London Borough of Redbridge
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 169 complaints. Of these, 54 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 71 complaints. We investigated 44 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 44 complaints and upheld 40.
91% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 84% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for London Borough of Redbridge's population, this is 12.8 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 6 out of 40 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
15% 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 31 cases.
In 31 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 Redbridge
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.
Redbridge council continues to fail man with severe learning disability
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman is this week issuing two separate reports into the way London Borough of Redbridge has failed the family of a 20 year old man with Special Educational Needs.
Boy with Special Educational Needs missed out on education and support because of council errors
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has asked London Borough of Redbridge to audit all children who receive Special Educational Needs provision at a borough school after the council left a boy without the support he needed for more than two years.
Redbridge council left homeless family for too long in B&B
Two London schoolchildren were left in bed and breakfast accommodation for too long by Redbridge council, according to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
Councils reminded of their duty to homeless families following Ombudsman investigation
Local authorities are being reminded about the need to house homeless families appropriately, following two separate investigations into the London Borough of Redbridge by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
London council fails boy with special educational needs on multiple occasions
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has asked a London borough to pay for a family holiday as partial remedy for causing a disabled boy to miss out on nearly two years of specialist support.
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: 24 004 652
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will create an action plan in relation to the shortage of staff within special educational needs and disability. The action plan will have target dates and specify the steps the Council intends on carrying out to prevent delays to provision and lack of provision.
- The Council will remind staff to adhere to its complaints procedure to ensure they are effectively communicating with parents.
Case reference: 24 010 566
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Other
- The Council has agreed to remind relevant complaint handling staff of the guidance linked to the children's statutory complaints procedure (The Children Act 1989) ‘Getting the Best from Complaints’ particularly around ‘who may complain’ and ‘what may be complained about’. This will help to ensure Council staff are fully aware of the statutory procedure and how this differs from its corporate complaints process.
- The Council has agreed to share the Ombudsman’s good practice guidance on the children’s statutory complaints procedure (The Children Act 1989) with relevant staff. This will help to ensure staff understand when the statutory procedure should be used to handle children's services complaints, rather than the corporate complaint process.
Case reference: 24 009 410
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Other
- The Council agreed to remind relevant staff about the types of complaints which fall under the statutory children's complaints procedure and that the Council must follow that procedure when it applies.
Case reference: 24 004 690
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- Remind line managers of departing caseworkers to notify customers of their departure and re-allocate their cases accordingly.
- Demonstrate how it will ensure that officers always carry out a suitability assessment to identify the household’s needs before making a placement in interim or temporary accommodation.
Case reference: 24 004 223
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council will ensure officers dealing with homeless applications check for relevant related cases or information as part of initial inquiries.
- The Council will identify and implement a process to ensure the Council acts on court orders affecting homeless applications in a timely way.
Case reference: 24 003 489
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council will review its policy and/or training to relevant staff with consideration on how to improve the provision of timely information about the potential cost of a placement prior to undertaking its financial assessment process.
- The Council will review its processes so that it can identify when complaint responses have become delayed, and ensure complainants are kept informed on progress.
Case reference: 23 020 194
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council has agreed to reflect on the issues raised in this decision statement and identify any areas of service improvement, specifically around vulnerability assessments, case progression and suitability assessments. The Council should prepare a short report setting out what the Council intends to do to ensure similar problems do not reoccur. This report should be sent to the Ombudsman.
Case reference: 23 020 054
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- Provide guidance to staff to ensure reviews of assessments are carried out at the appropriate time intervals specified in them.
- Review the Care Provider’s action plan and this complaint to identify any other learning and share this with staff.
Case reference: 23 018 365
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council should use this complaint as a case study to review its processes of how it deals with persistent or recurring disrepair reported by complainants. It should explore ways of improving liaison, information sharing and performance monitoring to ensure its managing agents meet the timescales and standards in its service level agreement. It should share a copy of any steps or action plan it makes from this.
Case reference: 23 016 329
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council will review its procedures to ensure complaints about interim accommodation are put through its complaints procedure.
Last updated: 4 April 2015