Posts

Private Eye reports that LBWF is England’s third most complained about council, while LBWF admits its own complaints procedure is so bad it brings ‘financial and reputational’ risks

August 17, 2026 Ombudsman 0

The latest issue of Private Eye (no.1681, 07/08-20/08/26) includes the following: Coincidentally, the LBWF 2025-26 Annual Governance Statement (AGS) has just been published, and this gives a dismal picture of how LBWF handles its own complainants. The AGS starts with the frank admission that ‘the current level of overdue complaints across both Stage 1 and Stage 2 does not meet the standards set out by the Ombudsmen, nor does it align with the level of customer service the council expects to provide to its residents’, and then goes on to explain why this is happening: What’s even more alarming, though, is that the AGS for 2024-25 made almost exactly the same points, and then outlined a raft o... »

New research reveals that LBWF repeated its failings over Whitefield many times elsewhere, suggesting it has had a more general child safeguarding problem than previously ever admitted

August 7, 2026 child safeguarding, LCSPR, Whitefield 0

As hitherto reported (see links), the recent Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review (LCSPR) of child abuse at Whitefield during 2014-17 concludes that (a) there were various problems with the pupils’ statutory education, health and care (EHC) plans; (b) some of the LBWF staff involved in the case lacked professional curiosity, and adopted the wrong focus; and (c) LBWF had worked with the other safeguarding agencies in a way which was ‘fragmented and lacked co-ordination’. The LCSPR provides no broader context for these failings, which is a pity, because a search through the relevant sources shows that they were by no means confined to Whitefield, either pre-2014-17 or after. In other words... »

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The Whitefield Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review (3): Leigh Day now pursuing civil claims including against the London Borough of Waltham Forest, and related press coverage

August 2, 2026 LCSPR, Whitefield 0

(1) Part of Leigh Day’s press release, posted on 30 July 2026: (2) Marco Marcelline in the Waltham Forest Echo, dated 30 July 2026: https://walthamforestecho.co.uk/2026/07/30/council-buried-whitefield-abuse-report-after-schools-legal-threat/   (3) Jonathan Ames in The Times, dated 31 July 2026:   (4) Noel Titheradge, the journalist who firsts broke the Whitefield story, for the BBC, dated 31 July 2026: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq89757z9vyo »

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The Whitefield Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review (2): more confusion and controversies

July 31, 2026 LCSPR, Whitefield 0

Further to an earlier post (see links) there are two additional points that are worth making about the contents of the Whitefield Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review (LCSPR). The first concerns what appears to be some confusion about basic facts. At paragraph 1.2, right at the start of the document, the LCSPR describes how, in 2014-17, children were locked in the ‘calming rooms’ for ‘prolonged periods of seclusion’, and subject to ‘inappropriate physical restraint’ and ‘other restrictive and harmful practices’. Plus, it continues, this went on without attracting much, if any, attention: ‘The review found no evidence of direct concerns raised by ... »

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Burnham-ism: a warning from (Waltham Forest) history

July 23, 2026 Independent Panel, LBWF spin, The BNI, Uncategorized 0

Yes, definitely, let’s devolve power and money to the localities, because ‘communities know better than anyone else what’s right for them’. Power to the people! What could possibly go wrong? Well, if this story is to be believed, plenty. In the early 2000s, the government gave LBWF many millions of public money to help the most deprived neighbourhoods in the borough. Now read on. Postscript It’s important to add that the police did not act on my complaint, and accordingly it should be underlined that none of those mentioned in this article were found to have engaged in any kind of illegal activity. However, it turned out that this was the first shot in what was a long campaign, a campa... »

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