Had a bit of a tense convo with the Director of Social Care on Monday. Their crap old report had been sent to Verita to be included in their broader review. And OCC’s legal team wrote in response to our questions about this review: “As we indicated it did not seem appropriate for the Council to seek your client’s involvement at that stage [during the review] given that she would have an opportunity to be involved with the Verita investigation and could make her comments in relation to the Council’s report as part of that.”
Wow.
So Sunday was spent correcting that crappy old report. A process that made me feel ill (I always feel crap these days but the work and emotion this task involved was too much). Around 4pm on Sunday I sent a shirty email saying I’d be invoicing the council for the work involved.
Anyway, the call on Monday was a waste of time. He wasn’t budging on his defence. It was fine to do such an investigation without our knowledge or involvement. It was fine to send the review to me by email out of the blue on a Monday morning. OCC had done nothing wrong. And the like. At one point he said in exasperation “You do things the wrong way, Sara. We offered you a meeting when we sent the report and you put your comments online for other people to read.”
Another brain melt moment.
Sorry Mr J. Putting stuff online is the only way to make visible the sneaky and deceitful practices that operate both within Sloven and OCC. Where families have little or no power. Given you commissioned and published this report without our knowledge, and were made to disclose it to us a few weeks ago, you really ain’t in a good place to talk about the wrong or right ways of doing stuff.
Reimbursement for my time was refused. With a classic and again dishonest statement;
Whilst I appreciate the time and effort you have spent reviewing the report, this report was an internal review to highlight any learning for Oxfordshire County Council.
mydaftlife 
And they have learned? What? Fuck-all worthwhile, is what.
And that’s ‘Dr. Ryan’ to you, Mr. D. ASS.
Despite all Mr. D. ASS’s protestations, this report never was for internal use and learning only, either, was it? It
was always intended for wider circulation/consumption – by Verita, by the coroner – and all the secrecy was aimed at getting their slopey-shouldered retaliation in first. They only passed a copy on to you because given that intended wider circulation was underway they really couldn’t keep it from you any longer.
Utter, utter bastards.
Woohooooo……an admission that they needed to learn something! That surely means they got something wrong and so needed to learn from it. Huzzah!
Whilst they are on a roll with this learning thing, how about adding something else to the mix…something like…treating families with openness, honesty and respect when their child has died an ‘unnecessary death’ in your care is the absolute very least you can do. Spending your time instead in a state of devious denial is just a tad naughty really.
Again and again my mind goes into free fall. Such corruption. Hang in there Sara we are all behind you.
I am going to sound like your Mother or someone’s Mother now. It is vitally important that you do not implode or explode . You have done amazingly well so far , let your mind return to the magic of the exhibition .
I’ll do my best Nic, though it gets tougher as time goes on with even more crapshite stuff happening. Magic indeedy 🙂
Although this isn’t the same as my (and Karen’s) case it is all so familiar – I’m afraid you don’t count in all this which is what I also found. It’s disgraceful and the more angry you get the more they’ll cover up and block you – and be saying things behind your back – which is what I found out in our case by FOI…..
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