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 11 - 15 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 (23 011 292)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 28-Apr-2024

    Summary

    Mrs B complained the Council failed to provide satisfactory care to her uncle, Mr C. The Council’s safeguarding enquiry found that acts of neglect and omission had occurred in Mr C’s care. This is fault, which caused Mr C injustice. We found the Council has not properly addressed the injustice caused to Mr C and Mrs B. The Council has agreed to our recommendations to remedy the injustice caused to Mr C and Mrs B.

    Service improvements

    The Council should ensure a local adult social care provider has adequate health and safety checks in place to prevent a reoccurrence of the faults identified in this case.The Council should work with a local adult social care provider to ensure it has a process in place to inform Social Services when residents refuse care.The Council should remind its staff to consider personal remedies where it identifies, in the course of its safeguarding or complaints process, a person has experienced an injustice.

  • London Borough of Hounslow (23 010 319)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 30-Oct-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complained that the Council has declined to accept that it placed her grandchild with her and that she is, therefore, a family and friends carer. She says that, as a result, she has been denied financial support to which she is entitled. We did not uphold Mrs X’s complaint. However, we found the Council was at fault in failing to have a policy on family and friends foster carers as required by law. The Council has agreed to publish a written policy.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed that it will publish a written policy on family and friends foster carers.The Council has also agreed to publish a leaflet for potential family and friends foster carers settingout the different options for children who cannot live with their parents andexplaining the financial implications of each for the carer.

  • London Borough of Hounslow (23 009 592)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 31-Jul-2024

    Summary

    Ms X complained about how the Council decided not to pay her a year’s worth of direct payments it agreed she needed. There was fault there was fault in how the Council managed Ms X’s direct payments. This caused Ms X a financial loss and significant distress. The Council agreed to apologise, pay Ms X the outstanding payments and a further financial remedy. It also agreed to review the information it provides about direct payments and how its social care and direct payment teams work together.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to review the information it provides to people who received direct payments for adult social care. It should ensure it provides sufficient clear, accessible information (for example, a straightforward user guide) that people can properly understand how direct payments work and what they need to do.The Council agreed to arrange refresher training for its social workers on how direct payments work and what people receiving them need to do to properly manage their payments.The Council agreed to review how its social work and direct payments teams work together to ensure that both teams understand their different responsibilities, that people are provided with consistent information, and that there are clear procedures to resolve disputes between the two teams.

  • London Borough of Hounslow (23 009 269)

    Category: Housing Date: 24-Jun-2024

    Summary

    Ms Y complained about the way the Council dealt with her housing register and homelessness applications. We have found fault by the Council, causing injustice, with its failures and delays in: processing Ms Y’s housing register application; taking her homelessness application; providing her with interim accommodation and moving her to suitable accommodation; and making the main housing duty decision. The Council has agreed to remedy this injustice by apologising to Ms Y, making payments to recognise the impact on her of the delays and unsuitable accommodation, the upset, worry and uncertainty and making service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review its guidance to officers about the Council’s duties (as set out in paragraphs 15 & 16) to take homelessness applications and make inquiries into the applicant’s homelessness;The Council has agreed to review its procedures to ensure it does not have ‘gatekeeping’ practices in place, for example, failing to take a homelessness application at the earliest opportunityThe Council has agreed to share the learning from this case with its officers.

  • London Borough of Hounslow (22 016 980)

    Category: Education Date: 16-Oct-2024

    Summary

    The complainant (Ms X) said the Council had failed to provide her son Y with suitable education since 2018. We found fault with the Council’s failure to consider Ms X’s complaint under the children’s statutory complaint procedure and in the way the Council dealt with Ms X’s corporate complaint. The Council’s fault caused Ms X injustice. We could only investigate whether the Council provided suitable education to Y between January and mid-March 2023. We did not find fault in the Council’s actions at this time. The Council has agreed to apologise, carry out the children’s statutory complaint procedure for Ms X’s complaint and offer her suitable remedies for the complaint upheld at stage two of the corporate complaint process. The Council has also agreed to make a symbolic payment.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its corporate complaint handling to ensure:• It responds at both stages within the timescales set out in the Council’s complaint policy;• When upholding complaints it offers suitable remedies.

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