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.
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: 24 005 131
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council has agreed to consider how it can make its processes quicker for providing homeless applicants with their first month’s rent and deposit, particularly given the competitive and fast-paced nature of the private rental market.
- The Council has agreed to investigate why the homeless person, in this case, was not told they had been automatically added to the housing register, or when their banding changed, and will take action to prevent recurrence of this fault in future.
Case reference: 24 004 818
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council will remind relevant staff of the nee to properly explain the reasons for housing register review decisions.
Case reference: 24 003 751
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Other
- The Council will provide the Ombudsman with evidence it has completed a review of its parent/carer assessment process as recommended by a children's statutory complaint procedure investigation. The Council will identify any action it intends to take as a result of that review and a timebound plan of when it intends to complete the actions.
Case reference: 24 002 861
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- Look at what went wrong in this case and consider what changes the Council can make to: 1. Ensure it issues an amended Education, Health and Care Plan within 12 weeks of an annual review meeting.2. Ensure it has procedures in place to enable it to review and amend Education, Health and Care Plan’s by the statutory deadlines for children and young people who are at key phases of education.
Case reference: 23 020 327
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Residential care
- The Council will remind relevant staff to involve relatives in decisions regarding moving care home placements.
- The Council will review its procedures to ensure it provides in writing relevant information to the service user or their representatives when there is a change in funding arrangements for care home placements.
Case reference: 23 019 405
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Allocations
- The Council will prepare an action plan to improve its record keeping within the Prevention and Assessment Service.
- The Council will send a full review of its complaint handling processes and system, carried out following the Council’s letter of 5 April 2024.
- The Council will ensure its Housing and Inclusive Economy Scrutiny Committee review this decision at the next available committee meeting.
Case reference: 23 016 128
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Other
- The Council will complete a review of its short breaks arrangements which was recommended by an independent panel investigating a children's statutory complaint. The Council will produce a timebound action plan for any improvements it intends to make as a result of the review.
- The Council will remind relevant officers that handle complaints that where a complainant has requested a stage three panel in the children’s statutory complaint process, the stage three panel should be held within 30 days and the Council should respond within a further 20 days.
Case reference: 23 012 930
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Domiciliary care
- The Council will remind all relevant staff of the need to ensure that all care plans are reviewed 6-8 weeks after they are signed off, and of its complaints policy timelines.
Case reference: 23 005 845
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Charging
- The Council reviewed its complaint handling procedure and provided training for its staff.
Case reference: 23 005 698
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council has agreed to remind its Special Educational Needs and Disabilities staff that the Council is under a duty to arrange the provision in Section F of children and young people's Education, Health and Care Plans.
- The Council has agreed to demonstrate how it has improved its timeliness for investigating corporate complaints.
- The Council has agreed to set out how it will improve, or has improved, its systems for checking that actions arising from complaint investigations are carried out as agreed.
Last updated: 4 April 2015