** INTERNAL APPLICANTS ONLY **

Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest

Salary: PO1 £42,492 - £45,123

Contract Type: Full Time/Fixed Term Contract or Secondment (12 Months)

Working hours per week: 36

Application Deadline: 23/10/2026

Proposed Interview Date(s): 29/10/2026 and 30/10/2026

Reference: 2369

About Us:

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.

We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.

London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London’s Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.

The Council’s preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative application method.

About the role:

The Complaints Officer role focuses on investigating Stage 2 complaints across a range of Council services, providing detailed responses on behalf of the Chief Executive, and supporting the Council’s Link Officer with the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. The post holder is responsible for ensuring complaints are handled fairly, thoroughly and within agreed timescales, while supporting residents through complex and sensitive issues.

The role also plays a key part in driving service improvement by analysing complaint trends, identifying recurring service failures, recommending corrective actions, and working with service areas to embed learning from complaints.

>> Click here to download the Role Profile <<

Key Responsibilities:

Conduct Stage 2 complaint investigations across Council services, ensuring complaints are investigated thoroughly, fairly and within agreed timescales.
Prepare detailed complaint responses on behalf of the Chief Executive and provide appropriate remedies where service failures have occurred.
Support the Council's Link Officer with requests from the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, by coordinating and submitting comprehensive responses to enquiries and investigations.
Work with service areas to identify lessons learned from complaints, recommend improvements, and ensure corrective actions are implemented.
Analyse complaints data, identify trends, monitor recurring service failures, and produce reports to support performance monitoring and service improvement.
Review policies, procedures and practices that contribute to complaints and make recommendations to improve service delivery.
Provide advice and guidance on complex, sensitive and escalated complaints matters to managers and colleagues.
Deliver high standards of customer service, including supporting residents in person where necessary and handling challenging or emotive situations professionally and sensitively.

Qualifications and Requirements:

To be considered for this position, you should meet the following requirements:

Experience of investigating complex complaints and resolving customer issues.
Knowledge of complaint handling procedures and best practice.
Understanding of the roles of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
Experience of analysing evidence, legislation, policy and procedures to reach balanced decisions.
Knowledge of local government services and the challenges facing public services.
Strong investigative skills to gather, evaluate and weigh evidence objectively.
Excellent written communication skills, with the ability to draft clear, professional and persuasive responses.
Analytical skills to identify root causes, trends and service failures.
Communication and influencing skills to challenge services appropriately and secure improvements.
Organisation and time management skills to manage competing priorities and meet deadlines.
Ability to handle sensitive, complex and high-profile complaints with professionalism and impartiality.

Terms and conditions:

The below terms and conditions apply to this role:

Satisfactory employment references;
Satisfactory declaration of interest;
As a public authority, we must ensure that members of staff in public-facing roles are able to speak fluent English. This means that they must have a command of spoken English, with confidence and accuracy, sufficient for the effective performance of their role. This requirement does not refer to any particular English language qualifications, regional or international accents, dialects, speech impediments or the tone of conversations. It does not require staff to speak only in English.

How to Apply:

Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the ‘Apply’ button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

Contact Information:

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Jo Tanner, Interim Head of Complaints at jo.tanner@walthamforest.gov.uk

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.

To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.

For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us.

Fraud Awareness Notice:

The London Borough of Waltham Forest only advertises vacancies via our official website and approved recruitment platforms (e.g. Jobsgopublic).

We will never ask for payment or request sensitive personal or financial information as part of our recruitment process.

If you are contacted by a third party claiming to represent the Council, please verify the vacancy via our official careers website before sharing any information.

If you have concerns about a job advert or communication, please report it to:
fraud@walthamforest.gov.uk

Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice.