Consultants, confusion and potential cover-ups

This week has seen more angst in the Justice Shed, a smashing together of frustration, disbelief, humour and gratitude. When you think the murky waters that fill the Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust metaphorical moat couldn’t get any murkier, Chris Hatton produces an analysis of two FOI requests focusing on Sloven’s expenditure on consultants.

In this analysis he identified four themes to their spending: 1) Surfing the wave of failure 2) Reputation management 3) Hobbing with the Nobs and 4) Maintaining the matrix.

Sloven maybe aren’t unusual in this regard, or maybe they are. We have no idea. They may be exceptional. The question we’re left with is how can an NHS Foundation Trust Board oversee what appears to be such a shambles? They spent £2.166 million on consultancy, and a further £1.116 million on legal and professional services last year. Most of which it would appear was spent trying to hide the truth.

On the flip side, in the same time period the Justice Shed has been fuelled by the love, commitment, generosity and brilliance of the JusticeforLB collective and have spent not a penny on trying to reveal the truth. (Which is confusing to say the least).

The My Life My Choice trustees have been taking steps to try and get their own answers in the last week or so. They’ve written to John Jackson, Director of Adult Social Care at Oxfordshire County Council to demand answers about what’s happening with the Slade House site.

You can read The Hatt’s blog post here and the Letter to John Jackson here. We’re left wondering how the murk can continue to get murkier and when will it end?