News Update.

Thank you to all those people who have signed our petition so far, there has been an amazing response. Please tell people to sign. 

Stories on care home whistle-blowers.

A brave nurse reported to her manager that she suspected the maintainance man of sexually assaulting an 88 year old resident at Westbank care Home Borough Green, Kent. When her concerns were ignored the nurse took matters into her own hands and placed a camera in the victims room which captured the evidence that resulted in Michael Flemming being jailed. There is no mention of what action was taken against the manager who failed to act on the Whistle-blowers concerns. Let us hope they have been removed from working with vulnerable people. The CQC stated they were unaware of the whistle-blowing at the time of the last inspection, which judged the home compliant in protecting people from abuse.

In another story care worker Sarah Domarell won two out of three claims at an Employment Tribunal after being sacked by her employer from her job at Down House Care Home in Derriford. She lost her claim as a whistle-blower. Ms Domarell wrote to the CQC listing concerns about the care of residents and was sacked a few days later. The employers case, that the CQC did not inform the home of the concerns until 3 weeks later was accepted.

Many other cases have highlighted when alligations are made the whistle-blower and the alledged abuser are being suspended, however this is identifying the whistle-blowers and placing them at risk of harassment. We will be highlighting this issue in Breaking the Silence 4 which is currently being compiled.

We will also continue to highlight cases of abuse in care homes as bad care needs to be exposed in order that good care becomes the norm.

Eileen Chubb