Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 52 complaints. Of these, 7 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 30 complaints. We investigated 15 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 15 complaints and upheld 13.
87% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 80% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council's population, this is 8.4 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 13 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 15 cases.
In 15 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 Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead 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.
Council failed Disabled young woman and her family over college transport, Ombudsman finds
Windsor and Maidenhead council has agreed to apologise and reconsider if it should provide free transport to a Disabled young woman trying to get to college. It will also look at other Disabled adult learners’ cases to see if they have also been affected by similar decision making.
Council asked to repay father’s nursery fees following ombudsman investigation
Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council has been asked to partially reimburse the fees a father paid while his daughter was receiving free nursery care, after the Ombudsman found it did not ensure a company was providing transparent invoices.
Elderly man suffers after council splits him from his wife
An elderly couple of 59 years were split up with little regard for their welfare by Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
Disabled man spends nearly a year in unsuitable accommodation because of council faults
A disabled man was left to sleep rough and ‘sofa surf’ for more than three months during the winter because the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead did not act quickly enough to find him accommodation, according to a new report 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: 24 021 273
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will carry out a review at a senior level about its capacity to deliver SALT provision across its service. Specifically, the review should look at whether the Council has enough suitable clinicians available to deliver SALT to children and young people with an EHC Plan, and if the arrangements (e.g. to provide cover) it has in place for when a clinician is unavailable are adequate. The Council should identify measures to improve the services in this area and, if applicable, promptly implement these. Moreover, the Council will remind staff with responsibility for reviewing EHC Plans of the importance of facilitating a meeting about amendments when these are requested.
Case reference: 24 020 564
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council will review the way its housing team keeps its records to ensure all correspondence is recorded and easily accessible. The Council should provide us with evidence it has done so.
Case reference: 24 017 790
Category: Education
Sub Category: Alternative provision
- The Council will remind staff that Government Guidance outlines a council should be considering its Section 19 duty to provide education for children who are unable to attend school and, if applicable, putting this in place from the sixth day of a child’s absence
- The Council will provide training to staff about its Section 19 duty. Namely about the Council’s responsibility to work with schools and parents to draw up reintegration plans and to retain oversight of a child’s reintegration into school ensuring that a child is back in school as soon as possible
Case reference: 24 016 907
Category: Other Categories
Sub Category: Councillor conduct and standards
- remind Officers to follow the correct process including sending updates and making clear case notes
Case reference: 24 015 877
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Allocations
- make changes to online form for housing applicants
Case reference: 24 015 561
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council will share a copy of the Ombudsman's focus report Parent power: learning from complaints aboutpersonal budgets with relevant officers. This is to set out the Ombudsman's expectations when considering and responding to requests for personal budgets for special educational provision.
- The Council will review the findings of the Ombudsman's investigation with senior officers to consider the faults and injustice identified and identify required service improvements. The Council will provide the Ombudsman with a report setting out its conclusions and any actions it proposes to take, along with relevant timescales.
Case reference: 24 006 596
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council will share this decision with the relevant staff, and remind staff that it should consider the impact of certain decisions when these are overturned on review, in line with the Code of Guidance.
- The Council will update the Ombudsman on its recruitment to the housing team and other steps it is taking to ensure that homelessness applications are processed on time.
Case reference: 24 007 224
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff of the statutory requirement to review the Education, Health and Care Plan of those aged 19 or over who stop attending their provision before ceasing their Education, Health and Care Plan.
- The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff of the requirement to continue to secure the provision in an Education, Health and Care Plan when a young person stops attending the school or college named in the Plan.
- The Council has agreed to review its procedures to ensure interim/emergency reviews are arranged in a timely manner when a placement has ended and a new placement is yet to be identified.
Case reference: 24 004 165
Category: Planning
Sub Category: Enforcement
- The Council was at fault because it did not serve court papers on time. Because of this, it could not take the planning enforcement action it had intended.The Council agreed to review relevant practices, policies, and procedures to avoid the likelihood of similar fault happening again.
Case reference: 24 003 816
Category: Children's care services
Sub Category: Child protection
- The Council will share this decision with relevant staff.
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Cases with service improvements agreed by Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council
View allLast updated: 4 April 2015