London Borough of Camden
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 145 complaints. Of these, 68 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 57 complaints. We investigated 20 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 20 complaints and upheld 18.
90% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 84% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for London Borough of Camden's population, this is 8.1 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 2 out of 18 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
11% 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 18 cases.
In 18 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 Camden
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.
London council set to learn from how it handled COVID business grants
Camden Council has agreed to reconsider how it will deal with businesses that missed out on COVID grants following an investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
Camden’s poor complaint response prompts further Ombudsman investigation
London Borough of Camden failed to carry out a recommendation to apologise to a man for its poor handling of a complaint, until the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman chased it for a response.
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: 24 009 776
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- To ensure, by training or other means, the relevant staff are clear about the difference between the prevention and relief duties when it accepts a duty. The decision letters must clearly state which duty has been accepted.
Case reference: 24 011 470
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Disabled facilities grants
- The Council should draft and circulate guidance to all relevant staff dealing with Disabled Facilities Grants about the works that may be considered under a grant and the tests that should be considered when deciding on eligibility
Case reference: 24 005 110
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Allocations
- The Council agreed to produce an action plan for addressing the backlog of medical priority assessments and reviews. This should set out time-limited targets for how the Council will reduce the backlogs and include arrangements for the plan to be monitored by a suitably senior council officer.
- The Council agreed to share my findings about the Council’s complaints handling with staff responsible for responding to housing complaints and remind them they:should address the key points raised by complainants; and where they find further action by the Council is necessary, ensure these actions are effective and are implemented.
Case reference: 24 000 438
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they understand the Council’s legal and non-delegable duty to provide a child or young person with the special educational provision set out in section F of an EHC Plan.
- The Council will issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they understand the Council’s duty to provide full-time education where a child cannot attend school because of exclusion, medical reasons or otherwise.
Case reference: 23 021 195
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council has agreed to remind officers of the importance of notifying homelessness applicants of the correct homelessness duty and ensuring the Council accepts and ends the correct duties at relevant times.
- The Council has agreed to remind housing officers of the importance of making the main housing duty after 56 days, only extending this in the specific circumstances in line with the Homelessness Code of guidance.
- The Council has agreed to review its processes to ensure Personalised Housing Plans are reviewed in a timely manner and appropriate oversight is maintained of homelessness cases where the relief duty extends over 56 days.
Case reference: 23 018 496
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Allocations
- Remind relevant staff of the importance of effective complaint handling.
- Remind staff of the importance of keeping records of all actions, including property inspections.
- Provide training or guidance to all relevant staff of the Council’s responsibilities to homeless applicants and those in insanitary private rented accommodation.
Case reference: 23 016 957
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council should advise the Ombudsman of what action it has taken to ensure correspondence is sent to the correct address and flag up change of address is domestic abuse cases.
Case reference: 23 011 115
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council will remind relevant officers of the need to check that measurements for non-emergency property repairs have been submitted and that this information is checked when residents ask for progress updates. This will help to ensure that any errors in submitting measurements are identified quickly.
- The Council will remind relevant officers and managers they can exercise discretion to speed up non-emergency property repairs if the reason for any delay is down to error by the Council. This will help to ensure repairs are completed as quickly as possible.
Case reference: 23 010 491
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Allocations
- The Council will issue written reminders to relevant officers to ensure they fully address all the issues raised in a complaint within the timescales set out in the complaints policy.
Case reference: 23 009 245
Category: Environment and regulation
Sub Category: Antisocial behaviour
- Review its policy to ensure it makes reference to a right of appeal, as set out the ASB case review guidance.
Last updated: 4 April 2015