Category Archives: NHS Improvement

The judgement

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Tim Smart makes public his judgement today. Smart was sent in by NHS Improvement, on the back of the findings of the Mazars review, of failing CQC inspections stacking up since 2013. Of clear warnings about safety issues flagged up as far back as 2011. Sent in on the back of (and only because of) the actions of people who have campaigned relentlessly, stepped up and refused to accept typical NHS (public sector) whitewash/cover up.

This has been an almighty battle. It too often is when the NHS fails. With the enduring culture one of deny, bat aside, ignore, obstruct, deny further, smear and obliteration. We have a series of NHS scandals (followed by reviews, well meaning but ultimately empty recommendations and rhetoric) to draw on. So much evidence. So little action.

The Sloven story, like any story, has many versions. The focus and attention of the post apocalyptic reviews conducted by Tim Smart, the improvement director (forgotten his name… Clive summat?) and the independent consultants brought in to review governance will all use different (but I suspect similar) lenses. None of them have engaged with families.

After a late, late night worrying about what is to unfold I’m left thinking If the people who died weren’t learning disabled or didn’t have mental health issues, none of this would have happened. If it had, to non disabled people, the CEO and board would have left Sloven pastures long ago.

A simple and damning as.

Another dirty day down Sloven way

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Got the background details (via a Freedom of Information request) about the commissioning of the study into families’ experiences of Sloven’s serious investigation process yesterday. I’ve written about being invited to take part in this study. And of Lesley Steven’s defence around the magic wand stuff.

It turns out Sloven decided up front that this study should take the form of an Appreciative Inquiry. David Snowden offers a critique of this approach which includes:

Snowden

It ain’t a big surprise Sloven like this approach. They don’t engage with their failings at any level or allow patients or families to express how they feel. Setting aside the criticisms identified by David Snowden, Appreciative Inquiry ain’t an appropriate approach for bereaved families. Unilaterally choosing an approach that only focuses ‘on the bright side‘ when looking at patient deaths is simply wrong. And risks causing more distress to people.

It turns out that the consultant who got the gig was recommended to Lesley Stevens and commissioned on the basis of a couple of emails and meetings:

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Shudder. At the March board meeting, in response to mention of the commissioning of external ‘work’, Mike Petter, then Sloven chair, quipped: This is a company we haven’t worked with before – there is one out there. No joking matter. We know the sizeable chunk of Sloven expenditure over the past few years spent on commissioning ‘consultants’ or legal professionals to help dig them out out hole after hole after hole.

The cost of this latest venture?  £27,000 for 40 days work. Yep. Really.

Sloven have rules (like any public organisation) around the spending of public money on external services. There has to be justification for why there is no competitive process. Any spend of more than £25k has to go to the next Audit Committee for review…

The £27k agreed for this gig includes VAT so I assume the £22.5k (excluding VAT) figure (handily) means it doesn’t make the Audit Committee bar. As for the lack of competitive process… the excuse is presented on the Single Tender Waiver form here:

waiver

Ah. Bloody hilarious. Though it ain’t of course. Recommendation about the supplier is surely the reason procurement rules were implemented. Recommendation by whom? [Handily redacted in the FOI info]. Pace required following Mazars and CQC..? Sloven first got sight of the Mazars review last summer. Not much pace here. Lesley Stevens gifted the job to the consultant in February 2016 after it must have  (eventually) dawned on senior Sloven muppetry that the CQC inspection did not go well. So competitive processes to protect public money are swept aside because of continued Sloven crapness, denial and arrogance… A circularity that makes my brain weep. And for the record, alternative suppliers are plentiful/Appreciative Inquiry philosophy ain’t essential. Quite the opposite.

