Leading care home solicitor calls on local authorities to ignore anonymous whistleblowers

Paul Ridout, a lawyer specialising in health and social care issues, is calling on local authorities to ignore anonymous allegations about care home abuse as “they are just stirring the dirt”.

High-profile scandals, such as the one involving maltreatment of vulnerable adults at Winterbourne View in Bristol, have raised awareness of abuse in care homes and has led to more people making abuse allegations. Mr Ridout of blames “the media feeding frenzy on abuse cases, as people think they have the right to make complaints now without any substance”.

He claims that when allegations of abuse are made, local authorities generally side with the person making the allegation. “A lot of people in local authorities are very negative towards private capital funded care homes. They seem to regard them as the enemy.”

“Unfortunately”, he says, “it is very easy to blame the private provider and not look at what has actually happened.”

He would like there to be more of a screening process where allegations are properly looked at to see if they should be taken further. “I don’t think local authorities should consider anonymous allegations as they are just stirring the dirt. I think that if they had proper concerns they wouldn’t be anonymous.

“Twenty years ago, whistle blowers were seen as nasty little snitches, now they are regarded as public heroes. I think we need to look at the trend for unsubstantiated allegations and we also need to look more closely at the definition of what abuse is.

“It doesn’t help that the media loves sensation and most local authorities are very sensitive to any accusation that they have not performed their duties properly.”

Things have improved since the West Sussex County Council case last year, where the High Court found its safeguarding investigation into alleged abuse of vulnerable adults in Nyton House Care Home was unfair and unlawful. Mr and Mrs Davis’s solicitor said the council acted with “complete disregard” to their rights.

Mr Ridout claims that in this case as in so many others, “it was very much a case of guilty before proven guilty – it was medieval. Providers need to be able to fight their corner and need to feel confident they will be listened to. Things do seem to have improved since the West Sussex case and some local authorities have certainly taken it on board. But we need much more of this and we need local authorities to actually have proper processes when allegations are made.

“They shouldn’t just investigate anonymous nonsense. I have seen members of staff making anonymous calls just because they have a grudge against their employer. Local authorities need to use more judgment when staff make allegations. This siding with the claimant immediately has come from the healthcare sector experience with Harold Shipman. You can’t challenge what has been said by a claimant to judge whether it is true or not.

“We come across many cases where local authorities treat providers dismissively and unfairly. The Davis Judgment should remind local authorities that providers have a right to be treated fairly, particularly given the investigation and outcomes may have devastating consequences for their businesses and for the staff concerned.”

Mr Ridout is finding he is being called on more and more to give support to care providers in an “increasingly aggressive environment”.

“Care providers usually contact us in reaction to something and tend to be in a distressed state as they can feel they are under attack from a local authority or a regulator who is threatening to close them down. They don’t often come to seek proactive advice as no one likes spending money unless they really have to. It is always in reaction to something. Yet all care providers are vulnerable and no one is above coming under attack. Sometimes they contact us because the police have arrived on their doorstep or the CQC is disrupting their business.”

Former care services minister Paul Burstow, recently called for care home providers in England, where abuse is carried out, to face unlimited fines and criminal sanctions.

He claims tougher laws are needed to ensure care providers are held criminally accountable for abuse and neglect in their homes.

However Mr Ridout is quick to dismiss these proposals, calling them the “ranting of an opposition spokesperson rather that someone who wants something done”. He says: “This is a person who had two years when he was the person in charge and did nothing about it.

“We have always had sanctions for true physical abuse. It is just a politician’s sound bite from a politician who has failed. If he had wanted to do that he could have done that in Government.”

He also believes the Care Quality Commission (CQC) would “do better if it focussed on weeding out bad providers rather than making it harder for good providers who get it wrong from time to time. The CQC needs to get the confidence of the wider public. It also needs to get the confidence of care providers.”

As for the future, Mr Ridout says: “Everybody is in a difficult position at the moment. But I would like to see more care providers focussing on quality and using the money available rather than saying it is not fair. We will stay firmly embedded in the care sector. We are here principally to cope with any situation that is thrown at us.”

Interesting facts

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