Service improvements

London Borough of Hounslow

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 15 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 (24 012 404)

    Category: Environment and regulation Date: 18-Mar-2025

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council failed to effectively deal with her reports about strong cannabis smells that she and her child regularly experienced in their home. This significantly impacted on her child due to their needs. We found the Council at fault. We cannot see it signposted Ms X to its anti-social behaviour case review process. This fault caused injustice as she was not aware she could exercise this right. The Council has agreed to apologise and provide Ms X with information about this review process.

    Service improvements

    The Council should send written reminders to relevant staff to signpost complainants to the anti-social behaviour case review process after a complainant has made a number of reports and continues to be dissatisfied with the outcome.

  • London Borough of Hounslow (24 008 966)

    Category: Housing Date: 30-Mar-2025

    Summary

    Miss X complained about how the Council considered her housing application. The Council was at fault for significant delay in deciding on Miss X’s application, failing to tell Miss X of her right to ask the Council to review its decision and for failing to act on one of her review requests. This caused Miss X avoidable frustration. To remedy her injustice, the Council will apologise, invite Miss X to make a new housing application and pay her £300. The Council will also issue a staff reminder.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind relevant members of staff that when they issue a decision on a person's housing application, they must include information on that person's right of review. This must happen regardless of whether the decision is included in the Council's complaint response.

  • London Borough of Hounslow (24 005 241)

    Category: Education Date: 20-Dec-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council failed to provide his child Y with the provision set out in Y’s Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan, delayed updating the Plan and delayed setting up direct payments to secure provision for Y whilst it sought a school place. The Council was at fault. It failed to review Y’s Plan when Y stopped attending school, delayed arranging alternative provision to meet Y’s needs and the provision arranged did not meet all Y’s needs. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr X and make payments to acknowledge Y’s missed provision and the distress, frustration and uncertainty caused to Mr X. It has also agreed to review its procedures.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review its procedures to ensure interim/emergency reviews of Education, Health and Care Plans are arranged in a timely manner when it is clear a placement is ending and a new placement is yet to be identified.The Council has agreed to review how it consulted schools to identify whether any lessons can be learned particularly in relation to the better targeting of consultations for a school place, following up responses to consultations and ensuring the reasons given for refusing a place are adequately provided.

  • London Borough of Hounslow (24 005 013)

    Category: Education Date: 10-Mar-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council did not provide her child D with special educational needs support from their Education, Health, and Care Plan, and failed to properly review the Plan. There was fault by the Council which caused D to miss special educational needs provision, and avoidable distress for D and Mrs X. The Council agreed to apologise, evidence it is taking action to ensure D’s provision is in place, and pay a financial remedy. It will also review its processes to ensure it meets its duties to secure Education, Health, and Care Plan provision.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to decide what changes are needed to its Education, Health, and Care (EHC) Plan processes, or staff training, to ensure it has systems in place to:ensure its staff are clear about its non-delegable duty to ensure EHC Plan provision is in place;check EHC Plan provision is in place when it issues a new or substantially different EHC Plan, and properly investigate complaints or concerns that provision is not in place at any time;ensure arrangements are clear for how support from therapy services will be provided where it maintains an EHC Plan for a child that attends a school in a different council’s area; andensure effective case management of EHC Plans when staff leave and are replaced, so statutory timescales are met and issues responded to in good time.

  • London Borough of Hounslow (23 020 264)

    Category: Housing Date: 20-Oct-2024

    Summary

    Ms B complained that the Council failed to properly consider her medical assessment in connection with her application for alternative housing. We have found fault in the actions of the Council. The Council has agreed to apologise to Ms B, pay her £250 and invite her to submit another medical assessment. It has also agreed to give training to staff on dealing with medical assessments.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to circulate our ‘Guide for Practitioners: Medical assessments for housing applications (July 2024)' to all staff involved in making decisions on medical priority;The Council has agreed to arrange a training session to those staff on the content of the guidance to ensure the Council:1. makes its own decisions on medical priority and does not simply adopt the medical adviser’s view;2. considers all the evidence submitted in reaching its decision; and3. provides clear reasons why a person does not qualify and why their evidence has been discounted.The Council has agreed to remind medical advisers that their role is to make a recommendation (not a decision) on medical priority based on the evidence provided with clear and relevant reasons.

  • London Borough of Hounslow (23 019 692)

    Category: Other Categories Date: 05-Feb-2025

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council failed to investigate the actions of the allotment chairman following reports he made. We found fault with the Council for delays in investigating Mr X's concerns and failure to complete promised monitoring. We also found fault with the Council’s complaint handling. The Council agreed to apologise to Mr X and pay him £250 for the uncertainty and frustration its fault caused. The Council also agreed to review its Community Trigger procedure to ensure this is aligned with the relevant guidance and legislation.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its Community Trigger procedure to ensure this is aligned with the relevant legislation and guidance.

  • London Borough of Hounslow (23 016 743)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 05-Nov-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complained about the standard of care delivered to his family member, Mr Y, by a provider acting on behalf of the Council. We found fault because the Council failed to act decisively to investigate Mr X’s complaint. This caused avoidable distress, frustration and uncertainty. To remedy the injustice caused by the fault, the Council has agreed to apologise, make a payment to the family, issue reminders to relevant staff and review some of its processes.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind relevant officers and managers of the need to swiftly and properly investigate concerns raised about care being delivered by adult care providers acting on its behalf. This will help to ensure concerns are acted on in a timely and transparent manner.The Council will review its stance that quality alerts about adult care providers are not investigated when those receiving adult care delivered on behalf of the Council are hoping to move or have been placed out of the Council’s own area.

  • London Borough of Hounslow (23 016 007)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 07-Jan-2025

    Summary

    Mr Y, on behalf of his brother, complained the Council delayed completing two safeguarding investigations. Both investigations took longer than the normal timescales. One took over 15 months to complete and the other was delayed by two months. This is fault and a suitable remedy is agreed.

    Service improvements

    Share the decision with all staff involved in safeguarding investigations to ensure lessons are learn and similar delays do not occur in the future

  • London Borough of Hounslow (23 015 313)

    Category: Housing Date: 14-Jul-2024

    Summary

    Ms X rented her property to the Council. She complained the Council failed to give the property back in good condition and delayed giving vacant possession. This caused Ms X financial and emotional distress. The Council is at fault for failing to communicate effectively with Ms X and delay in returning the terminated property.

    Service improvements

    The Council will considerand plan how it can better communicate with landlords and manage theirexpectations about when they might receive their empty property back.

  • London Borough of Hounslow (23 013 539)

    Category: Housing Date: 11-Nov-2024

    Summary

    Ms X complained about the support the Council provided with her housing. There was fault with how the Council took too long to decide Ms X’s priority under its housing allocation scheme, how it managed her homelessness application and communicated with her. The Council agree to review the duties it owes Ms X, apologise and pay her a financial remedy. It also agreed to review how it manages housing register reviews and issue reminders to its staff.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to develop and share with the Ombudsman an action plan to ensure it can process housing register review requests within the timescales set out in its allocations policy.The Council agreed to ensure all relevant staff have read our practice guidance on Medical assessments for housing application.The Council agreed to remind relevant staff that when making decisions about medical priority :for housingit is for the Council to make the decision about priority;decision makers should not simply accept the view of the Council’s medical adviser, but should weigh all the evidence, including any medical advice, before making their own decision; andthey should ensure there is a clear record of the issues considered and how the decision was made.

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