What’s particularly chilling? (I dunno, running out of words/thoughts here, it’s all so utterly shite) is that Sloven think this ditsy review is an appropriate response to either the Mazars review or CQC inspection.To commission it in such a shoddy, careless and piecemeal way underlines how unfit for purpose the Sloven senior team are.  It’s actually flagged up by Katrina Percy in a letter to NHS Improvement (who she still calls Monitor here) as progress on their enforcement undertakings:

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Further demonstration of how devoid of understanding, ability, empathy, willingness, whatever the senior team are. As if any more is needed. These people simply shouldn’t be running this organisation. There’s a superficiality so obvious, documented so publicly and repeatedly, leading to such serious failings it is extraordinary.

Getting a colleague of a colleague, a mate of a mate or whatever combination to write some nonsense, bypassing processes in place to make sure public money is spent with caution and transparency and demonstrating a complete lack of understanding about bereavement is so wrong it almost defies words.

Work on this ‘review’ is due to be finished in the next week. I don’t suppose for one moment the consultant has been able to do anything approaching what she outlines in communication with Lesley Stevens. I hope Victoria Keilthy reads whatever puff that reaches her with a sharp lens and reflects on the commissioning of this crap. This is a public body.

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The JT Show

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For some time now, we’ve had a bit of a beef with Mencrap in the Justice Shed. Not least because they continue to make the extraordinary claim to be ‘the voice of learning disability’. A claim so inappropriate I don’t really know where to start. I’ll just leave it at their failing service provision (details of which are buried deep on their website…)

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Well, and the ludicrously extravagant Strategic Executive Assistant to the CEO post currently being advertised to do the work that the CEO should probably be doing herself.

George has written about her experiences of working for Mencrap and, more recently, of daring to challenge the organisation on live television. Post Victoria Derbyshire, there was further approbation from a couple of parents on twitter. Including a baffling post about ‘Two mums’ that seems to accuse #JusticeforLB of being the equivalent of a Young Ones tribute band. Ho hum.

Anyway. Back to today. The Telegraph (I know) ran a spread about Mencrap CEO, Jan Tregelles (JT). This coincided with Mencrap’s Learning Disability Week and was published in their Lifestyle/Women section.

What did we learn from this article?

JT dined at the Sloane Club that day (a reference for typical Telegraph readers) and “Mencrap’s about giving people with learning disabilities the opportunity to experience life to the full”. She doesn’t mention it but I hope the learning disabled people she took with her enjoyed the “posh lunch with the great and good”.

The new Mencrap campaign faithfully reflects JT’s vision for learning disabled people. Such power and omnipotence. Blimey. I hope she’s using it well….

How are you using it JT?

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Oh boy. This generated some sandwich related mischievousness on twitter. Not surprisingly. From the Sloane Club to cheese sarnies down a well in the space of a few sentences*.

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JT could not peg her true colours to the learning disability gravy train she is riding more openly. Empathy? What about empowerment, autonomy, civil and human rights… ?

Sadly, the article doesn’t end there. It rattles through clothes, grooming, family, number of marriages and volunteering at Citizen’s Advice where something (not revealed) ‘clicked’ and bounced JT to Mencrap where she became PA to the ‘director’. From there it was PA to CEO.

And a series of statements so blinking depressing/enraging:

I just wanted to do something that I wanted to do. 

I would have done it for nothing. 

I could do support work now though.

Why, when you get on a bus and there is someone a bit odd are you instantly fearful.

We need to equip people to see someone with a learning disability as a person…

Now Jan. I know you’ve blocked me and you ain’t interested in anything #JusticeforLB has to say but seriously, if you really want to make a difference, you are going totally arse over ‘immaculately polished’ tit about it.

  • Public attitudes really ain’t the main problem. The establishment, including Mencrap, is.
  • In Learning Disability Week the focus really ought to be on learning disabled people.
  • You should have a look at Learning Disability England. This fledging organisation has a more legitimate claim to the voice of learning disability already.
  • I really wouldn’t do support work if I was you. I’m not sure you’d be very good at it.
  • There are some serious issues around what Mencrap as an organisation do. Not least the services you provide. If you need the support of a Strategic Executive Assistant perhaps the focus of this role should be less about public relations, media and project management objectives and more about actually improving people’s lives.

But what do we know?

Postscript: To those who think it’s heresy to critically challenge ‘the voice of learning disability’, I say do one. After you’ve done the sums.

