Service improvements

London Borough of Redbridge

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 Redbridge as a CSV file.

  • London Borough of Redbridge (24 010 566)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 19-Mar-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about services provided to her son, Y, by the Council’s children’s services department. We found fault because the Council failed to consider the complaint under the children’s statutory complaints procedure. This caused Mrs X avoidable distress and frustration. To remedy the injustice caused, the Council has agreed to consider Mrs X’s concerns through the statutory procedure and apologise for failing to do this originally. It has also agreed to make a payment to her and issue guidance to staff.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to remind relevant complaint handling staff of the guidance linked to the children's statutory complaints procedure (The Children Act 1989) ‘Getting the Best from Complaints’ particularly around ‘who may complain’ and ‘what may be complained about’. This will help to ensure Council staff are fully aware of the statutory procedure and how this differs from its corporate complaints process.The Council has agreed to share the Ombudsman’s good practice guidance on the children’s statutory complaints procedure (The Children Act 1989) with relevant staff. This will help to ensure staff understand when the statutory procedure should be used to handle children's services complaints, rather than the corporate complaint process.

  • London Borough of Redbridge (24 009 410)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 11-Feb-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council refused to assess her son’s needs as a disabled child. There was fault in how the Council failed to investigate Mrs X’s complaint under the statutory children’s complaints procedure. This caused Mrs X avoidable frustration and inconvenience for which the Council agreed to apologise and make a payment to Mrs X to recognise that distress. It also agreed to start an investigation under stage two of the statutory procedure.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to remind relevant staff about the types of complaints which fall under the statutory children's complaints procedure and that the Council must follow that procedure when it applies.

  • London Borough of Redbridge (24 004 690)

    Category: Housing Date: 18-Mar-2025

    Summary

    We have found fault with the Council for how it handled Miss X’s homelessness application. This delayed the process and left Miss X and her son without suitable accommodation. The Council has agreed to make a payment in recognition of the injustice caused to Miss X and her son and for the avoidable distress the fault caused.

    Service improvements

    Remind line managers of departing caseworkers to notify customers of their departure and re-allocate their cases accordingly.Demonstrate how it will ensure that officers always carry out a suitability assessment to identify the household’s needs before making a placement in interim or temporary accommodation.

  • London Borough of Redbridge (24 004 223)

    Category: Housing Date: 06-Jan-2025

    Summary

    We have found the Council at fault for failing to consider Miss X’s household’s change in circumstances when it made a decision to offer a three bedroom property. This resulted in Miss X refusing the property. The Council has agreed to make a direct offer of a four bedroom property to remedy the injustice.

    Service improvements

    The Council will ensure officers dealing with homeless applications check for relevant related cases or information as part of initial inquiries.The Council will identify and implement a process to ensure the Council acts on court orders affecting homeless applications in a timely way.

  • London Borough of Redbridge (24 003 489)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 17-Feb-2025

    Summary

    Mr Y complains the Council handled Mr X’s care poorly. He complains the Council did not confirm care home fees Mr X was liable for and delayed allocating him a social worker. We find the Council at fault which caused Mr X injustice. The Council has agreed to make a issue an amended invoice and take service improvement action.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its policy and/or training to relevant staff with consideration on how to improve the provision of timely information about the potential cost of a placement prior to undertaking its financial assessment process.The Council will review its processes so that it can identify when complaint responses have become delayed, and ensure complainants are kept informed on progress.

  • London Borough of Redbridge (23 020 194)

    Category: Housing Date: 19-Nov-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complained about the Council’s poor handling of his homelessness application and failure to provide suitable temporary accommodation. We found the Council to be at fault. It failed to properly consider his priority need and this led to him being denied temporary accommodation for several months. It also incorrectly closed his application and did not carry out suitability assessments for three temporary properties he was offered. To remedy the injustice to Mr X, the Council has agreed to apologise, make a payment to Mr X and take action to improve its service. We did not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to discharge the main housing duty. This was because he had a right to challenge this decision in court.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to reflect on the issues raised in this decision statement and identify any areas of service improvement, specifically around vulnerability assessments, case progression and suitability assessments. The Council should prepare a short report setting out what the Council intends to do to ensure similar problems do not reoccur. This report should be sent to the Ombudsman.

  • London Borough of Redbridge (23 020 054)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 12-Sep-2024

    Summary

    Mr X complains on behalf of Mrs Y that the Council has overcharged for her care. The Council is at fault because it did not review Mrs Y’s care needs or address Mr X’s concerns about excessive care provision early enough. Mrs Y was charged for unnecessary care provision. The Council should apologise, recalculate care charges, provide guidance to staff and review the Care Provider’s action plan to identify other learning.

    Service improvements

    Provide guidance to staff to ensure reviews of assessments are carried out at the appropriate time intervals specified in them.Review the Care Provider’s action plan and this complaint to identify any other learning and share this with staff.

  • London Borough of Redbridge (23 018 365)

    Category: Housing Date: 11-Sep-2024

    Summary

    Miss B complained about unresolved disrepair issues in her temporary accommodation. We found the Council at fault as there were long delays for agreed repairs to be completed. The Council has agreed to our recommendations to remedy the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council should use this complaint as a case study to review its processes of how it deals with persistent or recurring disrepair reported by complainants. It should explore ways of improving liaison, information sharing and performance monitoring to ensure its managing agents meet the timescales and standards in its service level agreement. It should share a copy of any steps or action plan it makes from this.

  • London Borough of Redbridge (23 016 329)

    Category: Housing Date: 29-Aug-2024

    Summary

    Miss X complained the Council housed her family in unsuitable accommodation following a homelessness application and delayed making a decision on the application. Miss X says her family lived in unsuitable accommodation for longer than necessary. We have found fault by the Council but consider the agreed action of an apology, symbolic payment and procedural review provides a suitable remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its procedures to ensure complaints about interim accommodation are put through its complaints procedure.

  • London Borough of Redbridge (23 014 207)

    Category: Transport and highways Date: 04-Apr-2024

    Summary

    Mr and Mrs X complain the Council did not deal with a footway crossing application properly. The Council fettered its discretion and did not consider the individual circumstances of the application. Mr and Mrs X remains uncertain whether their application would be successful. The Council should reconsider Mr and Mrs X’s footway crossing appeal on its individual merits, review its policy and provide guidance to staff.

    Service improvements

    Review its policy on footway crossings to make clear that all applications will be considered on their merits and the Council may disapply any of the requirements where there are good reasons for it to do so.Provide guidance to staff that reasoning for decisions about applications must be recorded and decision outcome letters must make this reasoning clear to applicants.

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