A word from Rob Manning - Your Strategic Director of Resources

Hi everyone,

I’m glad to say someone has finally decided to turn on summer! I will be putting in a complaint to the powers that be around the continual delay and disappointment we all felt at the lack of sun during June!

It has been a hectic few months as you can see from the amount of great work and recognition in this newsletter, I am humbled by the sheer amount of work you all get through each and every day, all to hopefully help our residents lives be that little bit better.

I’m going to call out one incredible member of staff though if I may, please stand up Christina Lee, who during June showed how important and powerful human connection can be. She dealt with an extremely vulnerable resident, who was unfortunately contemplating suicide due to piling debts and having to live in her kitchen due to issues in her home. Christina acted with the same care and attention as if the resident were her own family member.

Christina took the time to find solutions for the resident, helping them to get Marie Curie nurses support, getting the right social worker involvement, listening and picking up on key areas that needed some action taken and taking the time to stop the negative thoughts. I was even humbled by Christina’s response when I thanked her for her efforts, she simply said “I was just doing my job”…… It is not an isolated case and the benefits service when they come across very vulnerable people go the extra mile to ensure their needs are addressed, for which I am truly thankful.

I appreciate the pressure each and every one of you feel in your day to day roles but if we can all just take that little extra mile for our residents like Christina, then bit by bit we will Waltham Forest an even better place.

I hope you all have a fantastic summer, manage to get a break away from work with family and loved ones. I will be attempting my first foreign holiday with my two girls on my own in August, which I won’t lie, I am a little nervous about it but I am sure it will work out ok in the end.

Thank you

Rob.

Achievements & Starters & Leavers

We love to hear and share all your achievements, well done to you all. 

Internal Audit & Anti Fraud

Sabina Rethdawala (Approved Financial Intelligence Officer) 

In addition to the good news last week about Renata’s success in acting up to the Senior Investigation Officer vacancy, I am delighted to be able to tell you that our current audit apprentices, Phil, Nate & Kevin K, have all been successful in their applications for the additional Internal Auditor roles which we created, and so will be joining us as permanent (and more importantly, promoted!) members of the team.

Amy has been successful in her application for the new Senior Internal Auditor role, and we look forward to welcoming her as a member of the management team.

Well done to all of them, and please do congratulate them when you see them!

Financial Services 

Isabella De Freitas Maalouf - Congratulations for passing her final exam and she is now a fully qualified CIPFA.

New Starters 

A warm welcome to all our colleagues who have joined us. 

Legal Services 

Jennifer Onwuzulike                    Legal Officer 

Grace Eisma                                 Family Lawyer 

Rachael Mitchell                           Family Lawyer 

Revenue Services 

Neesa Patel - Joined the Housing Benefit Overpayment team from the contact centre and also moved to Council Tax in 2020.

Leavers 

A farewell and good luck for the future for all those leaving us.

Revenue Services 

Ingrid De Souza                    

left the service 9.7.24 after many years of service and worked in Housing Benefit Overpayments prior to working in Council Tax in 2020.

Jorge Canal

will be leaving 23^rd July 2024

Legal Services 

Sarah Long                                   Litigation Lawyer 

Stephen Christopher                   Technical Systems Support Officer

Khalida Moula                              Family Lawyer 

Resources Senior Management Team Away Day

The Resources Senior Management Team had an away day at the Delta Hotel Waltham Abbey. We spoke about the past year and looked ahead at our future goals and aspirations that will help shape not only our Resources directorate but also ways in which we can support our Residents better.

Latest Team News

Financial Services 

The 2023/24 draft accounts have now been published for public inspection.  Although this is later than the statutory deadline, it has been a considerable effort this year as it was the first year end on Oracle. 

Many thanks to all in Financial Services for making this happen, in particular Farah and her team.

Legal Services 

I am very pleased to report that our Legal Services team were recently subject to a full inspection by the Law Society in relation to compliance with the Lexcel quality assurance standards – and they smashed it!

