Category Archives: Oxfordshire County Council

‘Painted a different colour’ and the picnic spot

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Another day, another shower of Sloven related shite. The (one hour) Sloven extraordinary governor’s meeting next Tuesday has been ‘transformed’ [painted a different colour] into a set of observations by pretty much everyone other than the caretaker and cleaners who I suspect would have more sensible and insightful reflections than the newly appointed interim board chair, improvement director, nursing director, CEO and two other random peeps listed on the agenda. The emergency motion that generated the meeting has been pushed to a secret session after public questions. Within the one hour meeting.

Yep. Really.

[Essential context here from George Julian, Mark Aspinall and Peter Bell].

Beyond unacceptable. And so disappointing from Tim and the Turnaround Team. Big sis, Agent T, texted this morning in frustration to say ‘I don’t know why they surprise us every time. I think there must be a hint of not being pushed (or seen to be pushed) by some pesky families…’ This echoes Tom saying

The ridiculous thing about all of this is that when I look at what families demand from Southern Health and the way that they just don’t change I sometimes worry that maybe we are asking a lot or being unreasonable. But then I list the demands of the families and they shouldn’t even be demands, they are such basic requests that if asked on behalf of any other group in society would’ve been dealt with straight away with no barriers. So why does it take so long when it’s for those with learning difficulties?

Agent T and Tom are both right. We ain’t being unreasonable or pesky. We’re calling a failing trust out. Repeatedly. With enough evidence to sink a Sloven flotilla. Sloven, meanwhile, have shown no signs of recognising/acknowledging failings. Tom captures this brilliantly in his post.

Hey ho.

We’ll be heading to the Lyndhurst Community Centre on Tuesday for the unfolding of the fake governors meeting. Meeting My Life My Choice champs at Oxford station, picking up Agent T and Ally Rogers en route and hooking up with George Julian and others somewhere in the New Forest.

  • None of us should have to do this.
  • Thoughtful action by enlightened governors shouldn’t be closed down as it has been

I just hope there’s a good spot for a picnic after and a bit of sunshine. Sounds like we’ll be booted out sharpish.

In related news, My Life My Choice received a second mysterious letter recently. Written to then board chair, Simon Waugh, in May 2014. Copied into Monitor and NHS England. Wonder if they will be there on Tuesday?  I’m sure we’ll have enough egg sarnies and a flask of tea or two to share…

SW 1 SW2

 

The message

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My blood chilled, 20 seconds or so into the message left on my phone at work, when the caller seamlessly tipped from being sorry that LB died to calling me a vindictive cow. And didn’t hold back from sticking the boot in.

Another day. Another Sloven related failure.

The kids, love em, and their cousins/mates, were instantly outraged, enraged and upset. Their united, supportive and vocal position, that this is so fucking wrong, continues to be one of the lights shining through this complete fuck up. Combined with widespread condemnation by so many others.

The call is vitriolic, nasty and beyond inappropriate. But it’s simply part of a set of improbably, inappropriate, nasty and worse responses we’ve endured since LB died. Evidence of a system in which defensiveness, bullying and family crushing flourishes.

Just a few examples:

The letter from Katrina Percy.

The Dr Crapshite stuff and mother blame.

The Oxfordshire County Council commissioner’s  letter to disability activists

The Sloven briefing to David Nicholson…

This afternoon, Luciana Berger tabled an Urgent Question in parliament about Sloven. There was anger, much sense and serious concern demonstrated by those present. (Not Burt). John Bercow concluded the debate stating that Sloven need to see the Hansard documentation of the debate. Good.

But not good enough.

We’re beyond weary. Bouncing between extreme love for the likes of Luciana Berger, Norman Lamb, Paul Lelliott and others at the CQC, Andrew Smith, Deb Coles (and the unfailing support and contributions of #JusticeforLB campaigners).   And the pin drop pots of non action wedged within the Department of Health, NHS Improvement and NHS England.

Listening to this message was unspeakable. Reading the documents listed above was unspeakable. I don’t know how much more unspeakable we are expected to endure. We were, hilariously, stupidly, copied into an exchange about the governors response to us in which a Sloven comms person advises the governors to ‘soften the tone a bit’. Just astonishing.

Why don’t you all re-read Mark Aspinall’s emergency motion and recognise your craphole, seedy actions for what they are. We ain’t the problem here. As much as it makes you feel better to think so.

