Service improvements

London Borough of Newham

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026

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 Newham as a CSV file.

  • London Borough of Newham (25 005 345)

    Category: Housing Date: 23-Mar-2026

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council failed to action homelessness application in July and November 2024 and failed to action a referral to children’s social care. The Council accepts fault in respect of the three incidents above which Ms X says impacted on her mental and physical health. A suitable remedy including a symbolic payment and service improvements is agreed.

    Service improvements

    Provide details of the procedures in place to ensure referrals to children's social care are properly madeProvide details to show how homeless approaches to individual members of staff are recorded and responded to and will not go unanswered

  • London Borough of Newham (25 004 294)

    Category: Education Date: 03-Feb-2026

    Summary

    Ms X says the Council delayed completing an education, health and care needs assessment, failed to provide her son with education, wrongly said she had decided to home educate her son, delayed consulting schools and delayed responding to her complaint. There is no fault in failing to put in place alternative provision for Ms X’s son. The Council delayed completing the needs assessment, failed to follow its elective home education policy, delayed consulting schools and delayed responding to the complaint. That caused Ms X distress and uncertainty. The remedy the Council has already offered Ms X, plus guidance for officers, is satisfactory remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will provide guidance to officers working in education to cover:the need to follow the elective home education policy when a parent arranges education outside of school for their child;the need to consult schools even during school holidays; andthe need to ensure officers consult all the schools it has identified at the same time, rather than on a piecemeal basis.

  • London Borough of Newham (25 001 727)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 15-Oct-2025

    Summary

    Mr X complained about how he and his children were treated by the Council’s children’s social care service. We have found that the Council was at fault for a significant delay in its handling of his complaint. This caused him an injustice, which the Council has already addressed. But we will not conduct a further investigation of Mr X’s complaint. An independent investigation has already found no fault in most of what the Council did. It is unlikely that further investigation of the same issue would lead to a different outcome for Mr X. However, the Council will now take steps to eliminate complaint handling delays in future.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to write to us, setting out the reasons for the significant delay in its handling of Mr X’s complaint, and how it will overcome similar difficulties in future (for example, by improving monitoring or commissioning arrangements).

  • London Borough of Newham (25 001 044)

    Category: Transport and highways Date: 28-Oct-2025

    Summary

    Mr X complains the Council did not properly deal with a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) causing financial loss. The Council gave Mr X contradictory information and passed Mr X’s case to enforcement agents before a deadline to pay had expired. Mr X suffered financial loss. The Council will apologise, allow Mr X to pay the PCN at the original reduced rate, pay Mr X £200 for time and trouble, ensure he is not liable for any enforcement charges in relation to this PCN and train relevant staff.

    Service improvements

    Provide training to staff concerning when issues should be referred to the Traffic Enforcement Centre and when they should be dealt with by the Council’s complaints process.

  • London Borough of Newham (24 023 405)

    Category: Benefits and tax Date: 05-Feb-2026

    Summary

    Mr X complained about the way the Council dealt with his Council Tax account. We have found the Council at fault in failing to reply to Mr X’s correspondence and delay in responding to his complaint. The Council agreed to apologise and make a symbolic payment to Mr X.

    Service improvements

    The Council will provide the Ombudsman with a copy of the reminder issued informing staff when a council tax account holder requests confirmation of action taken a reply must be sent.

  • London Borough of Newham (24 021 687)

    Category: Housing Date: 25-Feb-2026

    Summary

    On behalf of Mr X, Ms Z complained the Council delayed assessing Mr X’s household’s housing circumstances, failed to consider relevant evidence, and did not consider requests for reasonable adjustments. She said this disadvantaged the household and caused avoidable distress, frustration and uncertainty. We have found the Council at fault for failing to properly decide Mr X’s homelessness application and for not providing review rights. We also found fault with its complaints handling and for not considering Mr X’s requested reasonable adjustments. The Council has agreed to apologise and pay a symbolic financial remedy, and invite a further homelessness application from Mr X’s household. The Council has also agreed to provide guidance to officers on reasonable adjustments. We have not found the Council at fault for how it completed its review of Mr X’s household’s housing priority. There are other parts of Ms Z’s complaint we have not investigated. We explain why in our decision statement.

