Whistleblowing : Secret Meeting at the Houses of Parliament.

As I am a news hub for most things in the NHS, a nice lady told me about a meeting she had attended on Whistleblowing. The most interesting aspect of this meeting on the 7.7.09 is that no whistleblowers were invited. I emailed Ian Perkin of St Georges fame and he wrote back telling me he didn't know anything about it. And there we have it, a secret meeting held without any proper notes, no whistleblower was informed about it - but the NETWORK apparently make decisions about whistleblowers. One of the better decisions was to invite PIDA expert Dave Lewis. The idea of course is to establish some kind of forum concerning issues related to whistleblowing. All well and good bar the fact that no one told the whistleblowers about it. I went through a interesting journey in attempting to obtain details of the minutes. This is what I was told by Parliament

"The information you require is not held by the House of Commons. Information held by individual Members is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the House has no access to such information"

Therefore a meeting held in secret at the Houses of Parliament run by a specific member cannot be accessed by the general public. I found this fascinating so I requested an internal review. This was the result. Essentially, if a meeting is chaired by an MP, the public cannot have access to the minutes of the meeting. So any number of secret meetings can go on in parliament without the public ever knowing about it. As it happens, David Taylor's team did finally send me what they call a record. I was quite amazed at the tatty nature of these records. I felt they were professional people - clearly not. The meeting was clearly held in a haphazard manner, with a number of the patient population and academics. It is unlikely that any whistleblower was called. Of course, in the eyes of the "NETWORK" as they call themselves, there is only one whistleblower and that is Margaret Haywood.

Anyhow, for the purposes of all other whistleblowers in the UK, I am placing this online. Enjoy!

----- Original Message -----

From: CRIMES, Daniel
To: '
Sent: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 11:15 AM
Subject: Meeting 07.07.09

Dear Dr Pal

Please find attached a copy of the notes that were circulated after the above meeting.

I am sorry for the delay in providing you with this.

Kind regards

Daniel Crimes
Parliamentary Assistant to
David Taylor MP
T 0207 219 2237
F 0207 219 1082
M 07951 681968



Dear All

As you will all know, I arranged a meeting at the HoP for 7 July: 'The Margaret Haywood case - the implications for politics, politicians, patients, and the public? '. Things have been developing rapidly hence the delay in reporting back.

Including myself, 9 network members/participants attended. In addition, the SHA were represented by Roger Gartland; Attend by Catherine McLoughlin; National Voices (LTMCA) by Mark Platt; and coming from all the way from France, Janet Brooks. Two academics attended, Prof Celia Davies; and Prof. David Lewis. I wish to welcome Catherine McLoughlin, and Janet Brooks, to the Network.

The meeting was hosted and chaired by David Taylor, MP. On behalf of the Network, I thanked him, and his Parliamentary researcher - Daniel Crimes, for their help and support in relation to the meeting. I had invited nearly 100 MPs (mainly) and peers, with interests in Margaret Haywood's case, PPE, older persons issues, etc.. None turned-up apart from David. This could be partly explained by a Government decision to publish their Green Paper on Care and Support in England in early July. A meeting on this clashed with ours and was high on the agendas of MPs and Peers.

Gillian Bean of SIN, Prof David Lewis, Lynn Strother of GLF, and myself, addressed the meeting. On behalf of the Network, I give our thanks to Gillian, David, and Lynn, for their excellent presentation and huge contributions to the day.

I would like to say more on issues raised by the speakers. However, time is pressing and I want to let you know about follow-up to the meeting. So at least for the time being, I will leave it to those attending to mention or raise these issues by way of response to this email. I will mention that David Taylor said he would be very happy to host another meeting in Autumn/Winter to help us with follow-up to this one.

Since 7 July, I have had meetings which lead me to think that there is an opportunity to set-up a standing committee or forum to address issues of whistleblowing and professional justice in healthcare and associated areas. In particular, Dot Gibson, General Secretary of the National Pensioners Convention is very supportive of this, subject to discussion with their governing Board. I have also received emails indicating support for action.

I propose to send an email to all those whom I invited to the meeting on 7 July. The draft is below. I would much appreciate your comments.

Start draft email :-

Dear ?

I recently invited you to a meeting at the Houses of Parliament 'The Margaret Haywood case - the implications for politics, politicians, patients, and the public?'. Discussions following this meeting prompt me to ask if you would like to be involved in an initiative to bring into being a standing committee or forum to address these issues.

It's proposed function would be to address issues of whistleblowing, and related issues of professional justice, to ensure that the patient, family carer, 'caring professional', and public, perspective on these issues achieves recognition that results in positive change.

(NB: I use the term 'caring professional' in this email to mean those employed in healthcare, or associated areas, who feel a need to 'speak out' to draw attention to their concerns.)

I think is important to act expeditiously so I am keeping this email very brief. Please let me know if you wish to take part in an exploratory meeting. I envisage a September, or possibly October, date.

Kind regards
Adrian

End draft email.

The Network will need to work as a team to progress this. In addition to any comments about the draft itself, please let me know whether :-

1. You support the idea of such a standing committee / forum ?

2. You can speak for, or seek to involve, any organisations/networks ?

3. If you are willing to help in some way, in order that the workload be distributed.

If we can establish an independent 'forum' on the issues of whistleblowing, and associated professional justice, it may be very hard for those in authority to ignore our informed views.

Kind regards
Adrian