Curated Topic

Candour

Those who work in the NHS have a Duty of Candour, it is enshrined in legislation here (paragraph 20). In a nutshell the duty of candour is a legal duty to be open and honest when things go wrong. Despite sounding incredibly simple, it is in fact exceptionally elusive. What follows are a number of […]

CQC inadequate care for learning disabled and autistic people

Rated inadequate in June 2025 Ambient Support Ltd, East Anglia Domiciliary Care Branch “East Anglia Domiciliary Care Branch provides care and support to people, with a learning disability, living in a supported living setting, so they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing were provided under separate contractual agreements, the accommodation was […]

CQC outstanding care for learning disabled and autistic people

Rated outstanding in 2025 June Comfort Care at Home Ltd, Chessington, Surrey Docmar Ltd, Respectful Care, Mansfield [Registered to provide support to learning disabled people but no mention of Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture in assessment]. First Support Care Ltd, Sheffield [Registered to provide support to learning disabled people but no mention of Right […]

Lacklustre LEDER

LEDER is the name of the Learning Disability Mortality Review Programme introduced in England in 2015. It uses a ridiculous presentation of letters that no-one has ever been able to explain LeDeR. This programme was poorly designed, poorly resourced and poorly led from the outset. A criticism that has been publicly shared by many people. […]

Neglect

The dictionary definition of neglect is to ‘fail to care for properly’, but things aren’t that straight forward when it comes to legal discussions and coroner’s findings about neglect. What follows are a number of blog posts where I’ve discussed neglect, and how hard it appears to be to find, when discussing the care provided […]

Open Justice

Justice must not just be done, but it must be seen to be done. The principle of Open Justice enables the public to understand and scrutinise the justice system, and it is argued that it is essential to maintaining public confidence in the administration of justice.  Coroner’s courts sit in public and there is always […]

Performative scrutiny

In my WCMT Fellowship report I introduced the concept of performative scrutiny. It seems we’ve reached a point now where there are more investigations happening than ever before, but very little change as a result of them. I can’t help think that this is due to a need to be seen to be responding, rather than getting […]

Social media

I joined Twitter in September 2008 and started blogging shortly after. Without social media I would not have been able to connect, to learn, to campaign or to share court happenings. I’ve co-authored two book chapters with Sara Ryan, about the role of social media in the JusticeforLB campaign: Personal reflections on the #107days campaign […]