A north London council failed to properly safeguard a vulnerable woman despite being aware that her property had been taken over by drug dealers and she was at risk of abuse, an investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) has found.
The report highlighted concerns about “the number of failures” on the part of Brent Council to take the necessary action over a period of more than two years. Evidence gathered by the Ombudsman during the course of the investigation revealed “many missed opportunities” to identify the help and support the woman needed, even though her daughter had raised concerns about her mum’s physical and mental health with the council.
The Ombudsman found that the woman, referred to in the report as Ms X, had missed out on receiving the proper care and a move to a safer property.
Her daughter, referred to as Ms Y, first highlighted that her mum’s property had been taken over by drug dealers – known as cuckooing – and she couldn’t take care of herself as far back as 2022, but Ms X died three years later before the council took any action.
After Ms X had been in and out of hospital, Brent Council did carry out a brief assessment in April 2025 and put a care package in place so she could be discharged. However, as Ms X had a number of medical conditions and her property was “in a poor state” after police evicted the squatters, she returned to hospital the following day.
In June 2025, the council accepted that Ms X was eligible for social care support and intended to put together a care plan for when she was discharged from hospital. The local authority also referred the case to the housing escalations surgery as Ms X needed sheltered or warden controlled accommodation to ensure her safety and wellbeing. Ms X sadly passed away before this could take place.
Ms Y, who filed the complaint to the Ombudsman, claimed the council’s actions left her mum “in an unsafe property, unable to look after herself and experiencing repeated admissions to hospital”. She also said she had to house her mum for five months, during which time she “experienced significant distress”, according to the report.
Brent Council has accepted responsibility for numerous faults in relation to the case, including that it:
- Failed to follow its internal safeguarding policy and procedures;
- Didn’t engage properly with Ms X about how to respond to her situation;
- Wrongly closed safeguarding enquiries without carrying out a risk assessment;
- Failed to identify the need to respond to clear indicators of risk;
- Failed to carry out a mental capacity assessment and;
- Did not address the serious risk of cuckooing.
The local authority claims it has since taken actions to address the procedural issues, such as improving management oversight of safeguarding enquiries, providing additional training for frontline staff, implementing regular communications audits, and introducing mandatory escalation procedures for complex cases.
The Ombudsman welcomes the “extensive procedural changes” that the council has introduced but emphasised their concern about the number of failures to take actions over the years. The report states: “The evidence I have seen satisfies me [that] the council missed many opportunities to identify Ms X’s vulnerabilities and the fact she needed help and support.
“I am concerned about that given the council knew about somebody taking over Ms X’s property, the property being in an unliveable state and Ms X being at risk of abuse. Despite that the council repeatedly closed safeguarding enquiries without carrying out the necessary assessments... I am also concerned [that] the documentation suggests officers did not act on safeguarding issues as they believed Ms X had capacity to make her own decisions and did not have care needs when the council had not carried out a proper assessment to reach those conclusions.”
The LGSCO also agreed that Ms Y experienced “distress and frustration” that nothing happened despite her repeatedly raising concerns with the council. The report added: “Ms Y also had the disruption of having Ms X, who had challenging behaviours, living in her property for some of the time when she has young children in the property.”
The local authority was ordered to apologise to Ms Y for the “distress and upset” caused by the council’s faults, as well as compensating her with a remedy payment of £750.
A Brent Council spokesperson said: “We fully accept the Ombudsman’s findings and have issued an full apology to Ms Y for the distress and upset she experienced. We acknowledge that there were shortcomings in the support provided to Ms X, and that the level of care fell short of the standards we are committed to delivering for our residents.
“In response, we have undertaken a thorough review and implemented substantial improvements to our processes to ensure that the procedural failures identified in this case are not repeated. We remain dedicated to learning from this experience and continually reviewing our service to provide consistently high-quality support to all those in our care.”
