Setting the scene!
Due to staff shortages at a local health centre, I was asked to join this team. New dynamic of the new team, restorative and healing; valiant part time
colleague had struggled on with needy full time caseload. Within a couple of months, up to date; starting to develop new initiatives and work in depth with some families. Complex case; realised situation had changed radically; no allocated social worker; sent fax proposing different outcome to case conference (reverting back to original proposal by social worker). Sent same fax to child protection team.Three days later called to manager’s office urgently. Not invited to bring colleague but did.
Suspension
Suspended pending investigation. Complete shock. However, this happened to me four years previously in another organisation so I knew the process. I had been through the trauma and devastation then, though this was also extremely distressing of course. (The allegations against me were not upheld and the trust chairman stated that I had been cleared of professional shortcomings). I asked to continue with clinic work and groups but request was denied. At the investigation interview, explained why I sent the fax. Explanation ignored. Record keeping examined by two managers. Report written by clinical supervisor without prior agreement with me, in spite of written, signed contract that all discussions were confidential and reports would only be written with both our agreement. Investigation report full of fresh allegations, unrelated to the allegation of
potentially putting a child at risk. Written refutation ignored. Accept recommendations of retraining in child protection procedures and full
assessment of ability to function as a health visitor or face disciplinary action. As the same people would be conducting the disciplinary hearing, opted for six month assessment. Person who wrote ambiguous and unhelpful clinical supervision report, appointed to supervise. Unable to trust this person. Said this at a meeting with person present. Told there was no alternative except disciplinary action (again). Regional union rep and local rep managed to have the supervisor changed. Occupational health doctor helpful. Suspension continued while all this was being arranged. Finally lifted after eight and a half months.
The assessment of my practice:
Very painful returning to work. It was humiliating, lonely and very stressful. My confidence had been undermined and I had no trust in
management. However, I was working in a different area with a different manager over seeing the assessment, who tried to be neutral in it all. The assessor, a community practice teacher, was very supportive, (as were the rest of the team), and fair. I was also asked to keep a portfolio of the
assessment. Six months later the assessor wrote a positive report detailing the sections of the assessment, finding no problems and recommending a return to practice. The thought of the waste of time and public money was irksome. And I kept protesting my innocence, that I could not have put a child at risk because processes would not allow it. I had also set up a web site to give support and information to fellow sufferers and to campaign against these horrendous miscarriages of justice. The people making contact were describing very similar events and processes. At the beginning of the assessment process I was given a different local union rep who was incensed by what had happened and gave me very good advice
during the assessment process, but who could not accompany me to meetings as she worked for a different trust and her employers would not
sanction it. Initially I went to assessment meetings unaccompanied. One of my daughters came to the last one and could not believe what was going on no policies or procedures being followed. She was allowed to speak and asked for timescales for a decision.
Child protection assessment
For the other part of the assessment, I insisted the designated nurse for child protection undertake the assessment of my child protection work, as I
considered she was the only practitioner who had the authority to do this and because serious allegations had been made against my ability to do the work safely. I also felt badly let down by the adviser who had supervised my practice during the four years I had worked for the trust and who had never indicated any concerns. I asked the designated nurse why I had been suspended without asking me
first for my side of the story, but she made no reply. I went through the case that had caused my suspension and she listened but
had no comment or suggestions about what I might have done wrongly. I showed her my systems failure analysis but again, no comment. (The director of nursing had sent her thanks for it but they already did that. Kind regards!) I thought it was the social services manager who had initiated the whole process (my apologies to him!) and when I asked her about it she replied that the report was back in the office and she could not comment without reading it. I attended all the child protection training required, We covered all the ground that she considered necessary to establish my safety to practise and I took on some child protection cases. She then wrote a detailed and positive report, finally recommending that I was safe to return to unsupervised practice. The whole process had taken just over six months. So now what ?
