London Borough of Waltham Forest
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 160 complaints. Of these, 71 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 59 complaints. We investigated 30 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 30 complaints and upheld 21.
70% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 84% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for London Borough of Waltham Forest's population, this is 7.6 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 1 out of 21 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
5% 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 16 cases.
In 16 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 Waltham Forest
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.
London council failed to review its support for disabled children
Councils should respond to all recommendations made during independent complaints investigations, says the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman after it upheld a mother’s complaint about London Borough of Waltham Forest.
Man left street homeless by Waltham Forest council for five weeks
A domestic abuse survivor was street homeless for five weeks, despite asking London Borough of Waltham Forest for help, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
Family left to sofa surf for 12 months after being ‘forgotten’ by Waltham Forest council
A Waltham Forest family had to sofa surf for 12 months because the local council forgot about them, 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: 25 000 811
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Allocations
- remind officers to send written decision letter when remove an applicant form the housing register
Case reference: 24 023 358
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council will provide training to its officers so they are familiar with its new software system and address any gaps in knowledge in order to minimise or prevent complaint handling delays.
Case reference: 24 021 867
Category: Education
Sub Category: School admissions
- The Council will provide training or guidance to panel members and clerks to ensure they are aware of their responsibilities at stage one of the appeals process in accordance with the statutory guidance.
Case reference: 24 016 161
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council agreed to review its process for documenting Panel decisions to ensure it is meeting the requirements of the best administrative practice.
Case reference: 24 016 101
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- Share learning from this decision with the homelessness service
- Reiterate good practice to its homelessness service, as outlined in its own policy, about housing options for survivors of domestic abuse and the Councils role in assessing risk and safety for survivors
- Review actions taken by the Council that caused delay for Miss X in October 2023, in being placed in accommodation in a timely manner
Case reference: 24 015 775
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- The Council will remind relevant staff by a staff circular, team meeting or training; the importance of producing a support plan following a care needs assessment. This includes where reablement has been identified as appropriate to meet assessed eligible needs;
- The Council will remind relevant staff by a staff circular, team meeting or training, that if the Council intends to use reablement services to inform a care needs assessment, it should pause the assessment and resume once the outcome of the reablement is known.
Case reference: 24 015 597
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- The Council will issue written reminders to relevant staff to ensure they complete a review of a service user’s carer’s assessment within 12 months of the previous one. If there are going to be delays staff should keep the service user informed.
Case reference: 24 015 102
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council agreed to remind relevant staff of the need to check medical recommendations on file when making an offer of temporary accommodation to a homeless applicant. The Council must ensure any accommodation offered is in line with any recorded needs based on medical conditions or disabilities.
- The Council agreed to decide what actions it needs to take to change its processes or train staff, to ensure it checks temporary accommodation offered to homeless applicants already has adequate facilities to store and prepare food, before it moves in a family with children.
- The Council agreed to review how it confused two different complainants. It will decide what actions it needs to take to change its processes or train staff to prevent this in future cases.
Case reference: 24 006 835
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Private housing
- The Council was at fault in the way it responded to a complaint about landlord harassment. It has agreed to create and implement a policy regarding its powers to respond to complaints of harassment and illegal eviction and retaliatory evictions by private landlords. The policy should specify which team or teams are responsible for identifying potential victims, investigating, and providing information and advice.
- The Council was at fault in the way it recorded inspections of a privately rented house. It has agreed to put a plan in place to ensure an accurate record is prepared and kept of any inspection of aresidential premises, that includes a record of whether the Council considerany category 1 or 2 hazards exist. The plan will explain where the Council considers that a category 1 hazard exists; it musttake the appropriate enforcement action as laid out in section 5 of the HousingAct 2005.
Case reference: 23 020 213
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Allocations
- The Council will review how it makes housing applicants aware of their review rights in cases of a one-time direct offer for rehousing, as well as how it assesses and records decisions about the suitability of accommodation before and after a property is offered. The Council will adopt measures to improve its service in these areas. This should include sending written information about an applicant’s review rights at the time of making a property offer, and when that right is engaged and expires.
Last updated: 4 April 2015