*Turns out sarnygate was freeloaded from this Brene Brown Tedtalk… (thanks to  FionaQuigs for the sharp spot).

Task and finito… my arse

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Apparently, John Beaumont, the Sloven governor who made the deeply inappropriate and offensive comments about LB became a governor in Feb 2016 so wasn’t in place when I sent the letter to the governors in January.  My mum emailed the Council of Governors later that month too. I assume John Beaumont didn’t see her email either*.

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Apparently the governors set up a ‘task and finish’ group [I know] to draft a response to letters from ‘complainants’ received in January. The proposed draft reply by Mark Aspinall was shot down in flames by a certain, er, John Beaumont, at the April governors meeting. You can hear him here [at 2hrs 29 mins though it’s worth listening beyond his apoplexy to hear some sense from John Green for the following few minutes]. [So blinking rare].

Mark mentions this dispute in his letter of resignation as a governor a week or so later:

Ma

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I eventually received a reply on behalf of the Council of Governors in May 2016. Yes. May. A terrible reply that says crap all. Ongoing enquiries apparently… Of course.

My mum just received acknowledgement that her email was circulated to the governors. But what does she matter?

*Communication between the Sloven board and governors is a little bit, shall we say flakey? Arthur Monks, another governor, was told a copy of the Holder report was available at Sloven headquarters (an 80 mile round trip) when he asked for a copy.

Leadership and contact traces…

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L1019565-2[…or chandelier and glitziness]

John Sutherland, police commander, has written a cracking post  identifying 10 things he’s learned about leadership. Sloven CEO, Katrina Percy (KP), wrote a piece for the NHS Leadership Academy in August 2014. In this brief (under 400 word) piece she flags up her maternity leave and the problems she returned to. [No mention that these problems were an outcome of the (non) actions she took before maternity leave]. In the same month she wrote a letter to me in which she further elaborates on her “leadership” style.

Here I meander through Sutherland’s 10 points (summarised in italics below) and the Sloven approach to “leadership”. It ain’t a pretty read.

I.     It’s people stupid

Leaders who don’t care about people aren’t leaders at all. They might be bad managers, but that’s really not the same thing. People are precious and rare and extraordinary and brilliant and brave and creative and resourceful and kind. They are also thinking, breathing, feeling, bleeding, sometimes flawed souls who, every now and then, need a helping hand. Great leaders understand these things. They understand people.

KP doesn’t understand people. Though she talks a good ‘staff’ game. Notably the ‘thousands of staff I lead’ [shudder…]. These are the people she is ‘keen to support and promote wherever and whenever they do’ things brilliantly. Services and families are below staff ‘and partners’. Patients don’t feature. Tim Smart, interim Board Chair, clearly gets the people bit. He was open about this during the meeting with My Life My Choice.

II.     Every contact leaves a trace

Every time two objects come into contact with one another, an exchange takes place – fingerprints found at house that’s been burgled; microscopic fragments of broken glass found on the clothes of the burglar. Every time two people come into contact with one another, an exchange takes place. Spoken or unspoken, for better or for worse. Great leaders understand not only that what they do is important – but that how they do it is equally so. Because every contact leaves a trace.

Since the Holder report (2012) there has been more contact trace in Sloven dealings than in an entire box set of CSI. The Sloven CEO and board have consistently failed to recognise this. Contact trace is even more important (in a non criminal context) where this trace can be circulated and re-circulated on social media. Since Smart’s appointment there have been some traces of fresh air through Sloven corridors. Not least the mediation agreement, statement and subsequent inclusion of LB’s pic on the Sloven front page for four weeks.

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III.        Leadership is service

The first responsibility of a leader is to serve. Before anything else, to serve. If the pursuit of my own ambitions has become more important than the cause we all serve, then I have lost my way. If my promotion matters more than your progression, then I am in danger of losing myself.

The words ‘serve’ and ‘service’ were clearly replaced by reputation, dosh, ruthless ambition some time ago. Down Sloven way.

