Read about Reading Council’s safeguarding emergency here

From: Paul Cardin 
Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2018, 14:25
Subject: Re: Safeguarding matter [OFFICIAL]
To: Lovelock, Jo (Councillor) <Jo.Lovelock@reading.gov.uk>
Cc: <georgedavies@wirral.gov.uk>, <paulhayes@wirral.gov.uk>, <lesleyrennie@wirral.gov.uk>, <ianlewis@wirral.gov.uk>, <stevefoulkes@wirral.gov.uk>, Davies, Phil L. (Councillor) <phildavies@wirral.gov.uk>, Robinson, Eric <ericrobinson@wirral.gov.uk>, Jones, Adrian ER. (Councillor) <adrianjones@wirral.gov.uk>, <peter.sloman@reading.gov.uk>, Amy Bryan <amy.bryan@reading.gov.uk>

Good afternoon Councillor Lovelock,

Thank you for your very quick response to my email and for advising you would be informing the Member for Adult Social Care, Councillor Jones, and the CEO, Peter Sloman.

I would be very grateful if you, Councillor Tony Jones or the CEO could update me on what measures you will be putting in place in response to Wirral Council’s 2011 failure and the resultant safeguarding emergency which has arisen in Reading.

I’m sure you would agree the information I provided is clear.  It is very easy to trace these events, to track through and to attribute responsibility not just to the abusive senior officers involved, but to the Wirral Council senior officers and members who colluded to protect themselves, the council, the abusers and failed to foresee the consequences of their negligence.

One crucial event which I did not include in the original email was this:

In January 2011, the then Wirral Council CEO – James Wilkie – made a decision to allow the disability abusers Maura Noone and Mike Fowler to leave the council just days before the release of the Anna Klonowski report.  James Wilkie knew that such was the justified level of public anger at the time, had they remained in position, and in light of the damning report, they would have been forced to face accountability for their roles in the abuse.

It seems in permitting the pair to leave, Mr Wilkie circumvented all accountability and shielded the two abusers, whilst protecting Wirral Council’s badly tarnished reputation.

This failure was at the root of the current safeguarding emergency in Reading.

Here is a link to a Wirral Council public document which makes clear reference to the council’s involvement in the long-term abuse of learning disabled people.  See 7.1:

https://democracy.wirral.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=21125

As you can appreciate, this stated pledge to address the abuse arrived nine months after the abusers had departed – too late.

Despite this collective admission by Wirral Councillors and senior officers, no senior employee or member was ever made directly accountable for the abuse, the bullying, the incompetence, nor for the cover up and the protection of those responsible.

Instead Noone and Fowler were shielded from any disciplinary process, gagged inside compromise agreements and rewarded in large amounts of public money by CEO James Wilkie, Monitoring Officer Bill Norman and the members listed in my original email.  At some point, positive employer references will have been provided to the departed employees.  These activities compounded the problem and amounted to clear abuses of position and power.

Furthermore, this calculated conduct of seven plus years ago directly gave rise to the safeguarding emergency you currently have on your desk,

I look forward to your response,

Paul Cardin

On Tue, Jun 5, 2018 at 10:39 PM, Lovelock, Jo (Councillor) <Jo.Lovelock@reading.gov.uk> wrote:

Thank you for copying me into this – I know Tony Jones will be taking this up and I will discuss with the CX tomorrow.

Jo Lovelock

****CORRECTION****

Wirral CEO James Wilkie’s decision to allow Maura Noone and Mike Fowler to depart was made in January ….2012.

Wirral Council’s public “pledge” to address its own abuse of disabled people came in October 2011.

UPDATE

An email response has just come in from Reading Council’s Chief Executive, Peter Sloman:
From: Sloman, Peter <Peter.Sloman@reading.gov.uk>
Date: Wed, Jun 13, 2018 at 3:09 PM
Subject: RE: Safeguarding matter [OFFICIAL]
To: Paul Cardin

“Lovelock, Jo (Councillor)” <Jo.Lovelock@reading.gov.uk>
Cc: “georgedavies@wirral.gov.uk” <georgedavies@wirral.gov.uk>, “paulhayes@wirral.gov.uk” <paulhayes@wirral.gov.uk>, “lesleyrennie@wirral.gov.uk” <lesleyrennie@wirral.gov.uk>, “ianlewis@wirral.gov.uk” <ianlewis@wirral.gov.uk>, “stevefoulkes@wirral.gov.uk” <stevefoulkes@wirral.gov.uk>, “Davies, Phil L. (Councillor)” <phildavies@wirral.gov.uk>, “Robinson, Eric” <ericrobinson@wirral.gov.uk>, “Jones, Adrian ER. (Councillor)” <adrianjones@wirral.gov.uk>, “Bryan, Amy” <Amy.Bryan@reading.gov.uk>

Dear Paul Cardin,

From the Reading Council Leader… 

From: Lovelock, Jo (Councillor) <Jo.Lovelock@reading.gov.uk>
Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2018, 17:16
Subject: RE: Safeguarding matter [OFFICIAL]
To: Paul Cardin
Cc: georgedavies@wirral.gov.uk <georgedavies@wirral.gov.uk>, paulhayes@wirral.gov.uk <paulhayes@wirral.gov.uk>, lesleyrennie@wirral.gov.uk <lesleyrennie@wirral.gov.uk>, ianlewis@wirral.gov.uk <ianlewis@wirral.gov.uk>, stevefoulkes@wirral.gov.uk <stevefoulkes@wirral.gov.uk>, Davies, Phil L. (Councillor) <phildavies@wirral.gov.uk>, Robinson, Eric <ericrobinson@wirral.gov.uk>, Jones, Adrian ER. (Councillor) <adrianjones@wirral.gov.uk>, Sloman, Peter <Peter.Sloman@reading.gov.uk>, Bryan, Amy <Amy.Bryan@reading.gov.uk>

Dear Mr. Cardin,

I have passed your information to the Chief Executive to investigate and have forwarded your latest e-mail.  The Chief  Exec will respond.

Thank you,

Jo Lovelock

Update on 23rd January 2021

From 8 years ago today…in the Wirral News.

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