Housing Complaints & Service Improvement Manager in Walthamstow

Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest

Salary: PO8 £59,511 - £62,766

Contract Type: Full-time/ Permanent

Working hours per week: 36

Application Deadline: 02/10/2026

Proposed Interview Date(s): w/c 12/10/2026

Reference: 2326

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 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.

About the role: This role will lead and develop an exceptional complaints and enquiries service, prioritising customer experience and ensuring compliance with the Housing Ombudsman’s Code. It will also lead on the design and implementation of a continuous service improvement framework, using all sources of resident insight data and sector good practice to deliver a programme of insight-driven improvements, ensuring operational services are compliant with regulatory requirements. The post-holder will implement mechanisms to identify systemic issues and emerging trends, identifying root causes of issues and working with service leaders to apply learning and implement service improvements, improving the service from the customer perspective. Ultimately this should aim to build a strong ‘resident first’ culture, ensuring that residents are supported when making complaints and positive resolutions are reached.

Key Responsibilities:

• To build a strong and effective Housing Complaints and Improvement Service
• To ensure complaints are managed in line with the Housing Ombudsman Service Complaint Handling Code
• Oversee responses to Housing Ombudsman orders and ensure they are actioned and responded to within the required timescales.
• Lead, initiate, plan and direct activities and ideas to implement a programme of service improvement projects and initiatives, driven by all sources of resident insight data
• Lead the development of a comprehensive customer insight framework
• Foster and maintain a culture of innovation, creativity and continuous improvement
• Ensure the effective analysis of complaints, identifying patterns and trends to address systemic issues
• Lead the analysis of Housing Ombudsman Failures in service determinations and identify where service improvement is required
• Support a resident-centric culture, encouraging employees to take ownership of complaint resolution and see feedback as an opportunity for growth.

Qualifications and Requirements:

• Experience of managing within a complex / high volume complaints handling environment or equivalent.
• In-depth understanding of complaints management frameworks and best practices.
• Experience of managing improvement projects, working to time, budget and quality in a large organisation.
• Experience of working within housing services.
• Experience of interpreting and applying complex legislation and or regulations to particular situations and the ability to engage in debate about these issues.
• A good understanding of the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code.
• Familiarity with relevant regulatory requirements and the ability to maintain effective relationships with all internal and external stakeholders.
• Strong analytical skills to identify trends, conduct root cause analysis and drive continuous improvement initiatives.
• Experience of report writing and communications for a variety of audiences, demonstrating numeracy and literacy, and applying expert knowledge.
• Experience of presenting complex statistical data to a range of stakeholders in an accessible and actionable format, strong mathematical and analytical skills.
• Able to act as an ambassador for the Council demonstrating professionalism and setting an example by displaying an active commitment to a culture that embraces excellent customer service.
• Proven experience of budget planning and management.
• Proven track record of strong people leadership skills.
• Experience of influencing, persuading and negotiating to achieve positive outcomes.
• Exceptional verbal and written communication and interpersonal skills to build rapport with residents, regulators and internal stakeholders.
• High levels of personal resilience & integrity.
• Excellent IT skills with a detailed understanding of MS Office especially MS Excel.
• Level 4 Housing Qualification (desirable), or willingness to work towards Level 4 Housing Qualification if not already held (essential).
• Educated to degree standard or equivalent, or qualified through experience.

Terms and conditions:

The below terms and conditions apply to this role: Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks; 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.

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 how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.

We are a Home Office–licensed sponsor; however, for this specific role we are not able to provide Skilled Worker visa sponsorship. To be considered, you must already hold a form of UK work authorisation that does not require sponsorship. 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 Jack Barden-Baldan, Head of Housing Engagement & Service Improvement at Jack.Barden-Baldan@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.

Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.