Service improvements

London Borough of Waltham Forest

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024

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 11 cases with service improvements

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

  • London Borough of Waltham Forest (23 006 095)

    Category: Education Date: 17-Nov-2023

    Summary

    Ms X complained the school admission appeal panel failed to properly consider her appeal for a school place for her child. The Council was at fault because the records failed to show how the panel reached its decisions. The Council will arrange a fresh appeal with a different panel to remedy the injustice caused and remind staff of the appropriate process for recording appeals to prevent reoccurrence of the fault.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind all clerking staff of the need to clearly record how the school admissions panel reached its decisions and the reasons for the decisions at both stages of the appeal process.

  • London Borough of Waltham Forest (22 017 199)

    Category: Benefits and tax Date: 25-Jul-2023

    Summary

    Miss X complained the Council did not tell her it had stopped paying Housing Benefit to her landlord. She also complained the Council asked intrusive questions and delayed processing her claim after she provided it with information. Miss X also complained the Council delayed issuing her with a Personal Housing Plan. We found some fault by the Council and the Council has agreed to a service improvement to address the fault identified.

    Service improvements

    Remind staff to ensure they issue Personal Housing Plans in a timely manner once they have completed a homelessness assessment

  • London Borough of Waltham Forest (22 016 899)

    Category: Transport and highways Date: 14-Nov-2023

    Summary

    Miss X complained the Council wrongly issued her with several Penalty Charge Notices after failing to update her parking permit details when she uploaded documents to support this. Miss X also said it did not take her Debt Relief Order into account when pursuing the unpaid Parking Charge Notices. The Council was at fault when it failed to act on receiving the uploaded document and failed to explain what else Miss X needed to do or clarify what else it needed. This caused Miss X distress. It has agreed to our recommendations to remedy the injustice.

    Service improvements

    The Council will share this decision with staff dealing with parking permits and remind them to act promptly when receiving documents.

  • London Borough of Waltham Forest (22 015 989)

    Category: Housing Date: 04-Jan-2024

    Summary

    Mr B says the Council pressurised him and his family to leave their temporary accommodation when there were no grounds to do so, allowed its agent to harass his family, failed to act on a change of circumstances form and delayed considering his complaint. The Council failed to properly consider the case before cancelling Mr B’s temporary accommodation, failed to consider Mr B’s case properly before deciding not to add a family member on to his housing register application and delayed considering the complaint. An apology and payment to Mr B, reconsideration of his request to add a family member onto his application and training for officers is satisfactory remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will send a memo to officers dealing with housing register applications to remind them of the discretion available in the Council’s allocations policy when considering whether to add a family member on to an applicant’s housing register application.The Council will carry out a training session for officers dealing with homeless applicants in temporary accommodation on the circumstances in which the Council can cancel the provision of temporary accommodation.

  • London Borough of Waltham Forest (22 013 245)

    Category: Education Date: 21-May-2023

    Summary

    The Council delayed issuing a final Education, Health and Care plan when Mrs B’s son, M, was in his last year of primary school. If there had been no delay, M would have started senior school around 6 months earlier, and the Council would not have taken action against Mr and Mrs B for not sending M to a school which it later conceded was not suitable for his needs. The Council has agreed to apologise and make payments for the loss of education and distress. It has also agreed to make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review its procedures to ensure that in all cases where a child or young person is moving between key phases of education, the review and amendments to their EHC plan are completed by 15 February in the calendar year of the transfer.The Council has agreed to investigate why it delayed amending the EHC plan in this case, and it will take action to prevent such failings in future.

  • London Borough of Waltham Forest (22 011 699)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 31-May-2023

    Summary

    Miss B says the Council delayed completing child and family/carer/home safety assessments, delayed completing adaptations, failed to properly consider the level of support her son requires, failed to put in place suitable alternative school transport, delayed implementing recommendations following a complaint and delayed responding to a stage three complaint. The Council delayed carrying out various assessments, failed to properly consider a request for 2:1 support for Miss B’s son, failed to consider putting in place alternative transport and delayed implementing recommendations. An apology, payment to Miss B, a meeting with Miss B and reminder to officers is satisfactory remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will send a memo to officers sitting on short breaks panels to remind them of the need to record their reasoning when awarding short breaks hours, particularly when it awards an amount of hours that is different to the social worker’s recommendation.