The outcome
Silence. Nothing new about that! By email, I asked what was happening. I was told the investigating manager and my former manager were meeting to discuss the outcome of the assessment. I was asked to give the investigating manager sight of my portfolio, which I did. It was returned to me without comment. Silence again. Another email and I was told those two managers were meeting with the director of nursing and the Deputy Director of Human Resources to discuss a verdict. Silence again. I was informed of a meeting with the Director of Nursing. This was brought
forward a week and was now to be held with the Director of Hospital and Community Services. I received a letter by recorded delivery, informing me that the Clinical Governance Professional Review Group had considered my case and decided I displayed a lack of judgement evidenced in my seeming inability or refusal to accept that I acted outside process and created unnecessary risk. Therefore the purpose of the meeting was to outline a decision taken by the full trust board and my future with the Trust. The outcome of the meeting was my instant dismissal. It was a shocking
experience.
The fulltime union officer
My impression was that the union regional officer had at first believed I was guilty in some way and had ignored the unsubstantiated allegations. He had intervened to have the assessor changed and he had told the local rep to contact the trust when the suspension dragged on interminably. Now he got involved at my dismissal meeting and was a witness to the breaching of employment law. My case was taken by the Union’s solicitors and an appeal was lodged with the Employment Tribunal. Endless waste of public money I signed on with the local job centre. I tried to get work as a health visitor but without success. An agency almost employed me until their human resources (HR) director spoke to the previous HR director.
Referral to the Nursing and Midwifery Council
Then six months after my dismissal I received a bundle of papers from the regulatory body, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) informing me that my previous employers had alleged unfitness to practise and that my case was to go before the investigatory committee in a months time. I was invited to send a response. The trust had requested that I not be given sight of the four statements of allegations which, until now, had been kept confidential to protect the authors. Thankfully, the NMC did not uphold their request. I now understood reasons for the recommendations. I also saw that the social services manager had stated, eight days after my suspension, that it was not possible for what I had done (send a fax) to trigger off a chain of events that would put a child at risk. And a child protection advisor who didn’t know my work, had set the alarm bells ringing (I still don’t understand how she managed it!) and that the designated nurse for child protection had been very economical with the truth. How very sad.
I wrote a 13 page response with another 25 pages of appendices supporting my evidence and the investigatory panel decided that there was no case to answer. The reasons they gave were that there was no evidence of impairment of fitness to practise. The assessment documentation indicated that the supervision was successful and that the respondent is competent and has insight. I applied to the agency once more, the previous HR manager gave a nondescript reference and at last I returned to practise through an agency eight months after my dismissal. I have very little trust in NHS managers and never want to work in the NHS again.
The Employment Tribunal
The Employment Tribunal (ET) was due to be heard the same month, but the solicitors for the trust, said they were bringing up to six witnesses to give
evidence against me and would need more time. Two days were agreed and a date everyone could manage was fixed, 14 months after my dismissal. Shortly after, the solicitors put in a settlement offer of £10,000. Some months later they increased this to £15,000. I wanted an apology and the freedom to tell my story for the campaign, to stop this sort of disaster re-occurring. By now I had over a hundred NHS employees, mostly nurses, who had made contact through the web site, with similar stories. On the afternoon prior to the Tribunal hearing, a final settlement agreement
was reached as the sum offered was more than the ET would award if I had a barrister cleverer than the trusts, (I had learnt from other peoples cases that it is not about justice and fairness). I had been given an apology and it had been accepted that I would use my case in the campaign but not name the people responsible.
Cost of my case?
My case must have cost a lot, well above the £21,400 average for non-NHS staff the National Audit Office figure reached in their 2003 report. Not working properly from my suspension until my dismissal 17 months later, the cost of the assessments, training, meetings, a substantial settlement that I am not allowed to disclose although the Department of Health has said this must not happen and finally solicitor’s fees. £200,000?
The end
The end will arrive for me when the Department of Health gives all NHS staff the same rights as the doctors and dentists. (They are currently in breach of the 2002 Employment Law and have acknowledged it.) I am very grateful to a fellow campaigner who has written a clear explanation
of the illegalities of the Departments actions. These are in the campaign section of the website www.suspension-nhs.org The icing on the cake will be when the health sector unions set up specialist teams to give advice in such cases because currently they are failing many of the members by their lack of understanding of processes and their absence of action.