IV.     Everything can’t be a priority

If everything is a priority, then nothing is. Leaders have to decide what matters more. Leaders need to be absolutely clear about what’s most important – particularly in a world of limited resources. And they have to be consistent about it. 

In her letter to me, KP argues

good leadership is founded on a determination and deep commitment to do what is right for all parties concerned, not necessarily what might be either easiest or most popular at any particular moment in time or demanded most loudly or persistently by one group or interest than another.

This self defeating and clumsily constructed statement is yet another attempt to stick the boot in. In fact Sloven do prioritise. Their reputation. They always have. Sutherland should perhaps revise this point to capture effective and reflective prioritising.

V.     Two ears, one mouth

Great leaders are great listeners. And they understand that there is a difference between listening and hearing – and between hearing and actually doing something about what’s been said.

KP’s letter is an exemplar in not listening. A bombastic exercise in ‘me, me, me…’, brutal in callous delivery. Statements like it was ‘absolutely right’ for us to (4 mentions), ‘I believe/strongly believe’ (8 mentions), ‘deeply proud’ (1 mention) and ‘absolutely confident’ (1 mention) are breathtaking in both number and emphasis in a two page letter. Ally Roger’s analysis of KP’s communication further explores her use of language and what it reveals. Contempt and disregard basically.

VI.     Leadership requires bravery

Having courage doesn’t mean that you never feel afraid. It means feeling afraid and doing the right thing anyway. It is both physical and moral. Great leaders stand for what is right, even if it comes at personal cost. Great leaders stand against what is wrong, even if it comes at personal risk. Great leaders have difficult conversations (with people, not about people). And they do these things constructively and positively and professionally – because bravery and bullying have nothing whatsoever in common with one another.

I suspect KP thinks she’s brave. She’s refusing to step down, insisting she needs to steer the flotilla out of the darkness. This ain’t bravery (see IX below). It’s a combination of arrogance and complacency (and stupidity?) She’s not having difficult conversations with people. Audio recordings of Sloven board minutes make it clear there’s little ‘standing against what is wrong’. Little of anything at all.

VII.      The difference between activity and progress

Being busy and making a difference are not the same thing. I played a game in my younger days that involved placing my forehead on an upright broom handle and spinning round in rapid circles, before affording my  friends the opportunity to have a good laugh at my attempts to walk in a straight line. Plenty of movement. No progress whatsoever. I know a lot of busy, dizzy people.

The Sloven leadership has nailed talking the talk and making no difference. From burying the Holder report, to repeatedly not ‘learning lessons’ at inquests and failing CQC inspections. They must be dizzy at the sounds of their repeated (and meaningless statements).

Chillingly, in the 26.1.16 board minutes (around 3hrs 36 minutes) in response to James Younghusband’s mother asking KP about the Holder report and identified ligature risks, she responds that the Holder report is archived and they’ve only found the process documents not the ligature risk report. Eh? Those old contact traces? What did KP say about this back in 2014…

Firstly, openness and transparency are fundamental when things go wrong…

VIII.     Leaders must be dealers in hope

The more challenging the context, the greater the responsibility that leaders have to deal in hope – to tell the kinds of stories and to paint the kinds of pictures that get people up out of their seats and cause them to come, running. It’s not the critic who counts.

Hope schmope. The Hansard transcript from the recent Westminster House debate details the lack of hope being generated by Sloven leadership. The NHS Staff Survey similarly illustrates increasing staff disillusionment with working there:

staff

Hopeless.

IX.     Leadership is about character

It was the American General, Norman Schwarzkopf, who said:  ‘Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But, if you must be without one, be without the strategy. Who I am matters. What I believe in and what I stand for matters. Great leaders ask you to do as they say. And as they do.

When the latest shedload of contact (CQC) trace hit the fan in May, KP (again) disappeared. Lining up sidekicks to face the barrage of press interest (badly) and without apparent support. Again, the ghost of the Leadership Academy trace (ironically called ‘When the going gets tough’) shows KP arguing:

Visible leadership is crucial, for both staff and patients.

