Luton Borough Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 64 complaints. Of these, 30 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 21 complaints. We investigated 13 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 13 complaints and upheld 10.
77% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 80% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Luton Borough Council's population, this is 4.3% upheld decisions per 100,000 residents.
The average for authorities of this type is
5.3% upheld decisions per 100,000 residents. -
Satisfactory remedies provided by the Council
In 0 out of 10 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
0% satisfactory remedy rate.
This compares to an average of 10% in similar authorities.
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Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations
We recorded compliance outcomes in 9 cases.
In 9 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 Luton Borough Council
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.
Luton told to fix benefits backlog by Ombudsman
Luton Borough Council is improving the way it administers benefits appeals after the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found it had a backlog of cases dating back five years.
Council did not do enough to help woman abused by neighbour
A Luton woman was verbally abused and harassed by her neighbours – and her local council did not do enough when she called on it to help, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
Luton to review some of its special educational needs services following Ombudsman’s investigation
Luton Borough Council has agreed to create a detailed action plan to improve some of its services for children with special educational needs after the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman uncovered significant concerns during a recent investigation.
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: 23 020 528
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Adoption
- The Council has agreed to send us an action plan which sets out how it has fixed, or will fix, the problems it identified with its practice in its pre-adoption support service.
Case reference: 23 016 706
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council will share a copy of this decision with housing staff to identify learning from this complaint.
Case reference: 22 015 676
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Other
- Provide a report to the Ombudsman showing:a) What criteria has been used to prioritise dealing with the waiting list.b) The number of people and how long they have been on the waiting list.c) The progress that has been made in reducing the waiting list.
Case reference: 22 015 473
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Domiciliary care
- The Council has agreed to review the need for refresher training for staff responsible for safeguarding enquiries in the Adult Social Care teams to ensure they are familiar with, and follow, all the required stages in the safeguarding procedures and work within the specified timescales.Staff should be reminded of the need to communicate with the person who made the referral and ensure they are invited to case conferences and given the opportunity to discuss the outcome of the enquiry.
Case reference: 22 010 409
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Other
- The Council has agreed to consider giving people the option to opt out of receiving encryptede-mails if that is their preference.
Case reference: 22 005 635
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Direct payments
- The Council will review how requests for direct payment assessments are processed and responded to in circumstances where a contracted service provider completes the assessment and the Council’s Adult Social Care Panel makes the decision. This is to ensure a clear process where the outcome, reasons for the decision, and the steps necessary to complain about the process is shared in writing with the person who made the request, or their representative.
- The Council will remind its staff and contracted service providers about the process to follow when individuals disagree with a direct payment decision. This is to ensure complainants rights to complain about its decision are properly explained, acknowledged and responded to as set out in the Council’s Direct Payment Policy.
- The Council will remind its contracted service provider (the Community Mental Health Trust) to respond to complaints within the timescales set out in its complaint policy and inform complainants if there are delays in providing a response. This includes when attempts are being made to resolve a complaint informally.
Case reference: 22 005 300
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Residential care
- Ensure staff, residents and family at the care home are aware of visiting procedures; and that they are accessible and revised in a timely manner;
- Ensure the Care Provider has procedures in place about recording and investigating serious incidents and that staff are aware of these procedures.
Case reference: 22 001 702
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council was at fault for keeping poor records in its housing department. It has agreed that it will complete an audit of internal housing record keeping and consider making improvements to its systems.
- The Council was at fault for a failure to inform the complainant of her right of review of the suitability of a property it provided for her.. It has agreed to provide training to all staff to ensure that they understand the duties owed under the interim and main housing duties.
Case reference: 21 017 081
Category: Benefits and tax
Sub Category: Housing benefit and council tax benefit
- The Council should review its outstanding discretionary housing payment overpayments and set out an action plan to reduce the delays in seeking recovery. It should also consider whether these overpayments should be recovered taking into account the Department for Work and Pensions guidance regarding discretionary housing payment recovery.
- The council should remind officers that they should consider whether the Council should seek recovery of a discretionary housing payment overpayment taking into account the discretionary housing payment guidance regarding recovery.
Case reference: 21 016 544
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Residential care
- The Council has agreed to provide evidence the Care Home has procedures in place to ensure it: a)produces an inventory when someone moves there and updates it when necessary; b)stores possessions securely after someone has left or died; c)encourages families to collect them as soon as possible; and d)does not dispose of possessions without first warning families of the intention to do so.
Last updated: 4 April 2015