Service improvements

London Borough of Redbridge

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 - 6 of 6 cases with service improvements

Export results (CSV)

Downloads the current filtered list of service improvement decisions for London Borough of Redbridge as a CSV file.

  • London Borough of Redbridge (24 020 173)

    Category: Education Date: 26-Jan-2026

    Summary

    Ms F complained about the Council’s handling of her daughter’s (X) education and transport to school. She said she experienced distress and uncertainty, and X had a loss of education and special educational needs provision. We found fault by the Council for causing delays in arranging some key EHC plan provision and school transport for X. The Council will apologise and make payment to acknowledge the impact its faults caused them. It also agreed to carry out service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review its Home to School Travel Assistance Policy to ensure it correctly applies the law and principles set out in case law (Dudley test) regarding the nearest suitable school for school transport decisions.The Council will remind staff involved in the Education, Health, and Care plans process and school travel assistance decisions about the criteria for the nearest suitable school for travel assistance purposes. Including, the Council’s duty is to provide transport for a child where the statutory criteria are met, and only one school is listed in Section I of a plan with no conditions attached.

  • London Borough of Redbridge (24 014 994)

    Category: Education Date: 03-Nov-2025

    Summary

    The Council wrongly assessed G’s application for free home to school transport using the law, and its policy, for post-16 pupils, when G was compulsory school age. It imposed a personal transport budget as G’s transport offer, when this required parental consent. It failed to notice its error at subsequent appeals. G’s parents had to divert funding provided for social care needs to get G to and from school, and some days G could not go to school. The family missed out on respite and G missed leisure activities social care had determined were needed to aid G’s development. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a symbolic payment and make service improvements. The complaint is upheld.

    Service improvements

    The Council used the wrong age policy and did not identify this at appeal stage. The Council will check its guidance and training for decision makers to ensure they apply the correct law and guidance for the age / year group of the applicant, and this is checked at every stage. The Council could consider introducing prompts or checklists to assist with this.

  • London Borough of Redbridge (24 014 685)

    Category: Education Date: 23-Jun-2025

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council delayed in completing a review of her child’s Education, Health, and Care Plan. The Council accepted it was at fault for the delay and apologised. Following our investigation it also agreed to provide a financial remedy to recognise the avoidable distress caused to Ms X by the delay, and issue a reminder to staff about statutory review timescales.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to issue a reminder to staff in its Special Educational Needs and Disability Service, about the statutory timescales for completing reviews of Education, Health, and Care Plans.

  • London Borough of Redbridge (24 010 372)

    Category: Education Date: 26-Jun-2025

    Summary

    Mr X complained about the Council’s decision to refuse his child, Y, travel assistance to and from college. The Council was at fault. It failed to consider Y’s individual circumstances, their Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan and disability when it made its decision and it did not properly explain to Mr X its reasons for refusing travel assistance. It did not follow its appeal process. Furthermore, the Council’s travel assistance policy for post-16 is unclear and its wait time for an assessment for independent travel training is not reasonable. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr X and pay him £300 for the distress, frustration and uncertainty it caused him. It will also conduct a fresh stage two appeal. In addition, the Council will review and amend its policy, procedures, appeal records and decision letters to prevent a recurrence of fault.

    Service improvements

    The Council failed to consider a child's individual circumstances for travel assistance to and from college. It also failed to consider their Education, Health and Care Plan and disability when it made its decision and it did not properly explain its reasons for refusing travel assistance. The Council did not follow its appeal process. The Council will review and amend its procedures, appeal records and decision letters.The Council's travel assistance policy for post-16 is unclear and its wait time for an assessment for independent travel training is not reasonable.The Council will review and amend its travel assistance policy for post-16 so that it clearly explains independent travel training is not an offer of travel assistance; and it provides examples of what exceptional circumstances it would consider when assessing an application for travel assistance.

  • London Borough of Redbridge (24 009 734)

    Category: Education Date: 14-May-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to consider her son’s circumstances when refusing his application for school transport assistance. There is conflicting evidence about whether the Council followed its policy, the Council failed to follow Government guidance and failed to explain its reasoning when writing to Mrs X to tell her its decision. An agreement to carry out a further appeal, apology, payment to Mrs X, changes to the Council’s transport policy and reminder to officers is satisfactory remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind those dealing with school transport cases of the need to ensure parents/carers are given the opportunity to attend stage two appeal panel hearings should they wish to and that decisions following appeals should explain the Council’s reasoning, addressing the points the parents/carers have raised.The Council will amend its school transport policy to make clear parents/carers should be given an opportunity to attend a stage two panel hearing to put their case in person.

  • London Borough of Redbridge (24 004 652)

    Category: Education Date: 23-Apr-2025

    Summary

    Ms X complained about the Council’s actions in relation to her child, Y’s, Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan. The Council was at fault. It delayed providing Y with some provision and has still not secured and delivered other provision as outlined in the EHC Plan. The Council also poorly communicated with Ms X when she complained. The Council has agreed it will make Ms X a symbolic payment to recognise the provision Y has not received and for the distress and frustration it caused to Ms X. The Council will also apologise to Ms X. The Council will provide us with an action plan which explains how it will improve its service to prevent a recurrence of fault. It will also remind staff of the response timescales within its complaints procedure.

    Service improvements

    The Council will create an action plan in relation to the shortage of staff within special educational needs and disability. The action plan will have target dates and specify the steps the Council intends on carrying out to prevent delays to provision and lack of provision.The Council will remind staff to adhere to its complaints procedure to ensure they are effectively communicating with parents.

LGO logogram

Review your privacy settings

Required cookies

These cookies enable the website to function properly. You can only disable these by changing your browser preferences, but this will affect how the website performs.

View required cookies

Analytical cookies

Google Analytics cookies help us improve the performance of the website by understanding how visitors use the site.
We recommend you set these 'ON'.

View analytical cookies

In using Google Analytics, we do not collect or store personal information that could identify you (for example your name or address). We do not allow Google to use or share our analytics data. Google has developed a tool to help you opt out of Google Analytics cookies.

Privacy settings