Blimey. Sloven don’t half love a briefing. Their briefing to NHS England about the Mazars review found its way to us earlier this week. They commissioned an independent review into (specific bits of) the Mazars review of their own practices of responding to particular deaths. Paid for by public money.
To distract myself from debilitating incredulity, I googled ‘what (the fuck) is a ‘briefing?’ A briefing basically identifies a problem and offers a rationale for a solution. Not rocket science.
Sloven’s ‘briefings’ are pretty disturbing and flaky. The now infamous Background briefing on mother’s blog circulated the day after LB died. [Howl]. Still packing a punch spiked with scotch bonnet chillies and rusty nails over two years on. [He died… He drowned in a bath. In ‘specialist’ NHS provision…?] The problem: a publicly documented account of love, health and social care failures and worse. The solution? The briefing ‘may help in shaping a tailored media response to the incident’.
An erasure of LB as a person. And so much more.
Then there was the David Nicholson/Monitor briefing (March 2014). The problem: that bloody mother (again), pesky #JusticeforLB campaigners and social media high jinks causing reputational damage. The solution? Discredit, bleat and block.
This latest briefing. The problem: an independent [yep, independent] review uncovering scandalous findings and clear evidence of eugenic/dehumanising practices. The solution? Discredit the review.
Chris Hatton has written about the Sloven attempts to discredit the Mazars review here. This morning we flagged up that the helpline on Sloven’s website for families who may be affected by the review no longer existed. As ever, their energies and attention focused solely on their reputation. Families? Forget it.
A clunky and late revision of their statement eventually appeared later today:
NHS England continue to delay publication. Relentlessly. It’s looking likely it will be pushed beyond the closing of the House of Commons on Thursday as ‘it needs to be clear about its messages as possible’. Wow. Quite some jostling for the winner of the scumfuckery public sector bastard of the year award going on here.
Here’s the latest briefing in full.
mydaftlife 
ok Southern Health misuse of data and falsehoods proclaimed all around by idiots, understood, address the imminent publication and be ready to support your families. December 16th, NHS England publish, grace taken to craft your response for the families and general public is up. Stand by your word with deed.
Sledgehammer. Nut. Still missed.
Has the hippocractic oath been replaced by arse covering charter?
Hippocratic Oath?
Since my experience of Sloven, I use the term ‘Hypocritical Oath”.
It doesn’t even seem to matter that it’s Christmas which is a time for reflection and hope, and a time for families, but the lack of care (for people, their families, Duty of Candour) goes on. It has to stop, as we already have terrorism of another kind.
Yet all these challengers of simple facts will be enjoying Christmas with their children, without any care for others who mourn theirs, or others who feel the misery of poor care happening now.
Professor Mohammed can’t write in plain English, and the culture of one report after another continues to waste vast amounts of precious public money.
It all came down to ‘Why did ward staff not care properly for a very vulnerable person, and why was family expertise ignored?’
So many parents of the vulnerable are often the most devoted, and no good parent of any child will ever give up – everyone at least understands that.
The most vulnerable need love, more than most people – parents must watch over them wherever they are. Staff are only useful if this happens.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists has for years recognised parents and families as ‘Partners in Care’, so when is all the nonsense going to stop?
I’m not a Christian, but this is Christmas. Love is the most essential part of care that must be there, and must be clearly stated on any care plan.
I emailed Professor Mohammed on Sunday. This is his reply:
“Thank you for your email. I am away on leave until after the New Year and therefore will not be able to respond to your email personally until then.”
Is he on genuine holiday or is he on leave whilst ‘on an earner’ with Sloven (using taxpayer’s money no doubt)? I think we should be told.
IAnon I was unaware that the Royal College of Psychiatrists recognised parents and families as ‘Partners in Care’. Sara surely wasn’t viewed as a ‘Partner in Care’ when Connor was in Sloven’s care. Was she?
However I agree that all you need is love and maybe having a good careplan that is adhered to and not just empty promises.
I thought I had been shocked already by Sloven’s ineptness and refusal to take FULL responsibility. Chris Gordon’s letter indicates astonishing wilful blindness and shamelessness.
I have little doubt that NHS England/Sloven are delaying publication until Parliament rises and probably until their senior officials disappear for two weeks over the festive season. As for the allegation of defamatory comments (although “killing” people [which implies intent] is excessive) why hasn’t Sloven sued?
This whole debacle warrants a further inquiry – into Regulators and Commissioners. Clearly for the last four years – they have been (at best) asleep on the job or (at worst) wilfully blind to what was going on at Sloven: I have prima facie proof of this. I also have proof of Sloven directors misleading various authorities (deliberately or by lack of diligence).
I am in the process of preparing an open letter to the Secretary of State urging him to commission a full Public Inquiry into broader aspects of this scandal – i.e. the conduct of NHS England, the CQC, Monitor and West Hampshire CCG (Sloven’s Lead CCG). Mid Staffs all over again – bring on Sir Richard Francis QC or perhaps Mazars again if their robust independence is proved when the report is finally published.
I am awaiting publication of the final report and then will share the open letter.
Just tried to call the ‘new’ helpline – 0300 3112233. It is not ‘new’ at all – it is the long-standing call centre for NHS England. They could not advise me about the Mazars Review: as usual, they asked me to write in. When I pushed the point, they hung up. That’s no going to be much use for distressed families, who might need counselling.
