London Borough of Bromley
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 173 complaints. Of these, 50 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 80 complaints. We investigated 43 complaints.
More about this data
Complaints dealt with – the total number of complaints and enquiries considered. It is not appropriate to investigate all of them.
Not for us – includes complaints brought to us before the council was given chance to consider it, or the complainant came to the wrong Ombudsman.
Assessed and closed – includes complaints where the law says we’re not allowed to investigate, or it would be a poor use of public funds if we did.
Investigated – we completed an investigation and made a decision on whether we found fault, or no fault.
Complaints upheld – we completed an investigation and found evidence of fault, or the organisation provided a suitable remedy early on.
Satisfactory remedies provided by the Council – the council upheld the complaint and we agreed with how it offered to put things right.
Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations – not complying with our recommendations is rare. A council with a compliance rate below 100% should scrutinise the complaints where it failed to comply and identify any learning.
Average performance rates – we compare the annual statistics of similar types of councils to work out an average level of performance. We do this for County Councils, District Councils, Metropolitan Boroughs, Unitary Councils, and London Boroughs.
For more information on understanding our statistics see Interpreting our complaints data.
Complaints dealt with
Not for us
Assessed and closed
Investigated
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Complaints upheld
We investigated 43 complaints and upheld 38.
88% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 84% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for London Borough of Bromley's population, this is 11.5 upheld decisions per 100,000 residents.
The average for authorities of this type is
9.1 upheld decisions per 100,000 residents. -
Satisfactory remedies provided by the Council
In 3 out of 38 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
8% satisfactory remedy rate.
This compares to an average of 12% in similar authorities.
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Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations
We recorded compliance outcomes in 30 cases.
In 30 cases we were satisfied with the actions taken.100% compliance rate with recommendations.
This compares to an average of 100% in similar authorities.
Annual letters
We write to councils each year to give a summary of the complaint statistics we record about them,
and their performance in responding to our investigations.
Reports
The Ombudsman has published the following reports against London Borough of Bromley
Find out more about reports
We issue reports on certain investigations, particularly where there is a wider public interest to do so. Common reasons for reports are significant injustice, systemic issues, major learning points and non-compliance with our recommendations. Issuing reports is one way we help to ensure councils are accountable to local people and highlighting the learning from complaints helps to improve services for everybody. Reports are published for 10 years.
Family of seven left to live in one bedroom flat by Bromley council
Bromley council has agreed to pay a family £6,000 after it did not do enough to help them when they were threatened with homelessness, following a Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman investigation.
Council cuts London family’s support for disabled son without reassessment
A man with special needs should not have had his support package significantly cut by London Borough of Bromley, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
Parents of a disabled teenager were left without any support because the London Borough of Bromley did not put plans in place for when he turned 18, the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) has found.
Service improvements
The Council has agreed to make the following improvements to its services following an Ombudsman investigation.
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.
The latest 10 cases are listed below – click ‘view all’ to find all service improvements.
Case reference: 24 011 536
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council should issue guidance to relevant staff, to remind them the SEN Code says (at paragraph 9.192) the 14-week deadline for completing an EHC needs reassessment begins on the date the decision to reassess is made.
Case reference: 24 011 482
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will tell us what steps it is taking to ensure it is seeking to commission alternative providers in cases where the initial commissioned providers do not have capacity to meet the provision detailed in the EHC Plan.
Case reference: 24 007 654
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will remind officers dealing with EHC Plans of the Council’s responsibility for ensuring provision in an EHC Plan is in place. That reminder should include the need to liaise with the education provider if a parent/carer raises concerns about provision not being in place, rather than directing the parent/carer back to the education provider.
Case reference: 24 009 642
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council has agreed to remind relevant officers of the legal duty to assess and make an accurate and comprehensive record of the current housing and support needs of the applicant. Particularly where the Council has previously accepted a duty to the applicant.
Case reference: 24 007 666
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council will remind its housing staff they must reassess the suitability of interim accommodation when it becomes an applicant’s temporary accommodation.
- The Council will remind its housing staff to inform applicants about their right to request a s202 suitability review when their interim accommodation becomes temporary accommodation.
- The Council will remind its housing and complaints staff that requests to move from temporary accommodation because it is unsuitable should be treated as a s202 suitability review request and not as a complaint.
Case reference: 24 006 466
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- The Council will ensure officers follow a clear andconsistent process when considering s.19 and s.42 duties. This should includeconsulting professionals involved with the child, considering all the evidence,reaching a decision, recording the decision and rationale, and thencommunicating this to families. The Council may wish to consider whether adecision checklist and standard decision letter format may be helpful toofficers making decisions and to those reviewing decisions or consideringcomplaints.
Case reference: 24 005 979
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will review the systems it has in place for monitoring consultations with education and tuition providers to ensure they are sent and followed up without delay.
Case reference: 24 005 751
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will remind staff that when a child or young person is out of education and the annual review of their Education, Health and Care Plan is delayed, they must consider if the Council needs to arrange the special educational provision in the child or young person's Plan in the meantime, and keep suitable records of that decision.
Case reference: 24 005 369
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- By training or other means, remind officers that they should promptly review an applicants’ housing options following a council’s failure to respond to, or refusal to accept, a Section 213 reciprocal agreement to determine if the council should approach other councils.
Case reference: 24 004 548
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- The Council will ensure a copy of our final decision is considered by the Children’s Policy Development & Scrutiny committee and Portfolio Holder and share a copy of our final decision with all relevant staff, to include dealing with ceasing EHC Plans and transition from EHC Plans to Adult Social Care.
Last updated: 4 April 2015