Service improvements

London Borough of Waltham Forest

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 10 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 (24 005 131)

    Category: Housing Date: 10-Jan-2025

    Summary

    The Council failed to meet its duty to provide Ms X with interim, or temporary, accommodation when she told the Council she needed to flee her home due to domestic abuse. As a result, Ms X and her children remained living in the property where she reported being at risk of abuse, for fourteen months. The Council also failed to inform Ms X for almost a year that she had been added to the housing register. In recognition of the injustice caused, the Council has agreed to apologise, make Ms X an offer of suitable accommodation, pay Ms X £3,050 and carry out service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to consider how it can make its processes quicker for providing homeless applicants with their first month’s rent and deposit, particularly given the competitive and fast-paced nature of the private rental market.The Council has agreed to investigate why the homeless person, in this case, was not told they had been automatically added to the housing register, or when their banding changed, and will take action to prevent recurrence of this fault in future.

  • London Borough of Waltham Forest (24 004 818)

    Category: Housing Date: 08-Sep-2024

    Summary

    We have decided not to investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s award of band 3 on its housing register. The Council has upheld the complaint and agreed to remedy the injustice caused by carrying out a fresh review of its decision.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind relevant staff of the nee to properly explain the reasons for housing register review decisions.

  • London Borough of Waltham Forest (24 003 751)

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

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council failed to provide an appropriate remedy for the injustice caused to her and her son, Y, after it upheld a complaint she made through the children’s statutory complaint procedure about how it supported them. The Council failed to properly identify the injustice caused to Ms X and Y and did not provide adequate remedies. The Council will apologise to Ms X and pay her a symbolic amount of £700 to recognise the uncertainty, frustration and distress she was caused and the risk of harm Y was put to by the Council’s faults.

    Service improvements

    The Council will provide the Ombudsman with evidence it has completed a review of its parent/carer assessment process as recommended by a children's statutory complaint procedure investigation. The Council will identify any action it intends to take as a result of that review and a timebound plan of when it intends to complete the actions.

  • London Borough of Waltham Forest (24 002 861)

    Category: Education Date: 26-Nov-2024

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council delayed completing her child’s phased transfer annual review process. As a result, Ms X’s appeal rights were delayed and she could not challenge her child’s secondary school placement until several months after she should have been able to. We found the Council at fault for delaying consulting with schools and producing a final Education, Health and Care Plan for the child’s phased transfer to secondary school. We also found the Council at fault for not issuing an amended Education, Health and Care Plan after an annual review in 2023. To remedy the injustice caused the Council agreed to apologise to Ms X, make a payment to her to recognise the avoidable distress and uncertainty and carry out a service improvement.

    Service improvements

    Look at what went wrong in this case and consider what changes the Council can make to: 1. Ensure it issues an amended Education, Health and Care Plan within 12 weeks of an annual review meeting.2. Ensure it has procedures in place to enable it to review and amend Education, Health and Care Plan’s by the statutory deadlines for children and young people who are at key phases of education.

  • London Borough of Waltham Forest (23 020 327)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 07-Feb-2025

    Summary

    Ms X complained on behalf of her late father Mr Y that the Council commissioned care home put in place one-to-one care and increased Mr Y’s care fees without a review of his care needs or agreement from her or the Council, and evicted Mr Y from the care home for no reason. The Council was at fault for unclear communication on the change in Mr Y’s care needs and did not communicate clearly the cost of Mr Y’s care fees or Mr Y’s move to a new care home. It will apologise and pay Ms X a symbolic payment to acknowledge the uncertainty and distress caused to her, ask the care home to revise Mr Y’s invoices and put service improvements in place.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind relevant staff to involve relatives in decisions regarding moving care home placements.The Council will review its procedures to ensure it provides in writing relevant information to the service user or their representatives when there is a change in funding arrangements for care home placements.

  • London Borough of Waltham Forest (23 019 405)

    Category: Housing Date: 03-Dec-2024

    Summary

    We found fault in the way the Council communicated with the complainant (Miss X) as well as in the Council’s record keeping and complaint handling. This fault caused Miss X injustice. The Council has agreed to apologise, provide some information to Miss X on her housing options and make symbolic payments. The Council has also agreed to carry out some service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council will prepare an action plan to improve its record keeping within the Prevention and Assessment Service.The Council will send a full review of its complaint handling processes and system, carried out following the Council’s letter of 5 April 2024.The Council will ensure its Housing and Inclusive Economy Scrutiny Committee review this decision at the next available committee meeting.

  • London Borough of Waltham Forest (23 016 128)

    Category: Children's care services Date: 10-Sep-2024

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council failed to or delayed in completing the recommendations made after it considered a complaint she made through the children’s statutory complaint procedure. The Council failed to carry out all the recommendations, which caused Ms X avoidable frustration and uncertainty and put her child at risk of harm. The Council will apologise to Ms X, make a payment for the injustice caused to her and her child and complete a review into its short breaks arrangements.

    Service improvements

    The Council will complete a review of its short breaks arrangements which was recommended by an independent panel investigating a children's statutory complaint. The Council will produce a timebound action plan for any improvements it intends to make as a result of the review.The Council will remind relevant officers that handle complaints that where a complainant has requested a stage three panel in the children’s statutory complaint process, the stage three panel should be held within 30 days and the Council should respond within a further 20 days.

  • London Borough of Waltham Forest (23 012 930)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 07-Apr-2024

    Summary

    Ms Y complains about the Council’s mistakes in record keeping which impacted its care for her brother. We find the Council is at fault and caused Mr A an injustice. We also consider there is a fault with the time the Council has taken to respond to Ms Y’s complaint. The Council has agreed to apologise and make a payment to Mr A and Ms Y in recognition of this.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind all relevant staff of the need to ensure that all care plans are reviewed 6-8 weeks after they are signed off, and of its complaints policy timelines.

  • London Borough of Waltham Forest (23 005 845)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 06-May-2024

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council mishandled payment arrangements for her mother, Mrs Y’s, care at a care home. We discontinued our investigation. That was because the Council provided a suitable remedy for the injustice. We could not add to the Council’s investigation, and were unlikely to achieve a different outcome.

    Service improvements

    The Council reviewed its complaint handling procedure and provided training for its staff.

  • London Borough of Waltham Forest (23 005 698)

    Category: Education Date: 22-Apr-2024

    Summary

    Ms X complained the Council failed to take sufficient action to ensure her child, Z, who has an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan, received suitable education after they were permanently excluded from school. She says this meant Z was out of education for longer than needed. The law prevents us investigating most of these events, as they occurred too long ago or because Ms X had a right of appeal to the tribunal, and it was reasonable for her to have used it. However we found the Council did fail to arrange some special educational needs provision for Z for ten term-time months and this matter was not linked to the issues Ms X could have appealed to the tribunal. It also significantly delayed responding to Ms X’s complaint. In recognition of the injustice caused to Z and Ms X, the Council has agreed to apologise, pay Ms X £2,150 and carry out service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to remind its Special Educational Needs and Disabilities staff that the Council is under a duty to arrange the provision in Section F of children and young people's Education, Health and Care Plans.The Council has agreed to demonstrate how it has improved its timeliness for investigating corporate complaints.The Council has agreed to set out how it will improve, or has improved, its systems for checking that actions arising from complaint investigations are carried out as agreed.

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