THE WITNESS STATEMENT OF RICHARD TURNER
SOCIAL SEVICES

On May the 5th, Eileen Chubb telephoned me for assistance because she was being chased around Isard House by Carole Newton, BUPA’s area operational manager, and Eileen Chubb had locked herself in a room of one of the residents to get away from her, as this breakdown in the relation ship between the member of staff and their manager was affecting the running of the home, Monica Handscomb and I attended Isard Hs immediately. Eileen Chubb contacted us in order to try to keep the peace and avoid too much disruption.

An interview then took place, Eileen Chubb, Carole Newton in the conference room in Isard Hs on the first floor with both myself and Monica Handscomb present.

This meeting was for Carole Newton to establish what the problem had been and it appears that she saw Eileen Chubb as the ringleader, Eileen Chubb was too distraught to go on working. I felt we were mediating in an internal employer/ employee situation which could not be resolved easily and not the units role. Carole Newton asked why Eileen Chubb had gone to Social Service unit, when there was a BUPA helpline for carers. Monica Handscomb pointed out that there was no help line at the time and when they had brought concerns to the management nothing had happened.

Eileen Chubb indicated to Monica Handcomb that she could not go on working under the circumstances and Monica Handscomb told Carole Newton she agreed with this.

Mr Kelly was BUPA’s Director, Carole Newton was the Area Manager, Mr Kelly was therefore Carole Newtons line manager. I suggested to him that he should attend a meeting with the Whistle-Blowers as a way of reducing their tension and distress. I told him that I believed that the staff group had come to us in good faith, I was concerned if this disruption was going to continue at Isard Hs, it would effect the residents.

I arranged an impartial venue and discussed this with Eileen Chubb and Karen Hook, I said they would be able to present their own case, I said I would be there just to listen and Facilitate the discussion.

I arranged the meeting for the 14th of May at one of the councils special sheltered housing units, the meeting was attended by all seven Whistle-Blowers, Mr Kelly and myself and Monica Handscomb joined us later, it was a constructive meeting in the sense that the Whistle-Blowers were reasonably calm and very professional, they presented their concerns on a flip chart which clearly identified the circumstances of their allegations and some of the residents most affected, and the staff hierarchy, which they suggested inhibited the present resolution of their concerns at Isard Hs.

Mr Kelly listened to what the staff group had said and thanked them and talked about training and development and how this could be improved at Isard Hs. However he said that BUPA could not do anything until Social Services had completed its investigation.

He Emphasised with the staff group and told them about his own care background in residential care homes and that he understood their concerns, BUPA were keen to ensure that care would improve and improving training was key to this, It was an informative meeting on both sides and I felt was the beginning of a dialogue that would continue between the respective parties.

Mr Kelly presented his own credials and told the staff group about books he had written i.e. his academic background he did not identify any clear objectives to resolve the issue at Isard Hs, but he said he would rely on the outcome of Bromley Social Services inquiry and that he would make sure that everything was O.K in the sense of the residents care, in summary, Mr Kelly explained his professional background, his knowledge of residential care matters and tried to give some reassurance, I felt that Mr Kelly had listened to what the staff had said and that he would take some action, he did say he would take responsibility for the situation, the Whistle-Blowers were really upset about the lack of care to the residents of whom they were particularly fond, they were frustrated upset and angry that they had not been able to achieve any change for the residents in terms of the care they were receiving.

All the people who attended had an opportunity to say something, the meeting went on approximately two Hrs. I got the sense that their was a management vacuum at Isard Hs, five residents in particular seemed to have suffered partulary and there was a real problem of understaffing on unit 2. The Whistle- Blowers were adamant that there had been physical assaults and verbal abuse towards residents in the year proceeding April 1999, principally on unit 3, Isard Hs.

The staff group were also concerned about communications with GPs which had apparently been blocked by Maria Green, the Deputy manager at Isard Hs, They claimed that this had prevented early treatment of a variety of residents health conditions and concerns.

Lee Elkin one of the staff that made allegations claims that he had been harassed to return to work by repeated telephone calls with the manager of the home Carole Jones.

There was a underlying distress at the meeting, Linda Clark in particular became very emotional, all the staff attending the meeting at Durham Hs, were tearful at times except M. Roffey.

On the 24th of May I arranged for the Whistle-Blowers to have counselling through a voluntary agency Counsel and Care for the elderly, I was conscious that my lines of responsibility were becoming blurred, I felt sorry for the Whistle- Blowers, who had come to us in good faith, wanting to help them but I also wanted to avoid their concerns being treated as gossip, there was a need to ensure there own emotional needs were receiving help from external sources and that their health was protected.

The inquiry team had prepared an interim report in May 99 and held a meeting on the 13th of May at the civic centre with Mr Kelly and Carole Newton from BUPA and we discussed the interim findings in full, Mr Kelly met the staff group at Durham Hs the following day.

Carole Jones the manager at Isard Hs, then went of sick and subsequently left in July 99, Maria Green the Deputy manager at Isard Hs, has been moved to another home in the area pending the outcome of our inquiry.

Throughout the summer of 99 I was in frequent contact with Eileen Chubb and the staff would drop in to the civic centre from time to time, they wanted to know what was happening and also expressed their concerns that they were not receiving payments from BUPA, in a regular and consistent manner, there was apparently shortfalls in their money sent to them, they were all to the best of my knowledge off sick with stress during this period. I wrote a letter on one occasion on the behalf of Lee Elkin, to his housing landlord to say that he had been helping us with our inquiry’s and therefore his drop in income was due to the fact he was doing this. Although he was unable to fully pay his rent I made a plea on his behalf for leniency with regards to possession.

