Bill Mumford resigned from the Winterbourne JIP today after a second incident of abuse was discovered at a MacIntyre school. Media coverage of this largely focuses on the impact on the (failing) Winterbourne JIP. Abuse schamuse really. No flicker of interest.
Odd, given this is what sparked the setting up of the Winterbourne JIP.
Why is this? Why’s the discovered/alleged abuse of learning disabled kids or young adults largely irrelevant in the reporting?
Naming these incidents ‘safeguarding issues’ probably contributes. It sounds so benign compared to the graphic images portrayed in the Panorama documentary. Combined with the swift shutting down of any discussion about it. Only a few days ago, Mark Lever, Chief Exec of the National Autistic Society wrote a moving piece about the importance of providers’ sharing occasional failures openly for #107days. He pledged to convene a roundtable with providers to explore this further. Openness has to be the way forward. Bill Mumford today said that MacIntyre have been asked not to make any further comment while the police investigation is underway. Bill published a similar statement on the Local Government Association website about the first incident in which he discussed stepping down from the JIP.
I’ve been thinking about this whole keeping schtum while investigations are being done recently. We’re blanketed by investigations at the mo. Staff (possibly though still haven’t been informed), police and a serious case review. You’d think my posts would be looking like the set of redacted emails from Sloven. Or my blog would have been disappeared.
Nah. Seems like I can say quite a lot about what happened without the earth caving in. Not everything. But quite a lot. So I’m left thinking (and please, lovely legal eagles who stumble across this blog, feel free to send me a short, sharp ‘shut the fuck up tedious, raging woman‘ if necessary) that the ‘can’t possibly say a word till after the investigation/trial/inquest/’ is a bit of a tool used to control and silence people. And contain the truth.
More than happy to be put right on this.
That there are continued instances of abuse, over decades now, seems to call for a bit more openness and transparency. And something else. The traditional processes clearly ain’t working.
mydaftlife 
Hi Sara, I tweeted about this when it happened, came on my radar via google alerts, was in a local BBC web report. Later tweeted CBF as I did not see them cover it, which I thought was really odd considering their campaign. Think I may have deleted that tweet as it was quite self righteous, but will check! Again tweeted about it when Mencap sold 3 residential colleges to a private firm that also provide a number of out if area inpatient services of people with learning disabilities, which seemed really quite hypocritical considering their current campaign. This created anger from a couple of people in twitter. Running services and campaigning for everyone else to make theirs better doesn’t seem to go hand in hand. Largely ignored by the learning disability press and charities.
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A ‘good’ reason for not making any further comments is the fear that anything said publicly could be used in defence if an abuser was prosecuted. Prosecution is a way to punish abusers and prevent them working in care again. And at the moment these are just allegations.
Yes, but that’s a bit of a broad brush. Saying absolutely nothing is way too extreme.