I’m sure many good and compassionate people worked at
the Westgate College for Deaf People. But some very bad fuckers worked there too who, according to the
Care Quality Commission, assaulted, abused, ridiculed and humiliated some of
the most vulnerable people you are ever likely to meet. And this abuse was allowed
to continue over a prolonged period of time because the management of the Westgate College
was woefully inadequate and appears to have
turned a blind eye to what was
happening.
As a parent of two learning disabled/ autistic teenagers I
can’t find the words to express how angry I am with the staff who carried out
this horrendous abuse and how angry I am with those well paid managers who
allowed this to happen. The John Townsend Trust and Westgate College are organisations
beyond contempt. They are heartless, cruel fuckers who tolerated a culture of abuse of society’s most vulnerable when they were getting in £millions of taxpayers money to supposedly educate and protect them. And all of this happened 4 years after the horrendous
Winterbourne View scandal was exposed by the BBC and despite Government
promises that learning disabled/ autistic people
would be better protected from abuse.
I would encourage anyone with humanity to read the Care Quality Commission report about Westgate College. Its short. Its to the point. It’s upsetting and heart-breaking too. Here’s is the link to the report.
I would encourage anyone with humanity to read the Care Quality Commission report about Westgate College. Its short. Its to the point. It’s upsetting and heart-breaking too. Here’s is the link to the report.
There’s no doubt in my mind the Care Quality Commission did the right thing in
closing down Westgate College. It had no other choice but to take this action
to end the awful regime that prevailed at what was in effect a loveless fucking
dumping ground for severely disabled young people where abuse was rife. For the John
Townsend Trust to have audacity to have appealed
against the CQC findings is the final insult to those young
disabled people it hurt and abused. You fuckers should be utterly ashamed of
yourself and now that the CQC report has been published and your objections
dismissed perhaps a full and frank apology to all those people you have damaged
and hurt should be made.
But I suspect not. Because I get the feeling that what has happened
here might well be the tip of an iceberg. I suspect that more abuse allegations will emerge and perhaps not just about Westgate College but maybe even the
Royal School for the Deaf too.
The scandals at Winterbourne View, Westgate College and perhaps even the Royal School for the Deaf, should send out
a clear and unambiguous message that vulnerable learning disabled/ autistic people
should have much more protection. Just as the tragic Victoria
Climbe case led to the
setting up a Children’s Commissioner, the unfolding tragedy of John Townsend Trust
and Westgate College should lead, as many people are now arguing, to the establishment of Learning
Disabilities Commissioner.
See this link to an important report about the Learning Disabilities Commissioner https://www.acevo.org.uk/news/winterbourne-view-time-change-report-launch
See this link to an important report about the Learning Disabilities Commissioner https://www.acevo.org.uk/news/winterbourne-view-time-change-report-launch
And all this in the UK in the year of our lord 2016 First world Country.
ReplyDeleteSo true. I was in tears reading the report and wondering what the future has in store for my girls.
DeleteIan. Going back in history re development of care monitoring. In 1975 Panorama did a programme on the care homes of Thanet. It also exposed Labour Govt for discharging mental patients homeless into seaside resorts like Margate. At that time the now notorious child abuser Peter Righton was an executive of the charity MIND. Who made no fuss about the expose'.
ReplyDeleteFor a while I faced the threat of Official Secrets Act charges suspected to have been Panorama source within civil service. But light was beginning to shine upon the unfit for purpose care monitoring of social services and the complete negligence of care monitoring duties by DHSS benefits (especially in Thanet).
The BBC Trust is asking Dame Janet Smith, who conducted the BBC Savile abuse inquiry, why she did not call in the 1975 Panorama. Was there a quid pro quo between charity MIND (PIE's Peter Righton), BBC and DHSS minister Barbara Castle (civil service advisors Jack Straw
and Norman Warner) ?
An issue was the six years of child deaths at the Beeches Ixworth Suffolk from 1966 to 1972. Disabled children in Islington (where Jack Straw was a Labour Cllr) and Hackney social services care. And about ten miles away adult deaths at the Sue Ryder HQ Care Home Cavendish.
In 1972 it was shadow minister Barbara Castle who raised the questions in the commons with Hackney MP Clinton Davies and Islington MP Michael O'Halloran. Mrs Castle wanted full public inquiry. I know that evidence was submitted to the 1972 minister Sir Keith Joseph including that Sue Ryder had avoided a requirement to employ qualified nurses by registering only as a care home. But then bigging it up on the charity stage as a nursing support and hospice facility.
Sir Keith Joseph refused inquiries into Sue Ryder deaths and care standards and refused inquiry into six years of child deaths at the Beeches.
The interesting bit is that great political diarist Barbara Castle then lost her case papers. And when she became minister also elected cover up.
After the 1975 Panorama in Thanet the BBC was expected to follow up on the care law issues by running with the Sue Ryder and Beeches cases.
But they dropped it as fast as Mrs Castle lost her records.
The matter of how Beeches and Sue Ryder deaths were registered arose in the Harold Shipman Inquiry (shortcomings of death registration process) but were ruled beyond terms of reference by the judge one Dame Janet Smith.
Of course now we know that Jimmy Savile abused at Sue Ryder child hospice Leeds in the 70s BBC Trust should ask Dame Janet Smith why she made no declaration of prior interest and knowledge.
The Lynette White murder case Cardiff. Lynette was a brave young prostitute who had been giving information to BBC, for a documentary, on child grooming to get girls from care homes into child prostitution. Again BBC Trust should now be asking Dame Janet Smith why she did not call in the BBC research ....
In 1967 Labour repealed the Common Law of Misprision of Felony. This made whistleblowing a matter of choice. Previously, under the Common Law, failure to whistle blow was a criminal offence. So Labour created a cop out look the other way society we now see manifest in mosques and churches and care facilities.