Agenda item
Local Government Ombudsman's investigation into a complaint against London Borough of Brent -Ref 14019 234
1.1 This report relates to the Housing Needs Service’s and Brent Housing Partnership’s handling of a BHP tenant’s request for urgent rehousing due to domestic violence. Ealing further delayed in processing the case when it was referred to them.
Minutes:
The Committee received a report detailing the Local Government Ombudsman report issued against the London Boroughs of Brent and Ealing on 8 August 2016. The report related to the Housing Needs Service’s and Brent Housing Partnership’s (BHP) handling of a BHP tenant’s request for urgent rehousing due to domestic violence.
The Chair stated that the Committee should focus on considering how the complaint was handled, rather than the full specifics of the case.
Phil Porter (Strategic Director Community Wellbeing) and Martin Stollery (Principal Complaints Service Officer) were present to advise the Committee on the report. Phil Porter emphasised that the Council took full responsibility for the errors highlighted. He stated that the case showed that the Council complaints process had worked and the issues raised by the LGO had already been highlighted and dealt as a result of the complaints process. He also stated that it showed the Council needed to deal better with sensitive domestic violence cases. He specifically agreed with the points included in the report made by Dr Jane Martin on why it was in the public interest to publish this report. He said it demonstrated the need for a closer and more effective working relationship between different Councils’ Housing Needs services in dealing with vulnerable individuals to ensure events like this did not happen again.
Phil Porter continued that he believed that the case showed there had been a lack of accountability in the service and this case showed customer services failings alongside the faults in dealing with a sensitive domestic violence transfer case. He outlined that the Council would complete the actions required by the report but added that he believed these were the bare minimum of what the Council should be addressing. He advised the Committee that there were wider structural changes and service improvement measures which were taking place within the Housing Needs service at the moment, which are focused on improving customer care, and a big part of improving customer care is taking responsibility for solving problems whatever they may be, not just making referrals.
Responding to questions from members on the extent of training and supervision provided to Officers in dealing with domestic violence transfer cases, Phil Porter stated the problems identified were more than just a Housing Service Needs training issue.. It is crucially important that people take responsibility for solving problems . He believed this was demonstrated notably in this case through the length of time it took to chase a response from the London Borough of Ealing once the case had been referred to them. He added that this was tied with training and a need to understand the broader policies, but also relied on strong line management driving a customer focused culture. He reiterated that this is being addressed in the service improvement measures being developed by the Council.
Martin Stollery added that the Complaints Service had been open in that mistakes that were made. He noted that the last Local Government Ombudsman report against the Council was back in 2013, and therefore it was still rare for the Council to be investigated. In response to this the Chair asked whether the Council was moving to a position where all complaints were satisfactorily dealt with internally before needing to be referred to the Ombudsman. Phil Porter concluded that the Council needed to admit its mistakes early and rectify them early. He said that it should be viewed as a failure for anything of this nature in future to be referred to the Ombudsman.
Additional questions were raised by Members on specifics to this case within a wider discussion of the Council’s policies for dealing with domestic violence transfer cases. It was suggested that an additional report on this should be considered by the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee at a future meeting.
RESOLVED that:
(i) The decision of the Local Government Ombudsman, be noted;
(ii) A suggestion be made that a report be considered by the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee, which addressed the issues identified in the complaint report: how the housing needs services responded (working closely with partners) to issues of particular vulnerability such as domestic violence; and
(iii) A report providing an overview of any current cases referred to and on how the Audit Committee should deal with any cases referred to the Local Government Ombudsman be considered at the next meeting of the Committee.
Supporting documents: