London Borough of Newham
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 206 complaints. Of these, 96 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 70 complaints. We investigated 40 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 40 complaints and upheld 35.
88% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 84% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for London Borough of Newham's population, this is 9.7 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 10 out of 35 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
29% 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 23 cases.
In 23 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 Newham
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.
No reports published
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: 25 001 727
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Other
- The Council has agreed to write to us, setting out the reasons for the significant delay in its handling of Mr X’s complaint, and how it will overcome similar difficulties in future (for example, by improving monitoring or commissioning arrangements).
Case reference: 25 001 044
Category: Transport and highways
Sub Category: Parking and other penalties
- Provide training to staff concerning when issues should be referred to the Traffic Enforcement Centre and when they should be dealt with by the Council’s complaints process.
Case reference: 24 021 331
Category: Benefits and tax
Sub Category: Council tax
- The Council will amend the wording on its webpage titled “Council Tax and moving in or out of Newham” to make it clear that if a resident updates their address using the government’s register to vote service, this does not inform the Council’s council tax department their address has changed.
- The Council will tell us the outcome of its review into how it records information and documents on residents' council tax files.
- Through training or a staff briefing, the Council will remind all relevant staff about the importance of recording key information, such as council tax reminder letters, on residents’ case files.
Case reference: 24 020 053
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Allocations
- The Council agreed to remind relevant officers of the low threshold giving rise to the duty to make inquiries and what, if any, duty a person is owed where there is reason to believe they might be homeless or threatened with homelessness.
- The Council agreed to remind relevant officers they should accept the relevant duty as soon as they are satisfied an applicant is homeless or threatened with homelessness.
- The Council agreed to remind relevant officers of the need to tell applicants of the decision about what, if any, homeless duty is owed along with information about review rights.
- The Council agreed to consider whether it owes the complainant any homeless duty taking into account all the available evidence as well as her circumstances and notify her of its decision.
- The Council agreed to contact the complainant to see whether she still needs help with checking for suitable accommodation to bid for and explain i) how this will work and ii) the period covered over which it agrees to do this.The Council also agreed to contact the complainant about the key safe and pendant alarm and arrange for their provision if they were not provided.
Case reference: 24 019 833
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council has agreed to review all current cases where parents, carers or young people have been provided with direct payments to arrange special educational needs provision and ensure they have received direct payment agreements, in line with the requirements of the SEND Code of Practice.
- The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff of the importance of ensuring direct payment agreements are provided to people who arrange special educational needs provision using a personal budget. It will remind staff these documents should clearly set out the rules around the use of direct payments and it is not in line with the SEND Code of Practice to only include this information in the Education, Health and Care Plan.
- The Council will outline how it will ensure that in future - through updated letter and form templates if necessary - that it will offer people a right of review of relevant decisions around personal budgets, including decisions to end them.
Case reference: 24 019 552
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Safeguarding
- The Council will remind staff in its anti-social behaviour service to properly consider whether the Council should use its powers, record any decisions made, and confirm the outcome to complainants.
- The Council will also remind staff in its Environmental Health service to properly record all investigations and decisions, and ensure video footage is properly assessed and documented.
Case reference: 24 018 863
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council will reminder staff that:•the section 188 interim duty arises on a low “reason to believe” threshold and should continue until the section184 decision is issued, and•section 202 reviews must be completed within eight weeks unless an extension is agreed with the applicant.
Case reference: 24 018 246
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will provide refresher guidance to staff involved in SEN school transport decisions and appeals. This could include a briefing paper, circular or evidence of a discussion at a team meeting. The Council should remind staff to ensure that all relevant factors (such as the child’s needs, family circumstances, and travel suitability) are properly considered and clearly reflected in decision letters. This is to ensure compliance with the statutory guidance: ‘Travel to School for Children of Compulsory School Age’.
Case reference: 24 016 895
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Remind staff about the importance of properly considering an applicant’s specific circumstances when making transport decisions. In line with the Ombudsman’s ‘Principles of Good Administrative Practice’ the Council should remind staff of the importance of ensuring decisions are properly recorded;
- Remind staff of the need to consider a child’s ability to walk to school rather than their ability to use a bus service; and
- Remind staff of the requirement to seek the applicant’s consent before providing travel expenses, such as a taxi allowance.
Case reference: 24 013 978
Category: Environment and regulation
Sub Category: Refuse and recycling
- The Council will update its website to ensure it clearly explains how residents living in flats are expected to report missed bin collections.
Last updated: 4 April 2015