Complaint to the Care Commission about lack of consultation and failure to answer questions

The representatives of an ARC service user submitted the following formal complaint on Thurs 03-Dec   Note section (iv) as these are some of the simple questions that Dumfries and Galloway Council managers still refuse to answer honestly.  The progress of this complaint will be posted on this site.

Dear Mrs Reid.

The Care Commission is rightly very concerned about consultation with clients or service users and their families/carers.  This is a formal complaint to you about the actions of both Dumfries and Galloway Council + NHS D&G, and in particular the Social Work Director – Mr J Alexander and the Head of Strategic Planning – Ms Judith Proctor, by their deliberate failure to consult or advise in any way over a planned major strategic change designed to save £660,000, but which was promoted in a misleading and deceitful way under the false guise of a “redesign and personalisation”. 

They are co-authors of a report dated 12^th October 2009 “Acceleration of Personalised Services:  Redesign of Day Services for People with Learning Disabilities”, which together with Appendix 1 and other papers, was presented to the Council Corporate Services Committee for its meeting on 03-Nov.  These papers are not yet on the Council www site.  Please see: http://rpu.dumgal.gov.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/committee_reports/021088.pdf  

(i)              As you may know we all woke up on 20-Oct and first heard this closure of 4 unidentified ARCs by 1^st April 2010 announced on the radio news.

(ii)            The authors had not consulted or warned anyone, not even their dedicated ARC managers and care staff, let alone the service users or their families.  It has caused an incredible amount of stress, uncertainty, upset, anger, frustration and tears.

(iii)            Although on 03-Nov the flawed plan was withdrawn by instruction of the elected Members, this was for 2010 only and the authors and Council Social Work staff still refuse to answer simple questions or meaningfully consult.

(iv)              The authors and social work department are continuing to make everyone suffer by refusing to say a) that it is closing the ARCs – or b) that it is keeping them open or c) that it has not decided yet – that is to say that they are not only not consulting with people but they are refusing point blank to answer a simple question – even c as an answer would be more helpful than to simply ignore so many across D&G who are up in arms about this torture of uncertainty about a key aspect of their lives.

(v)            Finally they compounded matters, apparently in collusion with Enable Scotland, when Ms Proctor spoke on Monday 30-Nov at Easterbrook Hall Dumfries.  There are spontaneous responses and reports about this on the DGPPG www site: www.dumfries-galloway.org.uk  and a public letter from a carer was published in the Galloway News on 03-Dec.  To verify the strength of feeling you may wish to contact some families of service users.  

We look forward to a robust Care Commission investigation, given the 6 excellent Inspection Reports you published only 6 months ago and which are also included on the DGPPG site for reference.  

Thank you.     

End of complaint.