Our work 2014/2015

Compassion in Care

Work Report 2014/15

JANUARY 2014

New web-site designed, more user friendly.

Worked with Private Eye magazine to get a story published exposing poor care and failures in the complaint system.

Compiled an abuse awareness training pack, aimed at those visiting care homes either as a relative looking for home or as a Health Watch visitor.

I gave a talk about the importance of whistle-blowing on poor care to the staff of Oxley’s NHS trust at Charlton football stadium.

Did a special investigation and wrote a report for a family who had lost their mother due to poor care.

Continued to field calls from relatives and care home staff about poor care and abuse.

FEBRUARY 2014

Did a one day abuse awareness training session using our new training pack at Westminster Health-watch, this involved training laypeople who were due to visit care homes on what to look out for. Aim to develop this further in future.

I did an in-depth interview with RTTV.

Took many calls on the helpline from relatives and whistle-blowers during the month, including a call from one of 14 whistle-blowers who had been sacked from a care home called the Old Deanery in Essex. I put these staff in touch with BBC Panorama and worked closely to support them throughout the process of filming that resulted in the program broadcast in April.

Did three further special investigations and reports for the families of abuse victims.

I spoke at city University London about whistle-blowing and why it’s so important to stop poor care.

Started to compile evidence from 1500 whistle-blowers who contacted us to date to identify common themes and why PIDA is failing.

RTTV interview brought in hundreds of new cases which were all responded to, advice and emotional support provided also letters written on their behalf when requested.

MARCH 2014

Visited two areas of the UK and a total of 21 care homes.

Spoke again at City University London on March 20th about whistle-blowing and why silence allows abuse

Transferred the remaining contents onto the new website. Our new website is up and running. We have a new YouTube channel and we have downloaded numerous videos and films to this and have been adding to monthly. To date the YouTube channel has had over 4000 hits.

I spent two days filming an interview with Arte TV which is a French channel broadcasting in France and Germany, making a film about the work of Compassion in Care.

Designed a new helpline log information sheet ready for next month’s Panorama and the high number of expected helpline callers.

Trained a local helper ready for next month’s workload.

APRIL2014

BBC action line rang to record our contact details prior to broadcast of BBC Panorama, Behind Care Home Doors. Which featured our work and how whistle-blowers contacted as from the Old Deanery care home in Essex and how we give ongoing to support to families and whistle-blowers.

We did an interview with BUZZFEED about our work with whistle-blowers.

April 30 panorama was broadcast and on that day did the following press interviews,

BBC radio five live at 7 AM and again at 9 AM,

BBC radio London at 9:40 AM,

BBC radio four Jeremy Vine at 12 PM,

BBC radio four the world at one at 1 PM

LBC radio at 4 PM,

BBC radio Kent at 5 PM.

MAY 2014

The helpline was very busy throughout the following weeks, see the June for the total number of contacts.

We did the following press interviews raising awareness about abuse of vulnerable and the importance of listening to whistle-blowers.

BBC radio two,

BBC Lincolnshire,

BBC Tyne Tees,

BBC Wales,

BBC London,

BBC Cumbria.

The Arte interview was broadcast on May 11 in France and Germany and can be seen alongside many of our TV interviews on our website and also on our YouTube channel.

May 28 I travelled to the Hay on Wye book Festival by invitation as the work of the charity was included in a new book being launched there, called, Here We Stand, ( Women Changing the World) Honno press. I attended a book signing with other contributors and then travelled on to Weston-super-Mare where I was speaking at the South West trade union Congress at the Winter Gardens the following afternoon.

I also visited a number of care homes in the area and was followed throughout by a documentary maker who is making a film about our work.

JUNE 2014

Throughout May and the beginning of June we were contacted by 1900 helpline callers both relatives and staff.

All were responded to and help given as required. We prioritised every call according to immediate danger of abuse to a vulnerable person and dealt with the most high risk cases first. The data recorded on the new helpline information records will be later compiled and anonymised to be used in Breaking the Silence part four.

Contributed to Goldsmiths College media departments manual for journalists about working in the care home sector and whistle-blowing issues.

Continued to take a high volume of helpline calls throughout all of June and July.

Spoke again at city University London to media students.

JULY 2014

Published Breaking the Silence part three.

Did an interview with Andrew Smith from the Guardian newspaper which will be published in December.

Visited a number of homes in one region acting on information via helpline callers.

AUGUST 2014

Spoke to Bristol pensioners network.

Staff from the Old Deanery care home who were abusing residents arrested and charged. Case to be heard next year

SEPTEMBER 2014

Attended Lewisham pensioners Forum, annual Mayor’s alliance and met a number of other groups.

