The final two Dimensions UK witnesses were Deborah Hubbocks, a Health and Safety Advisor for Dimensions who conducted their internal investigation after Sally died, and Lorna Owen who was a Support Worker who left Dimensions before Sally died, and her statement was read onto the record by the coroner. Deborah Hubbocks Deborah Hubbocks spoke very […]
Last week started in Brisbane and I flew back to Melbourne on Wednesday. Wednesday evening I met John Chesterman, Director of Strategy and currently Acting Advocate, at the Victorian Office of the Public Advocate. John was one of the first people I contacted when planning my WCMT travels as he himself is a former Australian […]
Day 14 of my #WCMTLD trip and only Day 2 in New Zealand but it really feels like time is flying by. Today was a bit of a blur of meetings, walking to meetings and discussing how the deaths of intellectually disabled people are investigated in New Zealand. First up I met with Claire and Martyn […]
I’m not sure whether it was coffee consumption, nerves/excitement about today, jetlag or something altogether different but I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. I woke feeling a little jaded and stumbled across the road to the cafe for breakfast. Turns out avocado on toast is like the food of superheroes, I felt […]
I am incredibly excited to share that I have been awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Travelling Fellowship 2017. The WCMT fellowship will cover my costs to travel to Canada, Australia and New Zealand for six weeks in total to look at what currently happens in those countries in relation to involving families, and learning […]
I can’t believe that I’m writing this blog post. I can’t believe that anything I’m about to say should need saying, so I’m going to try and keep it short. I’ve written a couple of previous blogs about my experience of the #CQCDeathsReview and my last ended with a section that shared the header of […]
It’s twelve months today since the second Verita investigation into the circumstances of LB’s death was published. I wrote this blog post a year ago, 10 reasons why I can’t support the Verita 2 conclusions and sadly since then I’ve become more convinced that I was right to mistrust it, not less (which is what I […]
A week or so ago I wrote a post introducing the Care Quality Commission Deaths Review and my initial thoughts about it. I’m not going to repeat it here, but please do go read it if you’re interested. The aspect of work I am most heavily involved with is looking to ensure families and bereaved relatives […]
A couple of months ago I agreed to be a Special Advisor for the CQC on a thematic review that they are conducting, looking at how the NHS investigates deaths, and how (if?) they learn from these investigations. The decision to take on this role was not an easy one for me. For many months […]