Cover-up cultures and avoiding accountability

I’ve been away from my laptop for a few days, ignored twitter, took some time away, swam in the sea (well more like just jumped the battering waves and felt glad to be alive and so small and insignificant in things), gave blood, visited friends, usual everyday things. Nothing wild but a break of sorts, […]

The cost of CQC’s carelessness and incompetence; letting Dimensions off the hook

[Summary version: How Sally Lewis was failed, neglectfully, by Dimensions, Julie Campbell, Julie McGirr and all of those so called Support Workers responsible for providing her basic care. And how Sally was failed again by CQC]. Earlier this week Sally Lewis’s inquest concluded, with the coroner finding that her death was contributed to by the […]

Sally Lewis: Non-apology Dimensions style

I’ve written about apologies before, about the value of candour, about non apologies, the othering of learning disabled people and allegedly inquisitorial inquests. Today I’m more than a bit disappointed, but if I’m honest not surprised, to add Dimensions UK to the list. This is a post I wrote before Sally’s inquest started. In it […]

Sally Lewis Inquest: Susan Wall, CQC

The final person called to give evidence at Sally’s inquest was Susan Wall, an Inspector at the CQC. The coroner had already explained in court that he was not calling Susan Wall to provide any evidence relating to Sally’s death, but to explain the timeline of their action that led to the failed criminal prosecution. […]

Sally Lewis Inquest: Helen Orford

The second witness called to give evidence on the final day of Sally’s inquest, was Helen Orford, who is now Managing Director of Discovery, which she described as a subsidiary of the Dimensions Group, at the time of Sally’s death, she told the court she was Regional Managing Director for Dimensions. She said that she’d […]

Sally Lewis Inquest: Julie Bennett

On the final day of Sally’s inquest the coroner opened with Julie, Sally’s sister. First she read a pen portrait of who Sally was and what she meant to her family, you can read it here. Next the coroner said he’d read parts of Julie’s statement onto the record. He told the court that this […]

Sally Lewis Inquest: Coroner’s conclusion

You can read the coroner’s summing up in three posts: Conclusion 1, Conclusion 2 and Conclusion 3. In this post I report on the coroner’s conclusion. This is what he said. I’ve considered Professor Gilmore’s evidence carefully, I now incorporate into these findings the evidence of Professor Gilmore which I accepted. I make these findings […]

Sally Lewis Inquest: Conclusion 3

Conclusion 1 reported the coroner’s summing up of events up until the day before Sally died. Conclusion 2 reported the coroner’s summing up of the events surrounding Sally’s death, post mortem evidence and cause of death. This post will discuss the coroner’s summing up in relation to what happened after Sally’s death including an internal […]

Sally Lewis Inquest: Conclusion 2

I’m reporting the coroner’s summing up and conclusion in stages. The first post is here. This post will cover what the coroner concluded about the events of Sally’s death, the post mortem findings and the cause of death. The coroner said that on Thursday 26 October 2017 Sally had enjoyed what appeared to be a […]

Sally Lewis Inquest: Conclusion 1

Sally Lewis’s inquest concluded this afternoon with the coroner finding that her death was contributed to by neglect. David Reid, Senior Coroner for Worcestershire said that no short form conclusion could properly describe or summarise the events in this case, so he’d give a short narrative conclusion. I’m going to report this in stages, this […]