In the spirit of the openness of the campaign, I’ll just say you are all a fuckingpileoftosswankpisspotfuckscummerybastards.

 

 

 

 

Dark places and being peggable

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The leaking of the Sloven governor’s emergency motion was a bright spot. Whatever bickering and political wrangling it has generated, Mark Aspinall called it as it was, and is. Simple as. It’s now up to the remaining council members to demonstrate their integrity and act accordingly. With appropriate scrutiny from the regulatory and public gaze.

This latest twist has generated a lot of ‘thank fuck for that’ type comments from family, friends, colleagues and supporters. People have been coming up to us in the street, on the bus, in lifts, saying they can’t understand how the Sloven board are untouched (well other than Mike Petter’s (possibly stage managed) exit). Nope. Neither can we.

We get emails from people about how the campaign has given them the energy, confidence, fight to try to get some accountability and justice for the death of their child, sister, brother, partner, parent, friend. This is sort of good. Only ‘sort of’ because the system shouldn’t be so consistently shite. We shouldn’t have to draw confidence from other people’s experiences. The right thing should be done. With the lightest of family involvement. But we all know this is bollocks when it comes to preventable deaths in the public sector. Particularly those involving certain people.

There has also been a lot of ‘inspirational mum’ stuff…

One of the things that came through clearly from the STATT records was that LB fully expected me to come and bring him home. [Howl]. Of course he did. I was his mum. I fought his corner with every bone in my body from the moment he was pegged as peggable. From the moment he started at an ‘integrated’ nursery in which the induction session involved only certain parents and pointing out separate pegs for the special needs kids who ‘get transport’…

Endless battles. Transport, after school club, respite, getting a diagnosis of epilepsy, transition, direct payments, disabled parking bays….

And then, stupidly, thinking he was temporarily in a safe space, if nothing else…

When I got the STATT records, back in the day, I cried in a new way. A different way to when LB died. Which was also indescribable crying.

Over two years later, we sat through the inquest evidence. Further unfolding of the (inevitable) preventable death of LB. With a topping of toxic mum blame. And still no accountability.

The simplicity and truth and certainty LB felt, recorded in the records. Even in that space. A space in which he was brutalised and had pretty much everything he recognised stripped from him. A space in which he was told to attend stupid fucking tea and cake groups because he’d be allowed home earlier. A space in which he was given bonjela to put on his tongue by a careless and arrogant psychiatrist who denied he was having seizure activity.

A space in which a combination of Sloven incompetence, arrogance and obsessive focus on corporate identity and reputation (rather than basic patient care) together with disinterest from local commissioners, a wider inertia and disregard within health and social care, led to a vacuum in which he (like so many others) died.

A space now documented and evidenced at length. With no accountability. I’m not ‘inspirational’. I’m just doing what I always did for him, until I took my eye off the ball and handed the baton over to a (known to be failing) organisation. And I will continue to do it until there is justice. And accountability. Along with the other #JusticeforLB campaigners.

Sense and reason, at last

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After nearly three years of atrocious responses from Sloven to what happened to LB, this document arrived anonymously in the Justice shed earlier. An emergency motion presented at the governors meeting on April 26th. Apparently, from what we can glean from Michael Buchanan’s tweets and other sources, some of the governors were taken aback by the never before seen candour and transparency they were confronted with, without warning.

Petter, then chair, decided that the motion would be held back to an extraordinary meeting to be held within 7-10 days of the CQC report being published. I suppose to allow certain people the space to recover their shock and horror that, for once, their cosy slumbering and collusion with the board was being challenged.

I can’t describe what it feels like to read these words. Such a careful, reflexive, comprehensive and sensible engagement with the catalogue of failings since Mike Holder’s report in 2012.

I’m not sure I’d add anything other than, good on you, Mark Aspinall and the other governors who expressed support for it. What a refreshing contrast to the simply offensive letter we were sent on Thursday. And here’s looking forward to the extraordinary meeting in the next week or so.

-REBbBU_

H_jywKsp

Just imagine

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Just imagine. Nearly three years after LB died. After two ‘independent’ reviews by Verita were published. After the police closed their investigation into LB’s death because they couldn’t find any evidence that linked the Sloven senior team to the crap provision at STATT. After a two week inquest…

Just imagine you get sent a previously unseen document, anonymously, via My Life My Choice. A document which shows that Sloven knew that the provision on the Slade House site was crap in August 2012. Nearly three months before they took over the Ridgeway provision.

