Man left street homeless by Waltham Forest council for five weeks

A domestic abuse survivor was street homeless for five weeks, despite asking London Borough of Waltham Forest for help, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.

The man asked the council for help in late January and said he could no longer live with relatives who were abusing him. The council did not act, and the man again contacted the council in February, mentioning the domestic abuse.

The council did nothing to help the man until the middle of March, after the man’s representative threatened the council with legal action. It then offered the man hotel accommodation but did not act when the man said his abuser knew where he was staying, causing him distress.

The man also asked the council for help storing his belongings while he was homeless. But the council said it would not do this unless he paid them an upfront fee of £500 – money which he did not have. The man lost his possessions because he could not afford to pay.

During the period the man was in hotel accommodation, the council failed to confirm a hotel booking, meaning the man was again street homeless for three nights, during which time he said he was assaulted.

The Ombudsman’s investigation into the man’s complaint found the council failed to consider the man’s circumstances when he first approached it as homeless, and also failed to consider whether he was vulnerable as a result of the domestic abuse he suffered when he contacted it in February.  

The investigation also found the council could show no evidence of how it assessed the man’s hotel accommodation as suitable, and also criticised the council for the three-month delay in accepting it owed him the main housing duty.

Ms Amerdeep Somal, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said:

“Waltham Forest council let this man down when he approached it for help. A meeting was arranged when he first contacted the council, but no officer called. He told me he had to make repeated requests for assistance before the council took action and it was not until the council was threatened with legal action that it did anything practical to help.

“This should not have happened, and I am pleased the council has acknowledged the gravity of its errors and accepted the recommendations I have made. I hope other survivors of domestic abuse will be treated better in future.”

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman remedies injustice and shares learning from investigations to help improve public, and adult social care, services. In this case the council has agreed to apologise to the man and pay him £1,600 to acknowledge his distress and time he spent street homeless, its failure to consider the risk posed by the man’s abuser and the delay accepting the main housing duty.

It will also consider the man’s request for a review of its decision to place him in band 3 on its housing register.

The Ombudsman has the power to make recommendations to improve processes for the wider public. In this case the council will remind officers of the low threshold for triggering its duty to offer interim accommodation to people at risk of homelessness and who may be vulnerable. It has agreed to create an action plan to reduce its delays in considering the main housing duty to people in its area. It will also review its policy on how it protects the property of homeless people to ensure it complies with the law.

1 July 2025

Our Complaints Standards team has launched a new Model Complaints Handling Procedure (MCHP) for health and social care services in Northern Ireland.

This is a major step in our work to improve how complaints are handled across the sector. The new MCHP sets out clear stages, timescales and expectations for service providers and complainants.

For Carers Week (9^th – 15^th of June), we recorded a podcast with the Ombudsman Association to discuss our latest own initiative investigation, ‘Are we caring for our carers?’. An own initiative investigation means that we can investigate matters, where we have a reasonable suspicion of widespread maladministration or service failure by public bodies in Wales, even if we have not received a complaint about it from an individual. This latest investigation focuses on the administration of carers’ needs assessments in Wales, and how there is often inconsistent support offered across the investigated authorities.

In the podcast, we discuss:

• Why we focused on unpaid carers
• How system failures impact carers
• Recommendations made to public bodies to improve their processes
• Why we need to better support unpaid carers

You can listen to the podcast here.

England’s Health Ombudsman has warned of concerns about the diagnosis and care of stroke patients after the number of its investigations rose by two-thirds. 

The Ombudsman is urging clinicians to act quickly when they suspect a stroke, even if the patient presents with atypical symptoms. It is also important that clinicians involved in a patient’s care work together and communicate well to provide joined-up treatment. 

Between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2025, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) saw a 25% rise in complaints and a 65% rise in the number of investigations related to strokes. 

The Ombudsman has seen repeated failings in diagnosis, nursing care, communication, and treatment.

Rebecca Hilsenrath KC (Hon), Chief Executive Officer, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, said:

Over the past four years we have seen a significant rise in the number of complaints and investigations related to people who have suffered a stroke, including typical and atypical presentations. This is particularly concerning as early diagnosis is crucial in giving patients the best opportunity for successful treatment and recovery. 

 

“These investigations all represent instances where organisations involved have not identified a failing. It is important that the NHS operates in a learning culture and that when things go wrong clinicians recognise what has happened and put it right for those involved, as well as improve care and treatment for future patients.” 

PHSO recently carried out an investigation following the death of 86-year-old George Fawcett. His family complained to the Ombudsman after previously raising their concerns about George’s treatment with the University Hospital of North Durham and being unhappy with their response.

The great-grandfather-of-two from Spennymoor, County Durham died after suffering a spinal stroke which was not diagnosed for nine days. The Ombudsman found that with an earlier diagnosis he might have lived longer, potentially giving him and his family a few additional days together.

George, a former ambulance driver in the RAF, was admitted to the University Hospital of North Durham in May 2021. He was having chest pain, weakness in his legs and arms, and there had been a rapid decline in his mobility leading to paralysis.

An MRI was ordered but he was not immediately referred to the neurology department as he should have been. Then, after his scans were reviewed, he was wrongly referred to the orthopaedics department.

The orthopaedics team sent George back to neurology where doctors suspected he might have had a spinal stroke. 

Doctors should have referred him to a stroke unit within 24 hours but he was not seen by a stroke consultant until four days later. 

It was another three days before he was moved to a specialist unit at another hospital run by a different Trust. Clinicians there diagnosed him with a spinal stroke. 

George died two days later. His cause of death was heart failure and a heart attack, the secondary cause was a spinal stroke. 

While the Ombudsman found George’s death to be unavoidable, they concluded there were serious failings and his care fell below the standard expected. 

The PHSO investigation concluded that his stroke should have been diagnosed earlier than it was. Had this happened, he would have been moved to a specialist stroke centre earlier 

The Ombudsman also found that George was denied a dignified death as he developed pressure sores that weren’t treated properly at the University Hospital of North Durham.

PHSO recommended that the hospital Trust create an action plan to prevent this happening again and also apologise to George’s family and pay them a financial remedy. The Trust has agreed to comply.

George’s family initially complained to PHSO about other aspects of his care and were unaware until the Ombudsman began its investigation that he had suffered a stroke as early as he did and that doctors had failed to identify it.

George’s daughter, Sandra Todd, said:

The care my dad received was nowhere near the level it should have been and felt very fractured. We were raising concerns with the hospital all the time but no one would listen to us. That’s why we approached the Ombudsman, so that there could be an independent investigation into what happened and that’s how we finally learned the truth.

 

“My dad had some underlying health problems and had had a stroke 14 years earlier, but before he went to hospital he was independent, mobile, playing bowls several times a week, going shopping independently, and seeing his friends. 

 

“But the doctors at the hospital just seemed to dismiss him as an old man with mobility problems. They didn’t see what was really happening. Given his history of having a stroke before and his symptoms at the time, it was devastating to find out that they completely missed the signs. 

 

“We complained to the Ombudsman so that we could get justice for George and prevent this from happening again. We hope something positive will come from what the Ombudsman has found so that others don’t have to go through the same experience.”

Read the full investigation report.

The Ombudsman has written to the Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive to say she has commenced an 'own initiative' investigation into the organisation.

The decision follows the Ombudsman’s consideration of the Housing Executive’s response to her investigation proposal from earlier this year.

Click here for further details.