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 - 8 of 8 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 (24 004 690)

    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 (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 (23 018 365)

    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 (23 013 511)

    Category: Housing Date: 09-May-2024

    Summary

    We found fault by the Council on Mrs N’s complaints about it taking too long to decide her homeless application and failing to move her from temporary and interim accommodation it agreed was unsuitable. It delayed deciding her application and issuing her Personal Housing Plan. It failed, and continues to fail, to move her from unsuitable accommodation. The agreed action remedies the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to review why it took so long to issue a Personal Housing Plan and act to ensure they are issued sooner in the future.The Council agreed to review what impact the steps it said it took, and is taking, to improve the number of properties available has, and is having, on homeless applicants known to be living in unsuitable accommodation.

  • London Borough of Redbridge (23 010 040)

    Category: Housing Date: 12-May-2024

    Summary

    We found fault in the way the Council dealt with the complainant’s (Ms X) application for the change of her housing register priority banding, how it reviewed her Personalised Housing Plan and addressed her needs for reasonable adjustments. We also found fault in the Council’s refusal to let Ms X view a property she bid for. The Council agreed to apologise and make a symbolic payment to Ms X to recognise her distress and a delay in offering her a suitable property. The Council also agreed to include in Ms X’s housing records agreed reasonable adjustments for any written communication with her. The Council agreed to improve its record keeping and provide staff with the training on reasonable adjustments.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review the record keeping for its service users on the social housing register to ensure the record keeping is orderly and the documents are easily accessible.The Council will promote a better understanding of the COuncil's duty to make reasonable adjustments for its service users by ensuring the staff from the Council's housing and complaint teams review our Focus Report 'Equal access: Getting it right for people with disabilities' issued in May 2022.

  • London Borough of Redbridge (23 005 337)

    Category: Housing Date: 24-Apr-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complained about how the Council has supported her while she is homeless. There was fault in how the Council recorded and explained to Mrs X some of its decisions, how it decided what steps it should take to protect Mrs X’s belongings and how it failed to keep some video footage of an incident involving Mrs X. This caused Mrs X avoidable distress and uncertainty for which the Council agreed to pay her the financial remedy it has offered. It also agreed to review its policy on protecting the belongings of homeless people and the support it provides to Mrs X with this.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to ensure its new policy for considering review of ongoing suitability of temporary accommodation sets out:the factors the Council will take into account when deciding whether to carry out a suitability review;how the Council will record its consideration of applications for a review of ongoing suitability;that the Council should provide a clear explanation of its decisions to those applying; andany decision should explain how an applicant can challenge the Council’s decision, including through its complaints policy, if they believe the Council has not considered their application properly.The Council agreed to review its policy on the protection of belongings for people for whom it has a duty, or a power, to take reasonable steps to protect belongings under the Housing Act 1996 and arrange suitable

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