Met with a number of families to discuss doing film interviews next year for new campaign called “The Price of Silence.

Did interview on BBC radio Kent.

All helpline cases continue to receive support and advice as needed, high number of calls following media interviews. Steady flow of 30 new cases each month, Compassion in Care is now an established source of help, advice and support.

OCTOBER 2014

Asked to write an article for the dementia journal and to attend the Brighton conference on dementia.

Also asked to write an article for PCN review, the primary care nursing magazine. Which was published the following month.

Spoke at Goldsmiths College to media students.

Did an interview on BBC radio four, You and Yours programme, on the issue of whistle-blowing.

NOVEMBER 2014

Attended the annual dementia conference in Brighton. This coincided with my article being published in the Dementia journal.

I spoke at Kentish Town community centre to a large number of different groups from the area.

Attended a film night organised to raise awareness on whistle-blowing issues.

DECEMBER 2014

Spoke again at Goldsmiths College.

Attended all three days of the Logan symposium which was held at the Barbican Centre, spoke on the second day in the main hall about whistle-blowing, the event was filmed. Organised a stall where a number of whistle-blowers attended and could be met and where information about our work on abuse and whistle-blowing was available in the marketplace set up at the symposium.

The Guardian magazine published their in-depth interview about myself as a whistle-blower and the work of Compassion in Care.

JANUARY 2015

Did another interview with BBC radio four, you and yours programme.

Set up new Twitter and developed a social media strategy. This now links from our new website to Twitter and YouTube and recently Facebook was also set up. We are tweeting up to 20 items a day raising awareness about abuse and the importance of whistle-blowing.

Organised court companions for two individuals to offer emotional and practical support throughout the legal process.

We continue to receive many enquiries from the media and are advising on abuse stories.

Did interview on BBC radio Lincolnshire.

We are starting to get lots of interest in our video blog, one of my videos, Merrick Park was used by The Mail online which brought a huge amount of hits to our new web-site, which to date has had ten thousand hits.

FEBRUARY 2015

We have filmed the first in-depth interview with the family of an elderly man who was abused. The new campaign “The Price of Silence” is aimed at raising awareness about abuse, the importance of whistle-blowing and the systems in place that failed to act when families raise such concerns. These films are posted on our twitter, YouTube and website.

We did an interview with transparency International about our work with whistle-blowers for a report they will be publishing later this year.

Our reports, Breaking the Silence parts 1,2, and 3 were referred to in the National union of journalists submissions to the House of Lords.

The Robert Francis QC report on whistle-blowing resulted in Compassion in Care been contacted by the media and doing the following interviews.

Two interviews with BBC 5 live,

BBC radio Kent,

BBC broadcasting house,

BBC news 24,

BBC Lincolnshire,

We were also contacted by BBC Panorama, Specials for a future documentary, on the recommendation of the actress Sheila Hancock.

I wrote an article for Hazards magazine on whistle-blowing which will be published in March.

Have been asked to contribute to a new book called, Forever Young, the book is about care of the elderly and my contribution will be about the importance of protecting whistle-blowers. The book will be published in July in Brussels. It is part of an initiative by The World Health Organisation on issues of ageing.

MARCH 2015

We have had numerous media enquiries on various care and whistle-blowing aspects and have advised accordingly. One of these enquiries came from a former media student who attended one of my talks and is now working for a national newspaper. This aspect of speaking to media students is having an impact on how abuse is reported in the press and we intend to build on this.

We handed in Breaking the Silence reports, parts, 1, 2 and 3 to Downing Street accompanied by a large number of whistle-blowers, the event was filmed by the media.

We obtained a free room at the House of Commons and arranged for whistle-blowers from different parts of the country to attend and meet their MPs.

We did an interview with the Independent on Sunday newspaper which will be published later in the year.

We are now using Dragon software to help cope with the high volume of administration and emails that we receive

We subscribed to Skype and have utilised this for the” Price of Silence” campaign and also for international press interviews. Compassion in Care’s work is receiving international recognition.

We did an interview with RTTV, going underground program.

Spoke at an event on Easter Saturday organised by students in London.

APRIL 2015

The helpline continues to grow and is very effective in helping people both staff and relatives.

Did an interview with BBC radio Kent.

Wrote the contribution for the book” Forever Young, and submitted this ahead of next months deadline.

Did four days more filming for the documentary which has been following our work for two years and which will be shown at film festivals in the autumn prior to TV broadcast.

Eileen Chubb

Compassion in Care