The assessor made some very helpful recommendations for improvements and also highlighted a number of areas where we are currently demonstrating good practice. These represent areas where we have notably exceeded what the Lexcel Standard requirements – which is amazing.

Some notable features of this assessment as stated in the report include:

• The systems in place to meet Lexcel and compliance requirements are generally well maintained and reviewed periodically and which are reflected in the positive findings during this assessment.

• The department’s legal framework is that of an in-house legal service provider with specific service requirements related to corporate department needs.
• The re-structure changes that have taken place over the last 12 months in an effort to reduce the number of agency and locum staff have proved positive and have been well received. 
• A very good training structure is available to all staff through the LBLA with input from all authorities on training needs with regular new opportunities circulated on a weekly basis.
• It was evident from staff interviews that staff feel valued, supported and included at all levels. ­
• It was evident from staff interviews that regular one to one’s, team and departmental meetings were taking place and which staff at all levels found to be informative and useful as well as adding value to their ongoing training, development and well-being needs.
• A well-established commitment to meeting client’s requirements is in its Client Care Policy, and Service Level Agreement.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their continued commitment, dedication and hard work. Special thanks to everyone interviewed and to Cynthia Bruno-Gaston and her team for all the planning and organisation.

Well done everyone!

Anti Fraud Team

Waltham Forest Council Fraud team recovers more properties than ever before to house people in need   

On Wednesday 10 July, the Corporate Anti-Fraud Team (CAFT) published their annual fraud report to the council’s Audit and Governance Committee. Throughout the year, CAFT work with our Housing Officers to prevent and detect housing fraud that happens at the expense of the council, borough and the residents.

In April 2023, a report by the Tenancy Fraud Forum and Fraud Advisory Panel estimated that 148,000 social housing homes in England are fraudulently occupied which is equivalent to a town the size of Middlesbrough. This puts a huge strain on local councils, leaving many people on lengthy housing waiting lists and increasing the risks of people becoming homeless because homes are not available to those who need them.

Between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024, CAFT has achieved the following results:

• Recovered 47 properties where there is an allegation of tenancy fraud.
• 42 properties are awaiting civil legal court action.
• 14 properties are awaiting eviction.
• Refused 7 housing succession applications (which are included in the recovered properties mentioned above).
• Stopped 7 Right to Buy applications as a result of investigations, which equates to £767,640 in maximum discount savings.

Cllr Ahsan Khan, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Housing and Regeneration, said “Waltham Forest Council takes the allegations of fraud extremely seriously and is committed to preventing, detecting and thoroughly investigating any fraud, corruption and dishonesty. Combatting housing fraud is high on our agenda, making sure that homes are made available for those who genuinely need them. These positive outcomes are the testament to the hard work of our diligent CAFT and Housing Officers working together to ensure that the people who live in our properties are the lawful tenants.”

Did you know there are many different types of housing fraud? These include unlawful subletting, housing application fraud, wrongful succession, abandonment and Right to Buy. Some cases are deliberate and committed purely for profit, while others can occur when family or friends try to help each other out by bypassing the application processes or providing misleading information. 

Every unlawfully sub-let council property deprives a genuine Waltham Forest housing applicant of the chance of a home. Help us stamp it out. If you have a genuine suspicion that a council property is being used for fraudulent activity, you can report this anonymously to a member of CAFT by using the link below.

BUTTON - Report Fraud

A picture from the CAFT cake cutting celebration at the Town Hall Foyer. Thank you to you all for your hard work and commitment!

More Team News!

Electoral & Democratic Services 

Our second election in two months is now over – delivered in only 40 days from Rishi Sunak’s announcement to the declaration of results. A huge thank you to all of you who supported the Electoral Services team in delivering these – whether you were opening postal votes, working in a polling station, counting votes or covering your own services while colleagues were out working elsewhere – the team are very grateful for all your support (and all the sweet treats!).

