🦚 A Formal Complaint Regarding Mr. Gary Apple: A Failure of Leadership, Responsibility, and Response
Filed under the solemn documentation of executive dereliction and institutional dormancy.
2025.04.03
To: complaints@rbkc.gov.uk
Subject: Formal Complaint Regarding Mr Gary Apple – A Failure of Leadership, Responsibility, and Response
🧾 Dear Custodians of Civic Rectitude,
I write once again from the precipice of incredulity —
not in response to any new calamity, but in sustained disbelief at what has not occurred: namely, the basic fulfilment of professional duty by Mr. Gary Apple, Director of Family and Children’s Services at RBKC.
Despite bearing a title that implies oversight, accountability, and executive function, Mr. Apple has, in practice, served as little more than a decorative figurehead presiding over institutional dysfunction.
I have contacted him directly on multiple occasions, presenting detailed concerns regarding:
Repeated failures to implement reasonable disability adjustments;
Factually inaccurate assessments and unsupported safeguarding narratives;
Inappropriate conduct by social workers during official visits.
These are not abstract grievances.
They concern lived harm — avoidable trauma, compromised health, and systemic discrimination — sustained firsthand by my child and myself.
And yet, Mr. Apple has chosen the path of strategic dormancy:
No substantive reply.
No visible intervention.
No credible stewardship.
📜 Dereliction, Documented
Mr. Apple’s silence is not merely impolite.
It is institutionally consequential.
His failure to act upon repeated, serious concerns has permitted:
Misconduct by subordinate staff to proceed unchecked;
The continued denial of disability rights, in direct contravention of legal obligations;
Sustained emotional and physical distress, without corrective safeguarding action.
A Director of Family and Children’s Services is not merely a ceremonial recipient of correspondence.
He is — or ought to be — a steward of public trust.
Mr. Apple has abdicated that responsibility — not once, but repeatedly and systematically.
🧾 Requested Redress
Accordingly, I respectfully request:
A formal investigation into Mr. Gary Apple’s failure to respond to, or act upon, repeated safeguarding, discrimination, and misconduct complaints;
Clarification of internal expectations — if any — governing senior officers' responsibilities when receiving safeguarding concerns from disabled parents;
A written response devoid of vague assurances, template platitudes, or euphemistic non-apologies.
📜 Final Remarks
Let us not pretend that this is a mere “communications issue.”
Mr. Apple’s inaction is not passive.
It is permissive.
It has enabled harm, eroded public trust, and cast serious doubt on whether RBKC's senior leadership retains even a passing acquaintance with the principles of child and family protection.
In the absence of leadership, what remains is only hierarchy —
and that, I fear, is precisely what this borough has become.
I await your written response — though not, alas, with optimism.
Yours,
With due formality and constitutional exactitude,
Polly