The Observer - 25.08.2019

The Observer

Focus 25.08.19 41

Oak House, which is mainly for peo-

ple with learning disabilities?” Anne

asks. “She was autistic. She wanted

to be regularly observed, but care

at Oak House was inconsistent. She

bought razor blades and alcohol,

and sometimes the staff searched

her and sometimes they didn’t. I

tried to raise issues but there was

almost no communication. Every

day of Shannon’s inquest I felt noth-

ing but anger.”

Shortly after Shannon’s death,

Oak House, offering private care

to 16 adults, at fees said to be up to

£2,000 a week, was rated “inade-

quate” by the CQC and put in special

measures. It has six months to make

improvements or face closure. Fifty-

three safeguarding incidents had

not been reported to the local coun-

cil, including allegations of sexual

assault and illegal drug use.

So why was Shannon at Oak

House? Anne says she had been

told it was her only option. In 2018-

19, £100m – 30% of all NHS mental

health spending – went to pri-

vate providers nursing people out-

side their local area. “Private homes

where the main motivation is profi t

shouldn’t be looking after vulnera-

ble people,” Anne says. “We need to

bring it all back under local author-

ity care.”

Helen Jenkinson, chief nurs-

ing offi cer for Birmingham and

Solihull Clinical Commissioning

Group, involved in the decision

that Oak House was appropriate,

says: “Whenever there is loss of life,

we always work with our partners ...

to try and ensure similar incidents

are prevented.”

Birmingham and Solihull Mental

Health NHS Foundation Trust acted

as Shannon’s supervising clinicians,

so why didn’t it raise concerns? It

says: “The trust did continue to pro-

vide support to help Shannon in her

new placement and this included

training for Oak House staff ... We

will respond in full to the coroner’s

concerns around information shar-

ing between the agencies involved .”

A Camino Healthcare spokesper-

son said: “We will ... learn every les-

son we can moving forward.”

An equally urgent issue is why the

lessons from a growing number of

deaths in NHS and private mental

health facilities of vulnerable young

people are not being heeded. The

Joy Hart, a former club director,

protesting at Gigg Lane last week.

Shannon, aged 21, far left,

and aged 19, above, with her

mother Anne. Photograph

courtesy Anne Quinn

The ugly face of

the beautiful game

E

very so often, the foot-

ball world gets into a

tizz about something

fairly inconsequential.

The game has gone,

cry the doomsayers.

Integrity has fl own out of the win-

dow, moan the handwringers.

There was another moral panic

last weekend when the video assis-

tant referee (VAR) ruled out a late

winner for one of the world’s richest

clubs. This was the second week in a

row that Manchester City had been

caught up in a VAR controversy.

“Something in the soul of the game,”

a broadsheet scribe wrote, gnashing

his teeth, “is lost.” A nation yawned.

The latest bother, however –

about a small, unfashionable, lower-

league football ground 14 miles

from City’s stunning stadium – is

another matter entirely. Last week

was hellish for supporters of Bury

FC. At their modest Gigg Lane sta-

dium , a coffi n bore the legend “RIP

Bury”. A former club director hand-

cuffed herself to a drainpipe. Long-

suffering fans of the 134-year-old

club ripped up their season tickets.

Yesterday , the English Football

League was considering a reprieve

after Steve Dale – who bought the

club for £1 last December – agreed

a sale. But the club faithful know

the existential threat remains. The

fact that one of the oldest teams in

the country is on the brink of being

wiped off the football map is a para-

ble for our times. If doom-mongers

want a symbol of the once-beautiful

game’s descent into ugliness , they

should take the half- hour Metro ride

from Manchester into Bury.

This journey is a reminder of the

chasm that has emerged between

football’s haves and have-nots.

In the 1990s, little Bury famously

beat Manchester City in the sec-

ond tier. Since 2008, City have been

bankrolled by Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh

Mansour to the tune of £1.3bn,

and they are favourites to win the

world’s most lucrative league three

times in a row.

It is Bury’s 12-point deduction

for insolvency, the suspension of

all their opening fi xtures and ban-

ishment from a cup competition –

rather than the slings and arrows

of disputed offside, handball or

penalty decisions in the avaricious

Premier League – that exposes the

Bury is just a half-hour

trip on Manchester’s

metro but its

struggling football

club is a universe away

from its city neighbour,

says Anthony Clavane

moral vacuum at the heart of the

modern game.

