Service improvements

Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council

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 - 7 of 7 cases with service improvements

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Downloads the current filtered list of service improvement decisions for Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council as a CSV file.

  • Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council (24 021 273)

    Category: Education Date: 01-Sep-2025

    Summary

    Mrs P complained about problems with the Council in issuing and amending her young son’s (Child X) Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan), as well as its alleged failure to provide him speech and language therapy. Based on the available evidence, we found the Council delayed issuing an amended EHC Plan and failed to meet with Mrs P to discuss its proposed amendments. We also found the Council failed to secure the therapy provision identified in Child X’s EHC Plans. This caused an injustice to Child X, as well as Mrs P who paid for privately arranged therapy herself. The Council has agreed to our recommendations to remedy this.

    Service improvements

    The Council will carry out a review at a senior level about its capacity to deliver SALT provision across its service. Specifically, the review should look at whether the Council has enough suitable clinicians available to deliver SALT to children and young people with an EHC Plan, and if the arrangements (e.g. to provide cover) it has in place for when a clinician is unavailable are adequate. The Council should identify measures to improve the services in this area and, if applicable, promptly implement these. Moreover, the Council will remind staff with responsibility for reviewing EHC Plans of the importance of facilitating a meeting about amendments when these are requested.

  • Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council (24 020 564)

    Category: Housing Date: 20-Nov-2025

    Summary

    Miss X complained about the way the Council dealt with her homelessness application. We found fault in the Council’s delays to assess Miss X’s housing needs and provide her with interim accommodation as well as in the Council’s communication with her and its record-keeping. The Council’s fault caused injustice to Miss X. The Council has agreed to apologise, make symbolic payments and backdate the change in Miss X’s priority banding. The Council has also agreed to improve the way it keeps its housing records.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review the way its housing team keeps its records to ensure all correspondence is recorded and easily accessible. The Council should provide us with evidence it has done so.

  • Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council (24 017 790)

    Category: Education Date: 04-Sep-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to provide education for her child who has been absent from school since January 2024. We found fault with the Council failing to ensure Y had access to suitable education for time periods totalling two terms and one week from 21 February 2024 to 21 March 2025. The Council agreed to apologise to Mrs X and pay her £3,325 for Y’s missed education. The Council also agreed to remind staff about the importance of acting in line with government guidance over timescales for considering its Section 19 duty. And, the Council agreed to provide training to staff about how it should consider and carry out its Section 19 duty.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind staff that Government Guidance outlines a council should be considering its Section 19 duty to provide education for children who are unable to attend school and, if applicable, putting this in place from the sixth day of a child’s absenceThe Council will provide training to staff about its Section 19 duty. Namely about the Council’s responsibility to work with schools and parents to draw up reintegration plans and to retain oversight of a child’s reintegration into school ensuring that a child is back in school as soon as possible

  • Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council (24 016 907)

    Category: Other Categories Date: 01-Jul-2025

    Summary

    Ms F complained the Council failed to follow the correct process when dealing with her Code of Conduct complaint. I have found some fault by the Council which caused Ms F avoidable uncertainty. The Council has agreed to apologise to Ms F.

    Service improvements

    remind Officers to follow the correct process including sending updates and making clear case notes

  • Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council (24 015 877)

    Category: Housing Date: 17-Jun-2025

    Summary

    Ms D complained the Council failed to accept her applications to join the housing register since 2020. I have found fault by the Council. It implemented an undocumented policy to exclude tenants of a Housing Association from joining the housing register. This meant Ms D was incorrectly prevented from being eligible to join the housing register for over four years. The Council has agreed to pay Ms D redress for avoidable distress and change her effective date.

    Service improvements

    make changes to online form for housing applicants

  • Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council (24 015 561)

    Category: Education Date: 09-Jul-2025

    Summary

    Mrs X complained the Council failed to meet statutory requirements when amending her child’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan. We have found the Council at fault for delays in completing Z’s annual review and issuing their amended final EHC Plan. We have found the Council at fault for failing to respond to mediation requests in line with the SEN Code of Practice, for its inconsistent responses to Mrs X’s request for a personal budget, and for its communication and complaint handling. These faults caused Mrs X and Z avoidable frustration, uncertainty and distress. The Council has agreed to provide a written apology to Mrs X and Z and pay a financial remedy to recognise the injustice caused. The Council has agreed to share a copy of the Ombudsman’s focus report about personal budgets with relevant officers. The Council has also agreed to consider the findings of this investigation and provide a report to the Ombudsman, setting out the steps it will take to improve its services. There are parts of Mrs X’s complaint we have not investigated. We explain why in our decision statement.

    Service improvements

    The Council will share a copy of the Ombudsman's focus report Parent power: learning from complaints aboutpersonal budgets with relevant officers. This is to set out the Ombudsman's expectations when considering and responding to requests for personal budgets for special educational provision.The Council will review the findings of the Ombudsman's investigation with senior officers to consider the faults and injustice identified and identify required service improvements. The Council will provide the Ombudsman with a report setting out its conclusions and any actions it proposes to take, along with relevant timescales.

  • Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council (24 006 596)

    Category: Housing Date: 22-Jun-2025

    Summary

    Miss X complained about how the Council dealt with her housing situation when her family became homeless. The Council found that it had taken too long to assess her situation and deal with a review, but it failed to remedy the impact of this when Miss X complained to it. The Council caused Miss X distress and uncertainty and this affected her particularly because the failings spanned a long time and the Council was aware of Miss X’s disabilities and mental illness. The Council will apologise to Miss X and make some symbolic payments to recognise the impact on her. It will also backdate her housing priority to take account of the impact of its delays, and update the Ombudsman on its service improvements.

    Service improvements

    The Council will share this decision with the relevant staff, and remind staff that it should consider the impact of certain decisions when these are overturned on review, in line with the Code of Guidance.The Council will update the Ombudsman on its recruitment to the housing team and other steps it is taking to ensure that homelessness applications are processed on time.

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