London Borough of Islington
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 131 complaints. Of these, 53 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 44 complaints. We investigated 34 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 34 complaints and upheld 30.
88% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 84% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for London Borough of Islington's population, this is 13.6 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 7 out of 30 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
23% 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 Islington
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.
Islington woman scared she would be “left to die” due to council inaction
A disabled Islington woman was left in a state of neglect after her local council took too long to decide what funding it would give her to manage her own support needs, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has reported.
Councils reminded about good complaint handling following two Ombudsman investigations
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman is reminding local authorities about the importance of good complaint handling after it found significant issues in two councils’ procedures.
Haringey and Islington councils criticised for how they recovered business rate debts
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has criticised two London councils for the way they tried to recover historic business rate debts.
Teenager wrongly left homeless by London council
A homeless Islington teenager has been lost in the system after council officers failed to support her when she called on them for help.
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: 25 000 787
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- Within four weeks of our final decision the Council will Remind staff that any complaints about unsuitable temporary accommodation should be treated as a review request.
Case reference: 24 021 231
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council will share with the Ombudsman the steps it has taken to ensure it responds to requests and communication for suitability review requests, requests to join its housing register, and issues decisions with relevant review rights without delay. This includes circumstances where officers are absent or on leave.
- The Council will share with the Ombudsman the Council’s plans to address delays in its complaint handling process due to a high demand for its services. If no plan is yet in place, the Council should set out an action plan to ensure it can adhere to the timescales set out in its corporate complaints policy.
Case reference: 24 015 794
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Allocations
- The Council will review this case to identify what action it will take to prevent future occurrences of delay in awarding provisional points to housing register applications.
- The Council will send a memo to staff handling housing register applications reminding them that letters to housing applicants advising them their application has been deactivated should explain why.
Case reference: 24 014 104
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- Consider why it took so long to address Mr X’s concerns about his accommodation and decide whether it owed him the main housing duty. The Council should report back to the Ombudsman with steps it will take to improve its procedures so others are not affected in the same way.
Case reference: 24 009 098
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- The Council will issue staff briefings to:•Remind relevant staff care assessments should be carried out over an appropriate and reasonable timescale.•Remind relevant staff service users should be kept informed during the assessment process about how long the assessment will take and what the process will involve.•Ensure relevant staff are properly trained and understand when a service user may need an independent advocate arranged or a different approach considered to help the assessment process.This will help to ensure care assessments are carried out in a timely manner and in a way that is suitable for the service user and keeps them informed.
Case reference: 24 009 076
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Residential care
- The Council will share the findings of the Ombudsman's investigation with senior officers to identify points of learning and improvement. The Council will prepare a written report, setting out its findings, conclusions and any improvements it proposes to make to its safeguarding procedures. It will share a copy of this report with the Ombudsman.
Case reference: 24 008 305
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council has agreed to remind homelessness staff that once they become aware that a person may be homeless, eligible and in priority need, it is under a duty to provide them with interim accommodation from that point and the Ombudsman would be critical of any delay.
- The Council has agreed to outline what action it has taken to improve its timeliness in carrying out statutory reviews of homelessness decisions.
- The Council has agreed to remind homelessness staff of the importance of sending out duty letters and personalised housing plans so that applicants have a record of the steps the Council is taking, and they can take, to relieve their homelessness.
Case reference: 24 006 852
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council has agreed to ensure frontline staff are aware that a homeless application can be made to anydepartment and refer people who indicate they may be homeless or threatenedwith homelessness to the relevant department for advice and assistance. It will provideguidance or training as necessary
- The Council will, using this case as an example, provide training or guidance to frontline staffon their role in safeguarding and the process for making a safeguardingreferral.
Case reference: 24 006 441
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Domiciliary care
- The Council has agreed to provide evidence that:a) it has a plan in place to make sure people receiving care and support have their needs reviewed at least every 12 months and it is monitoring compliance;b) it has processes in place to ensure care providers are meeting all the care needs the Council has identified;c) MiHomecare is doing regular spot checks to ensure its care workers are cleaning to the right standard.
Case reference: 24 005 288
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- Review its communication strategy to ensure parents are regularly updated on the status of their child’s case, particularly when alternative educational provision is being considered. The Council should provide the Ombudsman with the outcome of its review and any proposed service changes.
Last updated: 4 April 2015