SHAME ON YOU SIMON STEVENS – I am still waiting for a reply to my letter to you dated 26 January 2015 in which I complained about a rude and offensive letter from one of your regional Medical Directors and generally about Sloven. Your office (not the mailroom) lost it – how’s that for security of sensitive NHS data? I sent a copy on 11 June 2015 and still await a reply. I can legitimately argue that you and NHS England were wilfully blind to the problems at Sloven.
I phoned the helpline Monday to query why I had not heard back in the time frame they had told me. They gave usual ‘unexpected call volume…’. When I ask why NHS England had had time to call sloven about my concern but not me ( I received a call from my brothers support team the day after I raised my initial concern with helpline), I was told my call would be made priority. I was called the next day from a few rungs up the ladder from sloven. Nothing from NHS England. So who is investigating the families concerns as it seems it’s only being passed to sloven to arse cover.
As they are a huge cabal, who are one and the same. Who are they going to charge/trust with this in view of self protection.
It appears, the usual PR to show they care on TV.
counting down with John Suchet 9 tis the season, no one gets to go home yet. Less than 24hrs until NHS England’s December board meeting. Any other business ? anyone
They seem to be learning rather a lot of lessons at the moment, don’t they, as the instances of poor care mount up. Don;t think the learning has much to do with improving care though. The energy seems to be going into finding plausible, or superficially plausible, ways of defending their reputation. Not all that good at “learning” there, either, but maybe a few more marks for shameless stalling and manipulating.
hoping NHS England announce nationwide reviews tomorrow morning to coincide with publication, just time for a pre recess mumble and home James and don’t spare the horses. Shameful inaction, mercifully only last minute nerves need settle now before the short straw puller is shoved into the spotlight. Dignified to the end.
Sloven has been issuing ‘learning’ reassurances for 4 years: put on the dunce’s cap! I have always found that ‘learning opportunity’ is a euphemism for ‘we’ve done something wrong but don’t want to admit it’.
Nothing on any other business yet. Have called the Board Secretary but she’s constantly unavailable and messages have not been returned. She is probably travelling to London for tomorrow’s Board Meeting so try her mobile, which I am informed is 07896 718350: I’ve had no luck with that yet either.
What is an outlier?
Ive googled it but none the wiser.
It would appear, that the majority of managers, particularly in the public, now almost private sector, are doing very little for their huge salaries- and, spending even more on consultants et al.
Its where a statistic sits outside of the expected or observed range.
For example, if average take up of direct payments in England was 25-30% and a council had a take up of 15% then that 15% figure is an outlier.
The big fear re Mazars is that Sloven are not an outlier but until the study is made of all trusts in this area, we won’t know.
The idea that a study can be made of just one trust and a determination of whether its an outlier can be made is somewhat baffling. Its a non-debate because not enough evidence is available.
Thanks John. So outlier can be more or less than the average.mean/medium.
Which is all nonsense, as we have not got an average for all trusts. And I assume, these are only the public trusts, not those trusts, who outsource to private hospitals like St Andrews.
What a mess. These are human beings, that they are paid 4000- 4,500 per week to care for, that would take you to a luxury spa.
And they appear to have less tracking devises than Amazon.
Thank you for getting back,
Best wishes, Finola
How’s this for an ‘OUTLIER’ – responding to a FOI request from MIND, Sloven admitted for 2011-12.
i) 3003 incidents of physical restraint against the average for England of 455.
ii) 3133 patients experiencing physical restraint against an average for England of 247
iii) 810 incidents of face down restraint, an especially risky procedure banned by many mental health trusts, against an average of 65 for England.
iv) 0 complaints relating to physical restraint, a figure that I proved was false!
Apparently, in preparing figures for complaints about restraint, Sloven does not check the complaints file! How’s that for logical thinking! You can see the excuse for this anomaly (and others) in Sloven’s recent letter to MIND accompanying a revised disclosure:
http://www.southernhealth.nhs.uk/foi/disclosure-log/?entryid32=100029&p=42
In short, in this incidence, it appears that most certainly Sloven is an extreme outlier – the wrong way!
I wonder if Prof Mohammed have reviewed Sloven’s own data.
Dont waste any more of your time on that question Finola! It’s a distraction, here’s why http://www.georgejulian.co.uk/2015/12/13/hidden-in-plain-sight-outing-the-outlier-argument-mazars/
No doubt I’ll be blinded by science…. that does not bear scrutiny
Thank you for the reference
Finola
Another definition of “outlier” could be “a convenient way of distracting attention from something we (the government, etc) don;t want you to notice. Trumpet the idea that 10 people got jobs through one of our wonderful schemes, and we can suggest that the thousands who didn;t are just outliers’
Completely agree Lizzie, in this case I’d say that is all that is going on!
Mark Neary’s analogy around ‘dead parrots’ very apposite and painfully accurate here.
Once this obscene outlier ruse is done to death by Sloven, there is always: were the people who died avoidably in Sloven more, or less, as dead in other organisations. Were families not informed or not involved in the un – investigated deaths of their loved one, as sad or distressed, equally across the sector? Were other failing similar orgs potentially more or less arrogant, incompetent and/or as badly led etc etc……..
Bradford Prof could, potentially, have a job for life.
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Smothered….?
ceasing to be, no. I am not going to let go of the question of how malnutrition contributed to a person’s death by drowning. It often pops into my head, presently supporting someone with mental illness who needs B12 injections, no one is monitoring. Good thing Mr Hunt is taking a snapshot nationwide in 2016. Hydration, nutrition and skin integrity. Starting with just the basic blunders early in January, leaving plenty of time for debate next time.
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