A Quality and Safety Review, conducted as part of the Governance Work Stream. That details lack of clarity in care plans, risk assessments not updated or appropriate, issues with RiO, lack of assessment from the wider team, dirt, lack of maintenance, crap about Mental Capacity stuff, and so on. And so on.

August 2012.

So everyone knew it was shite. Nothing was done about it. And our son died. He died. 

And Sloven buried the document.

Thank you to the person who sent it.

I think we’re back to corporate manslaughter territory.

Fuckingtosswankerybastards.

 

What are we waiting for?

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Superb piece about LB in Guardian Weekend on Saturday. Written by Simon Hattenstone with pics by Joel Redding. They got on and did a cracking job. No fuss or prevarication. Sensitive, comprehensive and thoughtful. Not an easy gig. More light in contrast to the stench we continue to experience from the variously implicated organisations.

So what are we waiting for? In no particular order, as always:

General Medical Council investigation into consultant [679 days]
Care Quality Commission Fit and Proper Person’s Requirement (FPPR) into the Sloven CEO’s fitness to practice [92 days]
Nursing and Midwifery Council investigation into nursing staff [58 days]
A reply to my letter to the Sloven governors [94 days]
Health and Safety Executive investigation [392 days]
Any meaningful action from NHS Improvement (previously Monitor) [109 days]
An apology from Oxfordshire County Council for their sordid and secret review [356 days]

There can be no excuse whatsoever for this level of delay.

This complete fucktivity.

But hey ho. Here’s a pic of the kids that didn’t make the mag to keep the light shining.

Connor with his brothers and sisters

Delusions and denial

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I’m on leave this week. Time to try and regain some home life and ‘order’. Sigh. Today I was home alone. A rare happening. I set too, in between sitting around doing crap all, sorting through stuff. Sifting. Our ‘filing basket/pile’ had bills/statements dating backing to January 2013. The land that time forget.

LB’s chest in our bedroom distracted me. It does when I’m alone. I avoided it. I remember the last time I opened it. And cry-howled in a horrible, empty way. I can’t fucking look in it. At the stuff of love, life, simplicity, richness and depth. Trashed repeatedly by the (non) response of Sloven, Oxfordshire County Council and the wider gang of NHS England, CQC, Monitor (or NHS Improvement ‘my arse’) and Jeremy Hunt.

I finished reading the latest Sloven board papers.

This is always an exercise in incredulity, rage and despair. And time. Typically over 200 pages with gratuitous gibberish/nonsense.

Tucked away on p96 (41.4), in the CEO report, was this gem:

Sloven shite 2

Alleged ‘Trust failings’. Despite everything. The CEO continues to deny evidenced and clearly identified failings. Her arrogance is extraordinary and with it will come no ‘learning’ or improvement. Despite the Comms team developing positive news.

The day was punctuated with various and unexpected Sloven activity and developments. The Sloven problem ain’t going away despite their ‘hunker down, deny and ignore’ approach to the carnage they cause. When you’re as shite as they are, there will always be shite ahead. And there is. Something Jezza, Monitor, NHS England and the CQC don’t seem to grasp.

Alleged ‘Trust failings’? I hope the new Improvement Director has a foray through their board papers. To get an insight into an organisation led by a combination of spin, jargon, arrogance, delusion and stupidity. It really ain’t rocket science what the problem is here.

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Monitor and the (non) improvement director

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‘Er, Jim, you know we said we’d appoint an improvement director for that Trust, down south. You know. The one that was caught out covering up learning disability deaths?’

‘Yes. I remember. How could I forget? That godawful meeting with that service user’s mother. Dreadful, dreadful woman.’

‘Well, it’s been quite a while now and we did sort of suggest it was going to be an urgent action…’

‘Surely we can rope in some herb to do this. Christ. Sloven must have a range of external consultants who can step up for a few weeks. I mean it’s not real work. We just said we’d appoint someone. It doesn’t mean anything…’

‘Well it’s a bit awkward because social media makes this stuff transparent and, to be fair, it has been a few months now. And, er, the trust didn’t investigate hundreds of deaths.’