We employed approximately 450 staff at 125 polling stations (including some in Redbridge), 100 people to open and process postal votes and 250 staff to count the votes at the Feel Good Centre overnight – and that doesn’t include the support of colleagues in Service Store, the IT and web teams, Communications, Neighbourhoods, the Graduate programme and too many others to mention - so it really is a team effort. We hope those of you who had a role enjoyed it, and would be happy to do it again ... and for those of you who have yet to sign up, you can e-mail election.recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk, and we will add you to our mailing list.

We also employed a number of care experienced young people and Young Advisors to work across the various roles, which is a really positive project that we hope to develop even further for future elections. Thanks to colleagues in Children’s Services who supported us and the young people involved to make that happen ... and we hope that your own major short notice project, the Ofsted inspection, went well!

We had a record number of candidates standing in these elections, with six in Chingford and Woodford Green, eight in Leyton and Wanstead and ten in Walthamstow. Sir Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative) and Stella Creasy (Labour) were returned to Parliament in Chingford and Woodford Green and Walthamstow respectively, and Calvin Bailey (Labour) became the new MP for Leyton and Wanstead following John Cryer standing down before the elections. If you are interested, you can find the full results here.

That’s it now until the local elections in May 2026 ... let’s hope those are not famous last words!

Governance & Law On June 11th Governance and Law held it’s bi-annual all staff meeting in the council chamber. This was an opportunity to brief the full team on some of the things happening within G&L such as Lexcel accreditation (the Law Society’s quality assurance standards for solicitors) and the annual legal benchmarking exercise in Legal Services with other council legal teams across London , the opening of the new Mortuary and the Election – as well as some of the wider Council  initiatives such as Mission Waltham Forest, the decant from the Assembly Hall and Modern Ways of Working.  In addition, for the benefit of new members of staff, our service heads took the opportunity to introduce themselves and talk about the main roles and responsibilities of their respective teams. We were also pleased to be able to welcome the complaints team who have moved into G&L.

Return on Investments Team  Waltham Forest Services Ltd and the Return on Investment Team had arranged a volunteer’s day on 18/07/2024 to help with some site maintenance at The Hive.

The Volunteers Day has been a massive success with 40 volunteers signing up and helping with: Cleaning & treating the camping pods Weeding the walkway around the firepit Installing barks in the new play area pit The works the volunteers have completed made a massive difference on improving the site so that more school children can be in and connect with nature, learn about the climate and ecological crisis, which will equip young people make choices to protect the environment going into the future. A massive thank you to all volunteers as they have made a massive difference and made the occasion truly special.  A special shout out and thank you goes to Shanur Ali who organised the volunteering day and did a great job! MORTUARY East London Forensic Centre: Consulting Opportunity at Bays Business School Bayes   THE ENTREPRENEURIAL ADVISOR: PROBLEM SOLVING FOR EARLY-STAGE START-UPS  The five-week program, running from May 21st to June 25th, 2024, involved MSc Entrepreneurship students from Bayes Business School. This is the second year in a row Bayes have collaborated on a problem-solving project utilising East London Forensic Centre and Walthamstow public mortuary respectively.  This year’s project saw Bayes support the scoping of NHS England partnering with East London Forensic Centre for training new pathologists. Students applied their theoretical knowledge to address strategic challenges faced by early-stage ventures. Students presented their recommendations through a written report and an in-class presentation, with feedback from start-up founders and representatives. The report has facilitated us to better present our case to the Return on Investment team to understand how this workstream can generate income and address the problem of pathologist's shortage.   CT Scanning Services  The East London Forensic Centre has officially launched CT scanning for non-invasive post-mortem examinations. In addition to serving our own borough, we now extend our services to other areas such as East Ham and Haringey. Our facility is the first in London to offer post-mortem CT scanning, catering to Jewish and Islamic communities where noninvasive examinations are preferable for families.

Visit from the Chief Executive  We had the honour of hosting Linzi Roberts-Egan, Chief Executive of Waltham Forest, at our facility. Her visit marked a significant milestone in the council’s commitment to advancing forensic science and research in postmortem examinations.