the risk of domestic abuse. The Council failed to tell Mr X about his statutory review rights and failed to consider whether Mr X was homeless. The Council was also at fault for failing to make reasonable adjustments for Mr X’s disability. The Council has agreed action to remedy the injustice to Mr X and to improve its services.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to provide training or guidance to relevant staff on identifying and making reasonable adjustments for people with disabilities.The Council has agreed to ensure all frontline staff are aware of the low threshold for the duty to make inquiries into homelessness and how to direct such cases to the relevant service.The Council has agreed to ensure all decisions of the Exceptional Needs Panel about priority under the allocations scheme are communicated in writing and set out the right to ask for a review.

  • London Borough of Hounslow (22 015 504)

    Category: Education Date: 19-Jul-2023

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council did not provide his daughter, Y, a school place from November 2021, or the specialist provision in her Education, Health and Care Plan from May 2022. The Council did not ensure Y received an education between November 2021 and May 2022, and did not secure the provision in her plan from June 2022 until June 2023. The Council agreed to pay Mr X £8,200 to remedy the loss of education and provision to Y, and £300 to recognise the distress and frustration caused to Mr X.

    Service improvements

    The Council is developing staff guidance covering the arrangements for alternative provision when they span across academic years to ensure it restarts in September. The Council has agreed to provide the Ombudsman with a copy of the guidance.The Council will review its approach to consulting schools for children needing a placement. This should ensure that appropriate, timely steps are taken to widen the scope of consultation when insufficient responses are received from an initial round.

  • London Borough of Hounslow (22 015 112)

    Category: Education Date: 30-Jul-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to provide sufficient support for her daughter especially when her school attendance began to drop. We find the Council at fault for failing to provide alternative provision. The Council will make a financial payment for the loss of education, review the provision currently in place and remind staff of the policy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind all staff within children's services of the duties under section 19 of the Education Act 1996.

  • London Borough of Hounslow (22 013 016)

    Category: Planning Date: 30-Aug-2023

    Summary

    Mr and Mrs X complained the Council failed to act following the issue of building notices to a neighbouring property to ensure they were followed. We found the Council delayed carrying out a monitoring visit after it issued a dangerous structure notice. It also failed to consider whether it should act to encourage compliance with the notice. The Council will apologise and take action to prevent reoccurrence.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind staff of the importance of arranging monitoring visits within an appropriate timescale of a dangerous structure noticeThe Council will remind staff of the importance of including their rationale, whether it is allowing the owner to undertake repairs or undertaking that duty itself, with reference to the Council’s policy.

  • London Borough of Hounslow (22 010 636)

    Category: Education Date: 29-Jun-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complains the Council did not properly consider her school transport appeals for her son and daughter, who are disabled. We consider there is fault by the Council. It has agreed a remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council should remind the travel assistance appeal panel and clerk to the panel that their decision letters should set out brief details of the grounds raised and the reasoning for its decision.The Council should remind officers that early decision letters regarding applications for travel assistance should refer to exceptional reasons raised and should briefly address these.

  • London Borough of Hounslow (22 010 125)

    Category: Education Date: 04-Jul-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complains the Council failed to properly assess her blue badge application for her son in a timely manner and that it failed to make reasonable adjustments at the face-to-face assessment. The Council is at fault for failing to consider the request for reasonable adjustments and failing to provide detailed reasons for refusal of a blue badge. The Council has accepted our recommendations to remedy the injustice caused by making a payment to acknowledge the distress caused and it has agreed to make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to provide evidence of the reasonable adjustment policy used by the company acting on its behalf when assessing applications for blue badges.The Council has agreed to remind staff of the proactive duty to make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act and ensure blue badge decision letters are correct.

  • London Borough of Hounslow (22 009 145)

    Category: Housing Date: 26-Jun-2023

    Summary

    There was fault by the Council. It took too long to process Mr B’s homelessness application and move his young family from a hazardous property to interim accommodation. It did not explain its processes and decisions to Mr B, and it did not handle his complaint properly. The Council’s shortcomings meant that the family lived in a damp and mouldy property for longer than they should have, and were uncertain as to how the Council would help them.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its practices and guidance to staff on when to refer acomplaint as a service request and when to process this under the complaints procedure, so that complainants can access this. The Council will show how it has communicated this to the relevant staff.

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