‘Don’t get sucked in, Jim Junior. A word of advice. If you want a career in this biz, question nothing. Keep your head down. Once you start to engage with patients and their families, you might as well give up. Just ignore them. They disappear. Or become so desperate, it’s easy to bat them away.

And another thing. Monitor won’t exist for much longer. NHS Improvement is the way forward. We are going to shine a beacon on poor practice.

Was there anything else you wanted?’

‘Sorry boss, but we’ve heard that BBC Breakfast are running a feature tomorrow morning. A pretty forthright piece asking what we’ve all done since the Mazars review was published.’
‘FFS.’
Tap tap tap.
‘Get old whatsi, you know… that other improvement director we’ve got. Alan whatsi. And get comms to put out a release. And hold it till end of play so it gets lost in Easter. Bloody pain in the arse stuff.’

[Text in bold added after Monitor announced the appointment of Alan Yates after 6pm the day before Easter weekend.]

A steal (of filthy lucre)…

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Heard tonight, on the old grapevine (thank you grapevine) that Katrina Percy, Sloven CEO, was in Oxford last week. Shudder. Announcing the sale of Sloven Oxfordshire properties and the Slade House site where LB died. [Howl].

Sloven acquired, through a bit of a flaky process (reflections on the due diligence process here) the contract for providing services in Oxfordshire. A contract that apparently contained no clause around what happened to land/property if this organisation didn’t deliver and failed to improve services.Someone said to us, back in the day, that LB’s death and the subsequent shutting of STATT and John Sharich House on the Slade House site could allegedly make it easier to flog the site.

Apparently, when prescribed land/property use has failed for a two year year period, planning permission to do something different is a doddle. In effect, Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (OCCG) and Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) seem to have gifted premium land /properties to a bunch of ‘out of town cowboys’. Or, in current gameshow speak, Sloven have been given a steal (of filthy lucre).

Stupidity. Utter stupidity. Corruptness? Incompetence? Or all three. How could this possibly be?

An NHS Trust, swallowing up failing provision after a right royal roadshow;


<p><a href=”https://vimeo.com/38158627″>Katrina’s Ridgeway Message</a> from <a href=”https://vimeo.com/southernhealth”>Southern Health</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

“Superb, world class services” my arse. Evidence of failing to investigate hundreds of unexpected deaths across a four year period while merrily lining up the sale of prime land in a county 100 miles away from Sloven towers. Leeching much needed resources from Oxfordshire. Katrina Percy then  pitches up, around the two year anniversary of official failure, to announce the sale.

You are fucking kidding me?

We have strong local light shining gang which is something. My Life My Choice, our MP, Andrew Smith and the continued focus of BBC Oxford journalists. Andrew Smith wrote to OCC and OCCG in April 2013 expressing his concern about the obvious dip in staff morale after the Sloven take over of Ridgeway, and has remained deeply concerned at the potential sale of the site and loss of money to the county.

BBC Radio Oxford have been terrier like over this sordid tale, repeatedly airing the latest unfoldings and doing their best to hold Sloven and others to account. My Life My Choice met with the Sloven Board Chair, Mike Petter, and put some pretty hard hitting questions to him.

In answer to a question about the sale of Slade House, he answered:

“If it is sold by Southern Health, the money will go back into Learning Disability Services in Oxfordshire. If somebody else sells it, they might have a different idea.”

Bit of a funny answer about ‘someone else selling it’. But clearly stating Sloven will not be taking the money out of the county.

Earlier today I did a guest lecture for Oxford Brookes sociology students. I usually do a disability lecture (on their sociology of health and illness module). This year I was asked to talk about #JusticeforLB.

I rattled through Valuing People (2001), Valuing People Now (2008), Winterbourne View (2011), Winterbourne View Serious Case Review (2012) Transforming Care: a national response to Winterbourne View (2012), Confidential Inquiry into Premature Deaths of Learning Disabled People (March 2013) and Winterbourne View 2 years on (June 2013). All a complete and utter waste of resources. With pics of the kids at these key points.

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2001

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2008

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2011

I then played The Tale of Laughing Boy.

There was a strangely eerie silence in the room. It happened in the Isle of Wight gig last week. And at the 12 Angry Women performance in Brighton the week before…

Pin drop stuff.

The students were engaged and got it. Sensible questions and bewilderment. I didn’t mention the Slade House site though. I stupidly believed Mike Petter.