    Service improvements

    The Council will share the findings of the Ombudsman's investigation with relevant officers, along with a copy of our focus report Equal access: Getting it right for people with disabilities. This is to highlight good practice concerning reasonable adjustments in service delivery and complaint handling.

  • London Borough of Newham (24 021 331)

    Category: Benefits and tax Date: 14-Sep-2025

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council wrongly pursued him for council tax debt. He also complained about the Council’s decision to take legal action against him and the process it followed. We found the Council at fault for misleading wording on its website which caused Mr X avoidable distress. The Council has agreed to make a payment to Mr X to recognise his distress and make changes to improve its service. We cannot investigate the other parts of this complaint because the issues Mr X complained about have been, or reasonably could have been, discussed in court.

    Service improvements

    The Council will amend the wording on its webpage titled “Council Tax and moving in or out of Newham” to make it clear that if a resident updates their address using the government’s register to vote service, this does not inform the Council’s council tax department their address has changed.The Council will tell us the outcome of its review into how it records information and documents on residents' council tax files.Through training or a staff briefing, the Council will remind all relevant staff about the importance of recording key information, such as council tax reminder letters, on residents’ case files.

  • London Borough of Newham (24 020 053)

    Category: Housing Date: 26-Aug-2025

    Summary

    We found no fault on Miss Y’s complaint about the Council preventing her from bidding on suitable properties. There was fault on her complaint about it failing to consider whether it needed to assess whether she was homeless because it was unreasonable to expect her to continue living in her home. The Council agreed to send a written apology, pay £400 for the injustice caused, remind relevant officers of the duties owed to those who may be homeless, and consider whether it owes her a homeless duty. It also agreed to check whether she needs help bidding and contact her about the key safe and pendant alarm.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to remind relevant officers of the low threshold giving rise to the duty to make inquiries and what, if any, duty a person is owed where there is reason to believe they might be homeless or threatened with homelessness.The Council agreed to remind relevant officers they should accept the relevant duty as soon as they are satisfied an applicant is homeless or threatened with homelessness.The Council agreed to remind relevant officers of the need to tell applicants of the decision about what, if any, homeless duty is owed along with information about review rights.The Council agreed to consider whether it owes the complainant any homeless duty taking into account all the available evidence as well as her circumstances and notify her of its decision.The Council agreed to contact the complainant to see whether she still needs help with checking for suitable accommodation to bid for and explain i) how this will work and ii) the period covered over which it agrees to do this.The Council also agreed to contact the complainant about the key safe and pendant alarm and arrange for their provision if they were not provided.

  • London Borough of Newham (24 019 833)

    Category: Education Date: 21-Oct-2025

    Summary

    Ms X uses a personal budget to pay for her child’s special educational needs provision in school. The Council failed to provide Ms X with a right of review when it decided to end her child’s personal budget. The Council also failed to ensure Ms X was sent a direct payment agreement in advance, setting out how the budget should be used. Ms X’s child did not miss out on any provision because of these faults. However the Council’s actions have caused Ms X frustration and uncertainty. To recognise the injustice caused, the Council has agreed to apologise to Ms X and take action to improve its services.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review all current cases where parents, carers or young people have been provided with direct payments to arrange special educational needs provision and ensure they have received direct payment agreements, in line with the requirements of the SEND Code of Practice.The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff of the importance of ensuring direct payment agreements are provided to people who arrange special educational needs provision using a personal budget. It will remind staff these documents should clearly set out the rules around the use of direct payments and it is not in line with the SEND Code of Practice to only include this information in the Education, Health and Care Plan.The Council will outline how it will ensure that in future - through updated letter and form templates if necessary - that it will offer people a right of review of relevant decisions around personal budgets, including decisions to end them.

  • London Borough of Newham (24 019 552)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 12-Dec-2025

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council failed to act on or address threatening and anti-social behaviour from a neighbour who receives support from the Council’s Adult Social Care service. The Council was at fault for failing to consider using its anti-social behaviour powers, and for failing to properly record how it reached some of its decisions. The Council will apologise to Mr X for the avoidable frustration its fault caused, and remind staff about correct procedures.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind staff in its anti-social behaviour service to properly consider whether the Council should use its powers, record any decisions made, and confirm the outcome to complainants.The Council will also remind staff in its Environmental Health service to properly record all investigations and decisions, and ensure video footage is properly assessed and documented.

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