London Borough of Enfield
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 178 complaints. Of these, 84 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 53 complaints. We investigated 41 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 41 complaints and upheld 32.
78% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 84% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for London Borough of Enfield's population, this is 9.8 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 0 out of 32 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
0% 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 27 cases.
In 26 cases we were satisfied with the actions taken.96% 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 Enfield
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.
Enfield family left in unsuitable accommodation for three years
A disabled dad and his family were left in mouldy, mouse-infested temporary accommodation, despite Enfield council accepting it was not suitable for their needs, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman 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: 25 008 541
Category: Education
Sub Category: School transport
- •Rewrite the factsheets to make it clear a personal travel budget is available if the parent agrees.
- •Rewrite the policy to make it clear a personal travel budget is available if the parent agrees.
Case reference: 25 004 523
Category: Education
Sub Category: School transport
- The Council will remind staff and panel members who make decisions on school transport applications of the importance of clearly setting out their reasons and what they have considered, making sure they have addressed all elements of law, policy and statutory guidance relevant to the individual application. The Council may wish to consider the use of pre-populated forms, prompts or checklists to assist officers.
- The Council will ensure it carries out individual assessments of need where an application is made on SEN/disability grounds at the time the application is received and not rely solely on information in EHC Plans.
Case reference: 25 004 341
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- Ensure, by a staff briefing, staff training or changing procedures, that all applicants who meet the threshold for homelessness inquiries receive written decisions including their review rights
Case reference: 24 021 742
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council has agreed to review its procedures for charging for care to ensure: Where a financial assessment form is not returned within 14 days a reminder is issued or a telephone call made.Full cost letters accurately reflect the situation where a financial assessment form has not been returned, specifically, that the Council has assumed an individual does not wish to disclose their financial situation and is willing to pay the full cost of their care.
Case reference: 24 021 257
Category: Benefits and tax
Sub Category: Council tax
- The Council will, through a briefing note, remind relevant staff of the importance of clear and timely verbal and written communication in relation to the council tax payment allocation process.
Case reference: 24 017 008
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council will review the way it records temporary accommodation suitability reviews to ensure all requests are responded to. The Council will provide the evidence that this has happened.
Case reference: 24 016 501
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council will remind staff they must consider all the relevant evidence about a person's needs before placing them in interim and temporary homelessness accommodation, to ensure that accommodation is suitable at the point the offer of accommodation is made.
- The Council will share a copy of the Ombudsman's guidance Homelessness decisions for Disabled people with relevant staff, if it has not already done so.
- The Council will send the Ombudsman details of the steps it is taking to increase its stock of interim and temporary accommodation, to meet the increased demand for homelessness housing. The Council will include when it intends to complete the steps and how it will review their effectiveness.
- The Council will tell staff who deal with housing register allocations that before they suspend a person's right to bid on social housing, they should consider whether a suspension is appropriate in that case. The Council will include the complainant's case as an example of when a suspension is not appropriate.
Case reference: 24 008 846
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council has agreed to provide training or guidance to relevant staff on the duty to make inquiries when an applicant gives reason to believe they might to be homeless or threatened with homelessness regardless of questions about local connection or duties owed by another council.
- The Council has agreed to provide provide training or guidance to relevant staff on the minimum expectations for record keeping and communication with applicants in homeless applications.
Case reference: 24 006 620
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- Remind officers of the importance of ensuring the correct decision letters are sent to ensure all rights of review and appeal are notified.
Case reference: 23 011 272
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Allocations
- The Council will remind relevant officers and managers of the need to specify how medical information related to housing matters should be shared with it. This will help to ensure service users can do so in a timely and effective manner.
- The Council will remind relevant officers and managers to comply with their responsibilities under relevant homelessness guidance and legislation. This will help to ensure it fully considers the circumstances of those threatened with homelessness and whether a property is reasonable to occupy.
- The Council will share the Ombudsman's guidance on the principles of good administrative practice with relevant officers and managers. This will help to ensure that communication and complaint handling are done in a timely and effective manner.
Last updated: 4 April 2015