X.     Legacy

Great leaders provide the shoulders for others to stand on. To adapt a quote from the journalist Walter Lippman: ‘The final test of a leader is that they leave behind them in others the conviction and the will to carry on.’

Not sure about number 10 in Sutherland’s list to be honest. I suppose we will hope KP leaves so we can tell what’s left behind.

There it is. Leadership. And nothing like leadership. In a Sloven nutshell.

 

 

 

The magic wand

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Friday afternoon I left work mid afternoon and went to the cemetery. The outcome of the ‘settlement’ reached on Wednesday was impossible to make sense of. I just kept crying. On the bus home I received an emailed letter from Lesley Stevens (Sloven Medical Director). About the unethical study they are conducting into families experiences of their death review process. The letter inviting people to take part is being reviewed and revised by three ‘service users’, the Health Research Authority have said no ethics approval (or ethical thought apparently) is necessary and Stevens defends the use of the questions being asked of bereaved families (e.g If the review process had been perfect – if it had been everything that you would want it to be, what would it have looked like for you?) with reference to the “Magic wand” question:

“if you had a magic wand, and could have three wishes granted…” (see Verma, N., (2014) Appreciative Inquiry: Practitioners’ Guide for Generative Change and Development) and the standard Solution Focused “miracle” or “future perfect” question: “Suppose a miracle happened tonight?” (see Jackson & McKergow (2002), The Solutions Focus: The simple way to positive change).”

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I read the letter. Blinked. Read it again. And bizarrely (after all this time) realised that Lesley Stevens and a sizeable chunk of the Sloven board will simply never understand (or refuse to understand) that LB died. Or engage with what #JusticeforLB has revealed over the past three years. The burying of the agreed public statement in a PDF, off a link from the Sloven news page, demonstrates the same old, same old, contempt and fakery despite an apparent “successfully mediated settlement” reached on Wednesday. A point not lost on others…

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This afternoon I sorted out some photos for Open Democracy who are going to publish the public statement as a word document so it’s permanently searchable online. [A PDF is not…]

As I did, I thought again about Steven’s reference to “a magic wand” or “a miracle” happening. And wondered [again]… how can these people possibly be in charge of an NHS trust? Still.

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Cameron’s wave and Smart evidence

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We’re having the bath replaced with a shower downstairs. In the garage that was converted into a bedroom/en suite jobby over 10 years ago with LB in mind. The bath that had the bath bell. [Howl]. I’ve not had a bath in nearly three years now so it made sense. It’s a small space needing a tiny sink. Not easy to find. Eurgh.

I ended up back online at the Bathstore earlier and a box popped up asking if I wanted help from someone. Yep. Thank you. Cameron appeared in the top right hand corner of the screen. Wearing a set of headphones and a type box under his pic. We started messaging about tiny sinks. So blinking exciting.

I shouted to Rich:

Hey I’m actually having a chat with a guy from the Bathstore…!

It’s not real.

Yep, he’s here with headphones on.

Yeah, but he’s not a real person.

He bloody is. Come and see…

[When Rich came in, the real Cameron was briefly replaced with a photo of possibly Cameron, while he searched for tiny sinks…]

It’s not real.

There he is look, he’s been looking for stuff.

He’s not live.

He is. Look! He looks down when he types….

He’s not really there FFS!!!

 

bathstoreCameron waved. We laughed. He didn’t have any small sinks.

We’ve been a bit anxious since the meeting on Tuesday with Tim Smart, interim Sloven chair.  Rich’s blanket dismissal of Cameron reminded me of Smart’s dismissal of the Mazars review as ‘wrong’. Someone (NHS Improvement, NHS England? Jezza Hunt?…) seriously needs to make sure Smart is given the opportunity to ‘see the Mazars wave’. And for him to be prepared to accept, or at least engage with, the evidence shown.

Sigh.

Postscript: Perhaps unconnected, Rich returned to twitter this afternoon and sent his second tweet in five years. Quality rather than quantity he says.