Meanwhile we continued to monitor Isard Hs constantly, we would visit weekly or fortnightly unannounced and announced to ensure that the staffing levels were right.
Agency staff were employed but it was understood that this was the only option open to the company, although these arrangements were not ideal as it did not give consistent care in the long term to residents.

The Whistle-Blowers all felt guilty about what was happening to their residents. It was clear that the relatives of the residents thought highly of the members of staff, especially those from unit 2, i.e. the Whistle-blowers.

I felt optimistic in general terms that the staff group would be able to maintain links with their employer after our meeting of the 14th of May and I imagined they would all return back to work in due course, I continued to remain in touch with the staff group throughout the summer.

On the 27th of May I again met the staff group together at the civic centre they handed in further written statements to me.

On the 4th of June Renee Warwick came in to discuss her financial situation including payments of arrears of earnings, on the 16th of June M Roffy came to see me at the civic centre with further written statements setting out her additional concerns about the attitude of management towards her, I met again with the staff group on the 29th of July when they came into the civic centre again and reported to me they had not received their statutory sick pay, I then wrote to Des Kelly on their behalf.

On the 27th of August I received information via one of the managers of another residential care home in the BUPA Group, who reported to Monica Handcomb that Maria Keenahan was to be re employed at Anne Sutherland Hs another home in the BUPA Group, In a similar capacity to that she had aaat Isard Hs, It was on or around that date that I also received a call from Eileen Chubb to say that Maria Keenahan was to be reemploy at Anne Sutherland Hs as a teamleader, there on a unit for the elderly and mentally infirm. At that time Maria Keenahan was under arrest on police bail while they were making further inquiry’s regarding the theft from residents.

We managed to ascertain that Maria Keeenahan was due to work first thing on Tuesday 31st of August 99, after the bank holiday Monday, on the evening of Friday 27th and over sat 28th and Sunday 29th I contacted Mr Kelly at his home and said that the reemployment of Maria Keenahan at Anne Sutherland Hs was unacceptable to us especially as she was firstly on bail with regards to allegations of theft and secondly that in our view she was implicated in both abuse and neglectful behaviour either by both herself and members of her team, that she was managing on unit 3 at Isard Hs, he utematly agreed to prevent her from commencing employment at Anne Sutherland Hs, on the morning of the 31st of Aug 99, which I understood that did because I phoned Anne Sutherland Hs to confirm that this had happened.

On the 1st of December 99, e Chubb and k hook came to the civic centre and spoke with Monica and Carl Sewell, the chief executive and informed them that Maria Keenahan had been at Faircroft a home owned by BUPA .

Faircroft owned by BUPA operated by a separate company in the BUPA group especially for elderly mentally infirm residents, I rung and asked to speak to the manager of Faircroft Mrs Lydia Edmonds and asked if she had Marai working at the home, she said no I then asked her if she had anyone called Maria which she denied, I was not satisfied with her reply so I visited the home that evening with Monica around 9 PM to coincide with the possible changeover of staff for the nightshift.

We looked at records at Faircroft from which it appears that the rotas had been altered and the name Maria had been tipexed out at least one of those that I had seen, this rota was hanging in the office upstairs further rotas were held in managers office in the basement which we did not have access to that evening.

We returned at 8.30 am the following morning and waited for the manager to arrive at 9.15 am. We interviewed Mrs Edmonds at that time and she finally agreed that Maria Keenahan had worked there since September.

Mrs Edmonds said that she knew Maria Keenahan was on bail for theft. She was however, at that stage unaware of the allegations of verbal and physical abuse which had been made against her. Maria Keenahan herself had told her about these some weeks later. The manager was under the impression that Maria Keenahan had been discriminated against for race reasons. She felt sympathetic towards Maria Keenahan.

Carole Newton had brought Maria Keenahan to Faircroft at a time when the manager was not on duty. She subsequently ascertained that this had occurred on 31st of August 1999, immediately after she had been prevented from working at Anne Sutherland Hs.
Mrs Edmonds had not raised the issue of Maria Keenahan with any one else. Her view was that there was not a shred of evidence to back up the allegations which had been made against Maria Keenahan.

I wrote to Mr Ludford the operations director ( BUPA Care Homes) he did not reply.
I drew attention to the fact that Maria Keenahan appeared to have been re-deployed at Faircroft. The matter was subject to lengthy correspondence between myself and the company. I also said that Maria Keenahan was on police bail and this information was included in detail in my letter to Mr Ludford on 21st of December 1999, But now I understand that from June this year Maria Keenahan was re-suspended once again and that she was no longer working at Faircroft at the present time. There are elderly mentally infirm residents at Faircroft for whom she was responsible.

My letters were passed on to Mr Kelly for a reply without any acknowledgement from Mr Ludford ( BUPA)

I received replies from Mr Kelly to my letters who stated that Maria Keenahan had been re-deployed at Faircroft because he had insufficient evidence to continue her suspension due to the fact that the written allegation by the Whistle-Blowers had not been able to be released to him and therefore he felt that the balance of evidence against Maria Keenahan was insufficient to keep her from being employed. I made it abundantly clear in correspondence that I did not agree with this view. She had been on bail at the time of her re-deployment for theft and that with the other allegations of such a serious nature that we had received we demanded that her suspension continue.

The manager, Mrs Edmonds had breached regulations under The Registered Homes Act, there was also an issue of tampering with records which reflected on her fitness and also the fitness of the area operational manager, Carole Newton. It was purely by chance that we discovered that Maria Keenahan was working at Faircroft. Placing Maria Keenahan at faircroft was in breech of the statutory regulations.