ROTTEN BOROUGHS
CARE BARE
SHOCKING failure in Haringey’s social work department, where negligent staff left more than 1,100 emails unread – including 500 police welfare reports.
The shameful backlog was exposed by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) during an investigation into what it described as the Labour-run council’s “inertia” over a vulnerable Haringey resident at risk of homelessness. Both the man’s friend and the emergency services had repeatedly – over a year – alerted Haringey to concerns about his vulnerability given his poor health and housing situation. But the council failed to act. The resident then fell during a seizure and suffered what the ombudsman described as “a life-changing injury”.