LBWF promises always to ‘put people first’, but as yet another example demonstrates, this is a fiction

Renowned Waltham Forest campaigner James O’Rourke spends a good deal of time looking out for his brother, who has a learning disability and resides in supported living accommodation.

Like many people in similar situations, taking on this responsibility brings Mr. O’Rourke into regular contact with LBWF, and this has caused him and his brother serial problems.

In a recent e-mail to a senior officer about an aspect of his brother’s legal situation, Mr. O’Rourke explains in detail the kind of obstacles they have been forced to contend with:

‘Thank you for your recent update.

While I appreciate your correspondence, I must express my deep concern at the consistent communication breakdown from within the Health and Adult Social Care Directorate. It is frankly unacceptable that crucial information…has not been forthcoming from officers within the Directorate. As someone with lived experience – as a former social worker, a former Councillor, and now as a carer navigating this system – it is disheartening to witness such disregard for transparent engagement with residents who fund these services, and I find it troubling that such neglect persists under the current leadership.

The lack of transparency and engagement appears symptomatic of a wider culture of indifference – one that appears to extend from senior officers to the political leadership charged with oversight. For those entrusted with the welfare of our most vulnerable residents, this systemic disregard for due process and basic communication is indefensible.

The persistent lack of basic communication reinforces the perception that some within the Directorate view accountability and public service as optional. This is not a sustainable position for those entrusted with safeguarding the rights and wellbeing of vulnerable people’.

This is a sorry state of affairs, but doubly so, because when contacting this blog, many others who are struggling with LBWF-related problems describe their experiences in almost exactly the same way.

The rhetoric is all about putting residents first, but when push comes to shove, empathy, even common helpfulness, quickly disappears out of the window.

As the then LBWF Head of Media, Eddie Townsend, so memorably put it at a local government round table last year, the blunt truth is that ‘The more people come into contact with the council, the less satisfied they are’.