London Borough of Wandsworth
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 140 complaints. Of these, 45 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 72 complaints. We investigated 23 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 23 complaints and upheld 18.
78% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 84% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for London Borough of Wandsworth's population, this is 5.4 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 2 out of 18 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
11% 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 19 cases.
In 19 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 Wandsworth
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.
Ombudsman finds council placed homeless disabled child too far from school
Wandsworth council has apologised to a homeless mother after placing her in unsuitable accommodation two hours away from her disabled child’s school.
Domestic abuse victim not supported properly by Wandsworth council when she became homeless
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman is highlighting the importance of councils considering the exceptional circumstances of people fleeing domestic abuse when assessing their housing needs, following a complaint about London Borough of Wandsworth.
Councils need to check how they help people with hidden disabilities
Councils are being urged to check their procedures to avoid disadvantaging people with ‘hidden disabilities’ following the publication of three separate investigation reports into London councils by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
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: 25 006 066
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council will review its processes for when a property has been identified as unsuitable. The process should ensure action is taken when a suitability assessment identifies a property as unsuitable.
Case reference: 25 004 338
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council was at fault for not taking any substantive actions on a homelessness case for around nine months, between June 2024 and January 2025. The Council has agreed to put measures in place to monitor and act on homelessness cases where it has a duty to provide temporary accommodation and has yet to do so.
Case reference: 24 023 261
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Allocations
- We found the Council at fault for the time taken to complete a housing reassessment. The Council agreed to remind relevant housing staff that where a review or reassessment decision is delayed pending further enquiries, they should provide the applicant with a clear update explaining the reason for the delay and the expected next steps.
Case reference: 24 019 903
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- The Council will align its policy and the information on its website about whether the Council will, or will not, “full-cost” service users when financial information is not provided to enable the Council to complete a financial assessment. The Council can follow whichever practice it considers suitable but should ensure the information and approach is consistent
- The Council will remind staff in its Adult Social Care service to provide service users with the Care and Support Plans on completion of these documents and without significant delay
- The Council will remind staff in its Financial Assessment service to complete financial assessments of service users within an appropriate and reasonable timeframe, in line with the requirements set out in the Care and Support Statutory Guidance
- The Council will remind staff in its Financial Assessment service to provide early information about the Council’s care arrangement fees to service users
Case reference: 24 017 313
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council has agreed to issue a briefing note (or series of notes) to all relevant housing and homelessness staff. They should use this case as a case study and must include guidance on the following areas: Statutory duties and interim accommodation; Assessing suitability after Section 21 expiry; Accuracy and timeliness of Personal Housing Plans; Handling and assessment of medical evidence; Statutory timescales for review requests.
Case reference: 24 016 588
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council will provide guidance to officers on: the suitability issues they should consider before allocating interim accommodation to those with children under the age of 2;the suitability issues they should consider before allocating interim accommodation to those fleeing domestic abuse; andaccess to interim and temporary accommodation by males when the homeless applicant is fleeing domestic abuse.
Case reference: 24 016 572
Category: Education
Sub Category: School transport
- The Council agreed to: correct the errors in its post-16 Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) travel assistance policy to ensure this properly reflects the appeal process it follows in practice;review its record keeping procedures for post-16 SEND transport appeals to ensure it keeps proper records of decision making at Stage 1 and Stage 2; andprovide training to relevant staff involved in consideration of post-16 SEND transport appeals at Stage 1 and Stage 2, to address the faults we identified.
Case reference: 24 015 162
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council will issue written reminders to relevant officers to ensure they are aware of the Council’s low threshold to provide interim accommodation if it has reason to believe an applicant may be homeless, eligible for assistance and in priority need.
Case reference: 24 001 291
Category: Education
Sub Category: School transport
- The Council will review and amend its SEND school transport policy about medication so that it reflects statutory guidance. In particular, the Council should ensure it does not fetter its discretion and ensures it makes its decisions based on the individual circumstances and medical needs of a child or young person.
- The Council will send written notifications to relevant transport staff, to include the reasons for the changes in its SEND transport policy relating to medication and reminders to act in line with this.
Case reference: 23 019 974
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will 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 will remind staff of the importance of ensuring decisions are properly recorded.
- The Council will remind relevant officers about the need to set out the transport appeal panel’s decision making in outcome letters, as per the requirements set out in the statutory school transport guidance.
- The Council will remind the relevant staff of the requirement to seek the applicant’s consent before providing travel expenses such as a transport allowance budget.
Last updated: 4 April 2015