Daily Mail - 17.08.2019

Daily Mail, Saturday, August 17, 2019 Page 23

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‘Criminal’ care

home failings

soar by 10% to

hit record high

By Daniel Martin

Policy Editor

under the pressure of inade-

quate funding. In one case, a

nursing home was taken to

court when a resident died of

septicaemia after care workers

ignored serious pressure sores.

The revelation of the appalling

state of many of England’s care

homes comes as the Mail cam-

paigns to improve services for

those suffering from dementia.

The paper is campaigning for

an end to the scandal where

dementia sufferers have to sell

their homes to pay sky-high

care bills – often in poor-quality

homes. Details about the fines

and prosecutions came in the

2018/19 CQC’s annual report.

It revealed that the watchdog

had also taken ‘criminal enforce-

ment action’ against hospitals

and GP surgeries last year.

Charity boss is

slammed over

his ‘obscene’

£434k pay deal

A FAMILY planning charity has been

criticised for handing its boss an

‘obscene’ £434,000 pay package.

Marie Stopes International gave chief

executive Simon Cooke, pictured, £217,250

in basic salary last year after helping a

record number gain access to contracep-

tion and abortions.

Mr Cooke was then also paid a bonus

equal to his basic salary.

Critics attacked the reproductive and

sexual healthcare charity, which is part-

funded by the taxpayer, for the huge pay

packet, which came after 1,100 jobs were

cut at the organisation in the same period.

Mark Flannagan, former chief of the

charity Beating Bowel Cancer, called the

renumeration deal ‘obscene’ and said that

Mr Cooke should turn down the bonus.

Writing in magazine Third Sector, Mr

Flannagan, who now works at Alder Hey

Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, added:

‘I cannot see how anyone can justify

almost doubling what is already an

extremely large salary for a charity boss.’

He called for a ‘grown-up debate about

what constitutes a rea-

sonable reward’ for

charity bosses, adding

that this ‘should give

way to an understand-

ing of just how wrong

so-called “bonuses” are

in the sector’.

This is not the first

time Mr Cooke, who

previously worked as

head of international

razor-blade manufacturer Super-Max, has

been handed a giant bonus by the charity,

named after birth control clinic pioneer

Marie Stopes. He received £233,303 in 2016

and £251,831 in 2015, but his basic salary

was lower then.

Explaining the pay packet, a spokesman

said that running Marie Stopes Interna-

tional involved finances of £290million

annually. He added: ‘Last year more than

30million women and men worldwide

were using contraception provided by us

and we averted an estimated 6.4million

unsafe abortions.

‘The remuneration package is set by the

board of trustees, as part of their duty to

ensure our organisation has the best lead-

ership to deliver ambitious targets.’

By Will Fryer

1m protesters are

expected at new

Hong Kong demo

MORE than a million protesters are

expected at a rally in Hong Kong tomor-

row as local people become increasingly

angry over police brutality.

Organisers say the pro-democracy

demonstration will be the biggest yet.

Several people have been injured dur-

ing ten weeks of street protests, includ-

ing a teacher blinded when shot with a

‘bean bag’ bullet while she was working

as a first aider.

Police have been filmed using tear gas

in confined spaces and on the under-

ground system, and firing rubber bullets

and bean bag bullets indiscriminately.

China is continuing its show of strength,

with military vehicles assembled at a

sports centre in Shenzhen, just across

the border from Hong Kong.

Yesterday, police banned two marches.

But a ‘static’ rally against police violence

will be allowed to proceed in Victoria

Park, on Hong Kong island.

Activists say they are defending the ‘one

country, two systems’ deal which saw

China regain the ex-British colony in 1997.

Overall, it took criminal action

against 211 homes, hospitals

and GP surgeries – up a third in

a year. There was also a rise in

less serious civil cases from 781

in 2017/18 to 906 a year later.

The report said: ‘We took more

criminal actions than in 2017/18,

a continuing trend over the last

care including GP surgeries (up

from one) and 12 were in hospi-

tals (up from eight). The rest

were in ‘unspecified’ locations.

Of the criminal actions taken

against homes, 148 were fixed-

penalty notices and nine were

prosecutions. Two more ‘simple

cautions’ were issued.

Former pensions minister Bar-

oness Altmann said: ‘The reve-

lation that this is happening so

frequently is proof the system is

letting millions down and needs

a radical overhaul.’

CQC chief Ian Trenholm said:

‘We will continue to focus on

encouraging improvement ...

but we also have a legal duty,

and a duty to families and loved

ones, to use our civil powers ...

to ensure that people are pro-

tected from harm.’ Following

one intervention, a care pro-

vider was ordered to pay fines

and costs totalling £45,695 by

Leeds magistrates.

It followed a serious incident

at Sherrington House nursing

home in Bradford in 2015. Man-

ager Catherine Carpenter

admitted failing to provide safe

care and treatment, resulting in

avoidable harm to resident

Morag ‘Ruby’ Wardman. The

court heard Mrs Wardman was

admitted on December 27, 2015

for 15 days’ respite care.

When she got home, her son

noticed broken sores and severe

skin damage to her knee. She

died a month later. The cause of

death was septicaemia and

broncho-pneumonia.

WELCOME TO WILD WEST BRITAIN

RECORD numbers of care

homes faced criminal action

last year after standards fell

to unacceptable levels.

The official health watchdog

was forced to fine or prosecute

an average of three care provid-

ers every single week after they

broke the law.

The Care Quality Commission

took ‘criminal enforcement action’

against no fewer than 159 care

homes in 2018/19, the organisation’s

annual report revealed.

That total is up 10 per cent on the

144 actions taken the previous year.

Criminal sanctions are only taken

when failings amount to a ‘serious

risk to a person’s life, health or well-

being’ or where serious failings con-

tinue despite repeated warnings.

The stark figures illustrate how

England’s care system is creaking

AMANDA PLATELL

IS AWAY

Private litter firms dish out 210,000 fines

PRIvATE litter forces handed out

more than 210,000 fines last year – a

remarkable 1,000 per cent increase in

six years.

And litter bugs are now nearly 20 times

more likely to be fined for dropping rubbish

in areas where the private companies

patrol, a report found yesterday.

But the report, by the anti-red tape

Manifesto Club, accuses councils of allow-

ing the firms they hire to hand out punish-

ments according to a business model,

rather than justice.

Spokesman Josie Appleton said the fig-

ures ‘reflect the fact that fining has become

a business’.

She added: ‘Punishment in this area has

become a profit-based industry, which has

begun to work on a quite different basis to

the normal principles of criminal justice.’

On-the-spot fines for littering can range

from £75 to £100, and private firms have

been employed by councils to hand them

out both for litter and dog fouling.

In 2012, only 13 councils employed the

firms and there were 18,690 privately

imposed fines. This rose to 141,125 in 2015

and reached 214,648 last year. More than

one in five councils in England and Wales

now use private companies as litter police.

By Steve Doughty

Social Affairs Correspondent

‘System is letting

millions down’

two years. Our case manage-

ment tracking system is helping

to strengthen our criminal

action work.’

Of the 211 criminal enforce-

ment cases, 159 were in care

homes (up from 144 the year

before), three were in primary