Of course you can cry…

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Tim Smart, interim Sloven board chair, met with My Life My Choice (MLMC) champs yesterday. The meeting is described in detail by Kate here [recommend reading this because I muse in a piecemeal way below]. Peculiarly, it was difficult to know what to make of it all.

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Smart began by giving a heartfelt apology to our family and said there was no doubt we had been failed completely by Sloven. After nearly three years [howl] of non, fake or mealy mouthed apologies prised out of the Sloven directorate this was the real deal. Deeply moving and very much appreciated. He made it very clear how important it was to him to make sure there were improvements at Sloven. He’d been deeply upset when he saw the tv coverage of the extraordinary board meeting in January and couldn’t imagine if it had been his son who had died.

Sloven have, till now, repeatedly failed to say sorry. They have said sorry for our loss, for the upset we feel. They have let us know they will take the opportunity to apologise to us at a particular meeting (can you imagine?) They have bypassed us altogether and bunged the ‘apology’ on their website. Smart nailed it with openness, honesty and compassion.

Shaun and Jackie then asked a series of questions.

Slade House was a bit of a slippery topic. An assurance that the future of the site would be discussed in public with an acknowledgement that he probably/possibly wouldn’t be chair then. Allowing similar wriggle room to previous chair Petter;  if we sell it the money stays in Oxon but if someone else flogs it type stuff.

The final question (“It’s a nasty one I’m afraid Tim”) was about why the CEO is still in post. Smart’s response was around gathering an evidence base to make a judgement around the potential removal of any board members. Fair enough. He then said none of the reports about Sloven laid the blame at Katrina Percy’s door. Bit odd. The Mazars review explicitly identifies board level failings. And failings schmailings are ultimately the responsibility of the chief exec. Mmm…

Shaun asked if Smart could continue to attend these meetings even if he was no longer board chair as he didn’t ‘BS’ them. Smart was visibly moved by this question. He said it was one of the nicest things things that had ever been said to him and he was at the risk of becoming emotional.

“You can be emotional Tim” said Shaun, cheerfully. “Of course you can cry. I’m always crying… ”

Another one of those moments when I’m just in awe of the brilliance of the My Life My Choice team. Keeping it real. Human. With an extraordinary ability to ask tough questions, offer challenge and remain encouraging and supportive.

Then, into this emotional space, and I can’t  remember how it came up, Smart said very brusquely he hadn’t read the Mazars review and wouldn’t “because it was wrong”.

Blimey. One of those cartoon screechy brakes moments. A quick photo and Smart and I left for a brief chat. Outside, he said he had read the Mazars review but was dismissive of talk of thousands of deaths in the media [and clearly still dismissive of the review itself]. He told me a story which I didn’t get then went off to get a cab.

So. Where are we at? What does any of this mean? I’ve no idea really.

Vague, half formed, thoughts:

  • Tim Smart is genuinely sorry and shocked about what happened to LB and the treatment we have experienced.
  • He recognises (some) obvious and sustained failings in Sloven provision.
  • He prides himself on his integrity, honesty and straightforwardness while remaining closed to actually listening or engaging with some of the evidence.

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I went back to work feeling upset and pretty low.

Oh Mencrap… really?

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Hearing rumours that Mencrap have lined up a ‘Five years since the Winterbourne View Panorama film was screened’ media thing. Tomorrow.

Sigh.

Really?

What do they actually do…? (Serious question.)

Brilliant journalism uncovered scandalous, horrific, abusive practices in a (privately run) assessment and treatment unit in Bristol back in 2011. This generated a moment that led to a mass signing up of pretty much everyone/organisation connected to learning disability in the UK. To what turned out to be a combo of earnestness, pomp, ridiculous bureaucracy, ultimate pointlessness and ill thought out promises. At enormous cost.

The Winterbourne View Joint Improvement Programme (WVJIP). [Shudder].

A programme that gradually petered out into a Bubb’s breakfast. The 50 odd signees remaining largely silent on their  collective failures.