  • London Borough of Waltham Forest (22 011 395)

    Category: Education Date: 12-Jun-2023

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council refused to increase her son, F’s personal budget to secure funding for a teaching assistant in line with his Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan. F’s personal budget was underfunded which means the Council did not provide all of the teaching assistant hours which F was entitled to in line with his EHC plan. The Council agreed to increase F’s personal budget to cover the extra 13 hours F is entitled to and backdate the missing payments. It also agreed to pay Mrs X £300 to acknowledge the distress, inconvenience and time and trouble the matter caused her and carry out service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to review its handling of a complaint taking into account the findings of fault around a lack of rationale of its refusal to increase a personal budget in line with the wording on an Education, Health and Care Plan at both stage 1 and stage 2 of the process. The Council should discuss the findings with complaint handlers at the next team meeting and outline to the Ombudsman any learning and actions it will take to improve how it responds to complaints going forward.The Council has agreed to carry out staff refresher training around Education, Health and Care plan educational provision and personal budgets. The training should ensure staff, including those who sit on funding panels are aware of the law and statutory guidance around personal budgets and the need for personal budgets to be sufficient to secure the agreed provision set out in the plan.

  • London Borough of Waltham Forest (22 010 783)

    Category: Education Date: 03-May-2023

    Summary

    Ms D complained the Council mishandled her daughter’s transition to a college placement. She also says its communication with her was poor and it delayed updating her daughter’s Education, Health and Care plan. We find the Council was at fault as it failed to adhere to statutory timescales when handling Ms D’s daughter’s transition to college. It also delayed updating the Education, Health and Care plan and it failed to provide interim educational provision. The Council has agreed to our recommendations to address the injustice caused by fault.

    Service improvements

    The Council will issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they are aware of the statutory timescales following an annual review and that an EHC plan must be reviewed in sufficient time prior to a child or young person moving between key phases of education.

  • London Borough of Waltham Forest (22 010 136)

    Category: Education Date: 10-Apr-2023

    Summary

    The Council failed to provide Mrs B’s son with suitable education when he was unable to attend school. It also failed to make proper and timely efforts to identify a school which could meet his needs. We have recommended that the Council apologises and makes payments for the loss of education, distress and avoidable time and trouble. We have also recommended service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to provide training to staff involved in this complaint and any responsible for school attendance, to ensure they are aware of this decision and the Council’s duties under s19 of the Education Act.The Council has agreed to review its service to ensure it is able to provide alternative education for any children of compulsory school age who are unable to attend school.The Council has agreed to review its procedures to ensure it consuts schools in a timely manner.The Council has agreed to remind all staff responsible for responding to complaints that they should tell complainants how to escalate their complaint if they remain dissatisfied.

  • London Borough of Waltham Forest (22 005 408)

    Category: Environment and regulation Date: 14-May-2023

    Summary

    Mrs D, Mr E and Mr F (the Complainants) say over the last five years the Council has failed to properly investigate their complaint about their neighbours’ overgrown trees. We found the Council failed to consider and apply the correct statutory framework for these types of complaints. There was also fault in the Council’s complaint handling. These failings meant the Council has not provided an outcome which either puts right the alleged problem right or provides the Complainants with a right of appeal to the Planning Inspectorate. The Complainants have been put to unnecessary time and trouble in pursuing this and suffered a degree of distress and uncertainty. The Council has agreed to our recommendations to remedy the injustice.

    Service improvements

    The Council will undertake a detailed written review into the failings identified. In in doing so, the review should outline the number of high hedge complaints the Council has received over the last three years and the average time taken starting action and issuing a remedial notice. It should produce a plan for dealing with any identified delays.The Council will provide guidance and training to ensure high hedge complaints are allocated to the correct team.

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