London Borough of Ealing
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 166 complaints. Of these, 88 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 56 complaints. We investigated 22 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 22 complaints and upheld 16.
73% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 84% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for London Borough of Ealing's population, this is 4.3% 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 1 out of 16 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
6% 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 17 cases.
In 17 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 Ealing
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.
Ealing council wrongly turned away a pregnant woman who approached it for help with housing, despite police and other agencies saying it was not safe for her to return to her tenancy in another area.
Ombudsman criticises Ealing council for leaving family in flat with faulty windows
Ealing council has been criticised by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman for leaving a young homeless family in a 10th floor flat with faulty windows for nearly 18 months.
Councils urged to check information sharing agreements following complaint
Councils are being urged to check they have adequate information sharing agreements with their service providers, after one council was not able comply with an agreed Ombudsman remedy because it could not get hold of the data needed.
Council criticised after care workers fail to spot vulnerable woman’s serious sores
Ealing council has agreed to review whether it works with a home care provider in future after it was found to have falsified records during an Ombudsman investigation.
London council fails to support vulnerable mother properly
London Borough of Ealing did not carry out adequate assessments of the support a disabled mother needed when her young son moved from nursery to school, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
Homeless family left in crowded conditions while council delayed making decision
A mother and her five children were accommodated in a damp and mouldy single bedroom, too small for the number of people, by Ealing council while it took too long to decide their homelessness status.
Shortcomings in partnership between London councils leaves victim of domestic abuse in limbo
There was a lack of effective partnership working between two west London authorities when supporting a woman at risk of domestic violence, says a Local Government Ombudsman report.
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: 24 008 364
Category: Education
Sub Category: School transport
- Remind all officers who carry out transport appeals, and those who send decision letters, of the requirement to consider all the evidence presented and properly record and evidence how it reached the decision, in line with statutory guidance.
- Remind officers that applications on SEN /disability / mobility grounds must consider health, safety, sensory and behavioural difficulties and not just physical mobility problems when deciding if a child is able to walk to school.
Case reference: 24 002 632
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Allocations
- the Council has agreed to remind all reviewofficers to make sure they refer to the correct version of the housingallocations policy and not use out of date review letter templates
Case reference: 24 000 008
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Domiciliary care
- The Council will consider why the miscommunication that led to the Council's delay in arranging a new care provider for the complainant's mother occurred. The Council will identify any steps that are needed to prevent the fault happening again in future. It will send the Ombudsman details of those actions, when they will be completed by, and who is responsible for them.
Case reference: 23 017 512
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will share the Ombudsman's decision and a copy of our focus report Out of school, out of sight? with relevant officers, to emphasise the Council's section 19 duties and identify wider learning.
Case reference: 23 013 867
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council will remind relevant staff of the importance of giving as much information as possible about the likely costs of adult social care at the time the care is arranged and keeping a record of the advice and information given. This should include explaining that, if a person moves into residential care, the value of their property will be considered when deciding how much they should pay towards the cost of their care, which is likely to mean they will need to pay the full cost of their care.
Case reference: 23 013 270
Category: Education
Sub Category: School transport
- The Council agreed to remind its staff that members of the public may submit corporate complaints about the quality of service they received regardless of any appeals they submitted. In those cases, the Council should still consider the corporate complaint as per its travel assistance policy.
Case reference: 23 011 160
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Allocations
- The Council will develop an action plan to reduce any delays in completing housing reviews and to ensure these can be completed within the eight weeks recommended by statutory guidance.
Case reference: 23 007 815
Category: Planning
Sub Category: Planning applications
- The Council will review how planning queries are responded to and implement processes to ensure they do not go unanswered.
Case reference: 23 005 023
Category: Planning
Sub Category: Enforcement
- The Council agreed to remind officers of the need to record concerns raised by neighbours making representations so these are available for the decision maker.
- The Council agreed to remind officers of the need to clearly record any agreement reached with those making representations about site visits.
- The Council agreed to review why her complaint did not follow the timescales set out in the complaint procedure, so these failures are not repeated in future.
Case reference: 23 004 153
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Disabled facilities grants
- The Council has agreed to produce a joint service agreement and/or operating procedure for social care andthe adaptations service which clearly identifies how each service contributesto delivering DFGs and ensures services work together to provide a joined-upand timely service to Disabled people.
- The Council has agreed to produce a leaflet or other form of information to provide DFG applicants which sets out the process and what the applicant can expect, likely timescales, the services involved and who has oversight or is the main point of contact throughout the application.
- The Council has agreed to provide training or guidance to staff responsible for responding to stage two complaints about the Council’s expected timescales, keeping complainants informed, and giving complaints appropriate priority.
- The Council has agreed to identify and implement a means of ensuring the Council keeps sufficient central oversight of complaints to identify and address delays responding.
Last updated: 4 April 2015