We’re left with a  handful of dedicated and deeply committed staff at NHS England sticking their fingers in various life dykes with the support of pockets of dedicated and deeply committed groups/individuals across the country.

Pretty much the same number of people continue to (not) live impoverished (and brutalised) lives in assessment and treatment units across the country as there were in 2011. Many, many more are leading impoverished (and brutalised) lives in independent supported ‘homes’. Some of which are run by Mencap.

Winterbourne View has remained the cultural touchstone for repeated and deeply serious failings in learning disability provision. Why? I suspect partly because it suits Mencap. A quick win for (vacuous) media coverage. And partly because it was run by a private (not NHS) provider.

What was exposed at Winterbourne View was barbaric. The publication of the Mazars review in December 2015 flagged up so, so much worse. The systematic ignoring (or worse) of the preventable deaths of learning disabled people by an NHS trust. Less than 1% of unexpected deaths were investigated.

Less than 1% of unexpected deaths were investigated…

The response of Mencap to the Mazars publication?  Puffery about Mencap greatness. Shockingly and deeply inappropriate.

*Mencap’s repeated and self serving focus on ‘Winterbourne View’ further demonstrates the gap between Mencap and the people/families they claim to be the voice of. Learning Disability England is being launched on June 14. Reclaiming ‘voices’. Thank fuck.

 

It ain’t what you do…

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Sad times in the Justice shed. The light, freshness and candour anticipated by Tim Smart’s appointment by NHS Improvement has been akin to the unleashing of a new Grange Hill bullyboy in the Sloven hood. Threats of legal action against governors and ropey engagement with patients and families at the board meeting so far. Sigh.

The latest failing (inviting bereaved families to take part in a flim flam study without ethical consideration or thought) is another example of a leadership who know nothing about leadership. I had a long convo about the ‘study’ with Flash Gordon, Chief Operating Officer, Director of Performance, Quality and Safety and short straw drawer when it comes to talking to irate people late on a Friday afternoon before a bank holiday weekend.  He was as slippery as a slippery thing insisting it wasn’t “research” just talking to a few families. Brain melt. He eventually agreed to put it through their ethics process.

We, like so many others, remain baffled that the CEO and a chunk of the Sloven board haven’t resigned or been removed given everything that’s unfolded. There couldn’t be a clearer evidence trail of repeated failures over years. Of harrowing disrespect, contempt and disregard for human life.

And still nothing…

A short film recirculated on twitter yesterday. Around what ‘makes a top CEO’. Starring Mike Richards, Chief Inspector of Hospitals, CQC, the then CEO of Monitor, David Bennett and, er, Katrina Percy. Yes. Really. This was published online in December 2015, shortly before publication of the Mazars review. Truly extraordinary. But points to the secure position the Sloven CEO holds. The CQC and I’m sure Monitor were very aware of the content of the Mazars review by late summer 2015. You would think, given the scandalous content of that report, the Sloven CEO would not have been selected to talk about the qualities of a ‘top CEO’.

Nah.

Back in February 2016 a report was published by The independent Commission on Acute Adult Psychiatric Care, led by Lord Nigel Crisp. This report included recognition of Sloven’s mental health work. Eh??  Recognition of good work?  Sloven were, of course, quick to put this on their news pages:

Southern Health’s development of “care navigators” and involvement of patients with mental health needs and carers in decisions about their care have been highlighted by Lord Nigel Crisp, former Chief Executive of the NHS.

Given the latest (May 16) in a relentless series of critical inquest determinations  around failings in mental health provision, it seems that Crisp was listening to the Sloven talk rather than seeing evidence of the walk. Always a mistake with this bunch. The patient who spoke powerfully at the rebel governor meeting a week or so ago was not receiving anything remotely approaching good care and clearly hadn’t seen whiff of a ‘care navigator’. And the recent CQC inspection clearly identifies sustained failings in care.

Again, odd that Sloven was highlighted in the report. Surely Crisp had heard of the Mazars review and knew there were serious question marks around the care provided to mental health patients?

Nah.

Turns out he works with Katrina Percy’s dad though.