Monthly Archives: September 2016

Unpacking the Smart move

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Blimey. Does anyone know what’s going on? Record breaking levels of absurdity… I recommend watching Broken Trust which was shown last night on BBC South. Just contrast the contributions of the families, public, rebel governors with the performances by Percy and Smart. [A limitation to the programme was it didn’t shine the spotlight on the other, good for nothing, crap execs and non execs (Gordon, Grant, Stevens, Spires and Bezzaman and co) but it was only 26 minutes long…]

To summarise where (I think) we’re at (for the next 12 hours or so…) and not spelling out the crapitude both Smart and Percy demonstrate in this film (and their actions).

  • KP is no longer Sloven CEO.
  • She moved into a “new role” at the same salary and without following HR processes and procedures.
  • She moved because of media attention.
  • She then allowed a film crew to follow her for a day and coax utterly reprehensible reflections out of her.
  • She is “uniquely qualified” for this, so far, unnamed new role.
  • We don’t know what those unique qualifications are, but I think most of the UK population following this sordid little tale would agree, they ain’t jumping off the page and really, we should know if there are any.
  • The new role is now not a new role.
  • It’s part of her old job (CEO).
  • Apparently the part that took 1 day every two weeks.
  • She will be doing this new tiny part of her old job for 12 months on a CEO salary.
  • Smart’s definition of corruption doesn’t include lies, cover ups or deception.
  • Smart’s credentials for trouble shooting a failing trust are looking pretty flakey.
  • He has managed (with the apparent blessing of NHS Improvement) to piss on the lives of families shattered by sustained failings over the last five years.
  • It hurts him to meet bereaved families.
  • A patient left Sloven’s mental health services alive [positive end piece].

We are in Laurel and Hardy territory.

Stay classy y’all.

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Postscript: In case anyone missed it, My Life My Choice have washed their hands of the Sloven leadership (and feature in the programme). Telling it like it is. You delivered nothing.

The Bode files

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Still struggling to absorb the latest leaked documents: two letters from Carol Bode, previous Sloven board chair, to Monitor (now NHS Improvement) flagging concerns in 2011 and to Alistair Burt in July 2016.

The 2011 letter is 9 pages long with appendices. My first response, other than horror, was surprise to read an authoritative, sensible and thoughtful letter. Our communications from Katrina Percy and other Sloven execs have been grim, silly, hot air, lying bullying bullshite. Exemplified by the letter Katrina Percy sent me in August 2014 but also Simon Waugh categorically denying Sloven were monitoring my blog.

The back story is Hampshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (HPFT) merged with Hampshire Community Healthcare (HCHC) [Katrina Percy’s stamping ground] creating Sloven in 2011. Senior HPFT bods left and within a short space of time HCHC directors dominated the board. A cheeky little Percy coup d’état with only Helen McCormack remaining from HPFT by 2013. Extraordinary and deeply alarming. Particularly, as Bode raised issues around the expertise of the board two years earlier:

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Not only foundation trust expertise but also mental health and learning disability expertise. Before the Ridgeway takeover… [Howl]

Though carefully worded, Bode also raised issues around Percy’s leadership approach:

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Sadly, there were no fresh eyes. Simon Waugh, the replacement board chair was replaced by Mike Petter, an old mate of Katrina Percy’s from her pre-Sloven days. A now familiar path of rewarding mates with jobs/contracts.

In her letter to Alistair Burt, after Smart’s board judgement on June 30 this year, Bode states:

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If only Monitor had listened and acted… These pages could still be filled with hilarious anecdotes.

You fucking bastards.

PostScript: Thank you for trying, Carol. And thank you to the peep/s who send us these documents. There remains nothing like transparency and candour within official channels.

When troubleshooting goes bad…

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Blimey. More documents pinging mysteriously into the Justice shed. Including a letter written by the then Sloven board chair to Monitor (now NSH Improvement) raising serious governance concerns in 2011. [Yes. Really]. At first graze, a dense, detailed, informed, harrowing and enraging addition to an apparently unlimited evidence pile highlighting Sloven governance failing.

I’m typing this post listening to Laura Veirs. A vague balm. Rich and I have spent the last three days since the faux announcement of Katrina Percy’s (yet to be properly confirmed) ‘resignation’ in a harsh and agitated space. It’s not about her, as a person. It was never about her as a person. Blimey. She didn’t make it to the Connor Manifesto. But it’s becoming more and more about her. 

Percy failed to lead effectively. We all know that. The board failed, and continues to fail, as an executive board. The Council of Governors remain split between an enlightened minority and the waste of space rest. There remains a consistent and shocking lack of competence, authority, knowledge and sense among both the board and council. Backfilled with a frenzied focus on reputation and apparently unlimited funds to buy in whatever spurious consultancy or legal support they think will magic away the disorder that surrounds them.

Deeply depressingly, the documents leaked to us today were shared with Tim Smart to provide context to his review of the board. Now we don’t know (I don’t think anyone really knows) what Smart based his (30 June) judgement of the board on. We do know he scathingly dismissed the Mazars review during the meeting with My Life My Choice and we now know he must have dismissed the serious concerns raised by the board chair back in 2011.

We also know he agreed to the very recent secondment of Sandra Grant and Flash Gordon to new pastures (as well as gifting Percy a substantially reduced role on a CEO salary). Why you would give a board under serious scrutiny a clean bill of governance health and then start seconding execs five minutes later is a mystery. Oh. Unless you finally, and belatedly, realise the board is as grubby as they come.

Indeedy, it’s probably about time some of the spotlight shifts to Smart and Jim Mackey (the CEO of NHS Improvement My Arse). What this pair of muppets are doing is beyond me. Did they really not anticipate the inevitable backlash against such offensive and scandalous news? Did Smart not realise erasing all whiff of failure in Percy’s leaving statement, blaming press interest, would simply enrage and inflame? What an almighty pigs ear of executive and regulatory ‘action’.

Ironically, one of the biggest failings here is candour and transparency. From where we’re sitting, it appears Smart made the wrong judgement on June 30 because he is incapable of listening. Days later Michael Buchanan broke the news about dodgy contracts. Patient deaths are clearly nothing compared to doshing your mates £millions for going viral nonsense. Once Roy Lilley was on Radio 4 condemning the spiralling of a £300k contract to £5m, the writing was on the wall. Failing governance a go go.

Instead of a clean sweep, an acknowledgement of failings – of letting down hundreds of patients and their families, of a board gone bad – Smart, Mackey (and Hunt?) ballsed it up. Big time. Generating more media attention and public outrage than the publication of the report revealing that Sloven investigated less than 1% of the unexpected deaths of learning disabled people over four years. A report that led to the appointment of Smart as the troubleshooting interim chair.

What a stinking mess. Do the right thing someone. Please.