LBWF’s promise to put ‘residents at the heart of everything we do’ yet again revealed to be a sham

Renowned Waltham Forest campaigner James O’Rourke has appeared in posts on this blog before.

He is a highly qualified expert, a Family and Friend Representative, Learning Disability England; an Independent Panellist for NHS England’s Care, Education and Treatment Review programme; and a Member of the Adult Social Care All Party Parliamentary Group.

In addition, he spends a good deal of time looking out for his brother, who has a learning disability and resides in supported living accommodation, and in this latter role, he has regular contact with LBWF.

An earlier post looked at one of these interactions which was highly unsatisfactory (see links below), and recently there has been a repeat.

In late November 2025, Mr. O’Rourke received an unexpected acknowledgement about a complaint from LBWF in his inbox.

Puzzled, he immediately responded, asking which complaint this referred to.

Three months passed, and at the start of this month he finally received a reply:

‘Dear Mr O’rourke [sic]

Thank you for your recent complaint received on 27 November 2025. I would like to thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention.

We aim to provide you with a written response by ???. If there are any delays in providing you with a response we will let you know.

In the meantime, if you have any further queries about your complaint please contact [XXXX], ???, on ???.

You have the right to escalate your complaint at any time via the LGSO Ombudsman, advice@lgo.org.uk, or the Housing Ombudsman, info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk. 

Yours sincerely
[XXXX]’

(NB the’???’ are in the original, the name of the writer redacted to [XXXX])

Given the lateness and shoddiness of this response, Mr. O’Rourke has asked LBWF Chief Executive Linzi Roberts-Egan and the ubiquitous Head of Government and Law Mark Hynes to comment, and it will be interesting to see what they come up with.

Meanwhile, a couple of observations.

First, in the last few years, LBWF has spent a large amount of public money on what it calls a Mission based approach to services and delivery (see links).

Amongst the principles involved is an explicit recognition that ‘Residents are at the heart of everything we do’, and relatedly an ambition to ‘Build strong and supportive relationships that seek to understand and respond to what matters and is important to residents, founded on trust and so they feel listened to and know their experiences matter’.

However, what seems to have been overlooked in this welter of syrupy words, as Mr. O’Rourke’s experience and much other evidence demonstrates, is any similar emphasis on the prosaic, but much more crucial, matter of ensuring that staff to do the basics of their jobs properly.

Second, if LBWF treats someone even as qualified as Mr. O’Rourke in this offhand way, what hope is there for the rest of us?