SOCIAL SERVICES - LIB DEM AITKEN REVEALS CONCERNS OVER HOMES

4.11.03

Liberal Democrat Social Services Spokesperson Cllr Ron Aitken has revealed further serious concerns about the running of Haringey Council's Social Services - this time around the care and protection of vulnerable adults in a residential home owned by the Council but run by CSS on the Council's behalf.

Cllr Aitken, who voted against the original plan to transfer the care of residents in two homes for people with learning disabilities, has demanded that the Council explain why it has sat on a critical report by its own Inspection Unit since February 2001. Cllr Aitken says that the Council should justify the withholding of the full details in the report from the mother of a resident of Linden House, a home in Tottenham for adults with a learning disability.

Only by taking legal action was the mother, who had complained on several occasions that her daughter was showing bruises and was not being properly cared for, able to make public a copy of a summary report. It is estimated that Haringey will have to pay her costs of at least £6,000 as a result of the action which was due to be heard in the Administrative Division of the High Court on 26 September 2003.

Cllr Aitken comments: "It is a disgrace that neither elected councillors nor relatives with an interest in the welfare of these most vulnerable adults have not been given a copy of the full report. One wonders what other secrets Haringey is hiding.

"The Council has sat on the Report since February 2001 and only served notice on CSS for breach of standards in March 2002. It is very disturbing that Haringey has not made these facts public, therefore I will be scrutinising closely any further plans to ensure there is no repetition of these events."

Notes:

Among the findings contained in the Summary Report of Haringey Council Inspection and Registration Unit on events in the home in the Autumn of 2000 are:

* There was an investigation into alleged physical abuse of another resident in the home.
* This resident was allegedly ordered to run upstairs naked.
* Overwhelming evidence that a staff member produced a piece of wood and entered a bathroom where this resident was present.
* A subsequent search of the home yielded a weathered bamboo stick from behind a sofa.
* A member of staff subsequently resigned.
* Criticism of the practice of making temporary staff permanent without proper training and safeguards.
* 91 staff worked in the home in the period June-November2000.
* It is not clear whether police were involved in an investigation.

The Council has since taken Linden House and several other homes back into Direct Management, but plans to hive them off once again to another organisation.

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