Blackpool, Coventry City, Port

Vale, Oldham, Macclesfi eld Town

and Bolton Wanderers have all spent

time on life support, part of a roll

call of English football’s lost, post-

industrial heartlands. Bolton even

set up a food bank for unpaid staff.

Bury’s stay of execution does not

alter the trend for the rich to get

richer while the poor become more

debt-ridden. Premier League clubs

spent a total of £1.3bn before the

current season, half of them smash-

ing their transfer records. By con-

trast, a quarter of EFL clubs have

faced extinction in the past decade.

Bury’s fall from grace shines a

light on the fi nancial unsustainabil-

ity of the game’s neoliberal model.

Football is broken. It is crying out

for a salary cap; Bury were unable

to pay the hefty wages they owed

the players who won them promo-

Viewpoint

charity Inquest is campaigning for

legal aid at inquests for the families

of those who have died, independ-

ent investigations pre-inquest (not

conducted in-house by trusts and

private providers – a process that

can take years) and the establish-

ment of a body tasked with ensuring

that coroners’ recommendations are

collated, applied and monitored, and

learning disseminated.

Deborah Coles, executive direc-

tor of Inquest, adds: “Young women

with multiple needs are too often

failed by the public services meant

to keep them safe. Care involving

multiple agencies is disjointed and

there is woefully lacking provision

for local specialist services. The dev-

astation this causes is compounded

by the fact that internal investi-

gations are often poor, and learn-

ing from previous deaths is often

missed, resulting in yet more pre-

ventable harm.”

S

hannon’s solicitor,

Tony Murphy of Bhatt

Murphy , says: “The

coroner uncovered

evidence of gross fail-

ings by Camino. The

Care Quality Commission is now

investigating whether that should

form the basis of criminal pro-

ceedings against Camino. It will

also be important for the Crown

Prosecution Service to review this

evidence to consider if criminal

charges should be brought against

any individual staff members for

perverting the course of justice.” 

Shannon’s sister, Caragh, 27, who

has a six-year-old daughter with her

partner, says: “We have had no apol-

ogy from Camino, even though it

took seven months to admit a check

at 6pm had not been completed. My

daughter lost an aunt, my mum lost

her youngest daughter, I lost my

only sister and the world has lost a

talented soul who was so loved.”

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can

be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@

samaritans.org or [email protected]

Amanda Briley , 20,

died 2016

Diagnosed with autism

spectrum disorder and

self-harmed. Inquest

in 2018 found failings

by Leicestershire

Partnership NHS Trust

contributed to her

death.

Sophie Bennett ,

19, below, died 2016

Bipolar and social

anxiety disorders and

autism. Inquest jury

in 2018 found that

neglect contributed to

her death at Lancaster

Lodge in Richmond,

southwest London.

Zoe Watts , 19,

died 2017

Anorexic and self-

harmed. Inquest jury

in 2018 found failings

at an Oxford Health

NHS Trust centre

contributed to her

death.

Sophie Payne , 22,

below, died 2017

Bipolar and

emotionally unstable

personality disorders.

Inquest jury in

2018 found serious

failings by St George’s

University Hospitals

NHS Trust, southwest

London.

Charlotte Ball , 27, died

2017

Emotionally unstable

personality disorder.

Inquest 2019 found

failings by South

West London and St

George’s Mental Health

NHS Trust.

FAILURE

OF CARE

tion to League One. An independent

body should immediately be estab-

lished to run its own fi t and proper

persons test; incredibly, the EFL

allowed Dale to take the club over

without providing proof of funds.

An honours board in the club car

park remembers supporters “whose

contribution marks them out, be it

for their loyalty, sacrifi ce or endeav-

ours”. These are not qualities nor-

mally associated with opportunistic,

asset-stripping owners. Dale has

a track record of asset-selling , and

has been a director of more than 40

companies.

In a revealing interview last

Friday , the Cheshire-based busi-

nessman said he “didn’t even know

there was a football team called

Bury” when he bought the club.

He then admitted to not being a

football fan. One suspects, how-

ever, he might have heard of Bury’s

noisy, and increasingly megaloma-

niac, neighbours, the most lavishly

funded project in football history.