Linda Dodds' report - in full

Sorry for the delay. I have now managed, with advice from others I might add, to upload the report.

Thank you to all of you who posted comments to help me and also to those of you who emailed me on thejerseywhistleblower@hotmail.com to offer support, advice and guidance.

Please leave questions and comments for me and I will endevour to post a full critique of the report over the coming days. Double click one each page to read then click 'back' on your browser in order to be able to move to the next page.

Please take note of Linda Dodd's amazing resume at the start of her report - this lady is very experienced and knows exactly what she is talking about!

Linda Dodds' report.

Can anyone help. I am trying to load Linda Dodds' report and the blogger doesn't seem to want to help me.

I have a scanned the document onto a word file and the blogger will only accept jpg, gif, bmp and png images, 8 MB maximum size, can anyone email on thejerseywhistleblower@hotmail.com so that I can send them the document and you can transfer it to a jpg etc for me so that I can then publish it for you all?

Thanks

Simon

Senator Ben Shenton - Good or bad apple?

Hello again

Some of you may be aware that in the States Chambers today Senator Syvret asked a question 'without notice' to Senator Shenton.

Senator Syvret's question was whether Senator Shenton will now be requesting an independent investigation into my serious concerns complaint, dated 1st January 2007, given the ‘tangible facts’ that are now available.

Senator Syvret cited that these facts are now available from the following sources:

BBC South West “The Politics Show” (aired 13th January 2008)Witness statements taken as part of Madeline Davies’ investigation Police interviews with former residents of Greenfields/Les Chênes Information received by Gerald WhiteInformation received by Andrew WilliamsonInformation received by the Howard League for Penal Reform

This question was asked at my request because I had received a letter from Senator Shenton on 7th January 2008 which refused my right of appeal against the outcome of my original complaint which was dated 1st January 2007.

In his response to my appeal letter, despite declining my appeal, Senator Shenton wrote,

"However, in the wider public interest, if you can furnish me with tangible facts which can be corroborated independently then I will consider how best to proceed."

Personally I hold the view that the above list does indeed provide such tangible facts.

In Senator Shenton's reply to Senator Syvret today he stated that an independent investigation is already being undertaken (he was referring to the current investigation by Professor Upex).

I have serious misgivings about this response, very serious, as I believe that Senator Shenton has either lied or he has no idea what his department are doing; which as a minister, is deeply worrying).

I will explain my view as follows.

The question asked of him was whether he would re-investigate my complaint; this complaint was primarily about Joe Kennedy and the Grand Prix system.

For clarity, and to highlight the inaccuracies of his answer, Professor Upex is not investigating either of these issues; he is scrutinising the procedures that the States of Jersey followed during my employment and subsequent dismissal.

Professor Upex will not be making a judgment on my complaint, Joe Kennedy, the Grand Prix system or whether or not my complaint should have been upheld, it is purely about process.

So, from his answer, it is clear that Senator Shenton either does not know what his department is doing or he has lied in order to mislead the public and obfuscate from the question asked of him.

I will be writing to Senator Shenton tomorrow to ask him the same question that Senator Syvret asked him and explain how his answer was so appallingly political. I will post all correspondence on this blog.

While we are on this subject, in order to assist Senator Shenton, can anyone provide me with any evidence (either through this blog or to thejerseywhistleblower@hotmail.com) that I can give to Senator Shenton that may be considered as 'tangible facts' and that can also be corroborated independently?

This would include information about the Grand Prix system, the 24 hours in a room upon admission, any information about the failure on the part of Joe Kennedy, Phil Dennett, Linda Dodds, Madeleine Davies, Gerald White etc etc.

Also, any information about the previous regimes which were run by XXXXX and Wendy Hurford, Kevin Mansell, Mario Lundy, Tom Mckeon, Cliff Chipperfield etc.

I appreciate that this is a lot to ask of readers, but this is the time when the likes of Pollard (more aptly named as Bollard), Ogley, Walker etc they will have no choice but to sit up and listen.

I will place it all on this blog (with the authors consent of course) and then we will see if the States of Jersey can really shut this blog down.

If they do start to getting twitchy the first thing that will happen is Emma Martins will be in touch with me threatening court action (she has already tod me as of the 4th June that she will be taking the appropriate action under the Data Protection (Jersey) Law.

If she does I will post that on this blog too.

Before I digress too much though, I reproduce below the letter which I sent to Senator Syvret so that you may fully understand the context of my question to Senator Shenton and how typically political his answer was - in that he failed to answer the question.

If anyone is confused due to lack of information please let me know and I will post any information required to help you to understand.

"XXXXLa Grande Route de St JeanTrinity JE3 XXX Tel. 07797 XXXXXX 16 June 2008 Senator Stuart SyvretXXXXXXXXXXXXSt Helier JE2 XXX Dear Senator Syvret I am writing to you once again to ask for your help. An extraordinary year has passed since my initial letter to you on 13 June 2008 regarding my experiences with the Children’s Service. As you are aware, a so-called “independent” investigation into my Serious Concerns Complaint dated 1 January 2007 was carried out by several senior civil servants with a vested interest in its outcome. When they apparently found no evidence to support my allegations, I followed the appeals process which lead me to you. You championed my concerns about the service children in Greenfields were receiving, and understood my feelings about how I had been treated for raising awareness of poor practice, and then you yourself lost your ministerial post. As you already know, I later lodged an appeal with the new Minister for Health and Social Services, Senator Shenton, regarding the outcome of investigations into my complaint. As you are also aware, I received a reply from Senator Shenton dated 7 January 2008 which denied me a right of appeal on the grounds that I was no longer an employee of the States of Jersey. The letter read, “As you are no longer an employee of the States of Jersey, it is not possible to consider how there could be an ‘”appeal” from you.” You may recall that Senator Shenton admitted to me, in your presence, that his letter had been drafted by the Chief Executive of Health and Social Service, Mike Pollard. The same senior civil servant who had decided that my Serious Concerns Complaint had no merit and that my employment as Centre Manager of Greenfields had become untenable for whistleblowing on abusive childcare practices. The letter went on to say, “However, in the wider public interest, if you can furnish me with tangible facts which can be corroborated independently then I will consider how best to proceed”. I feel that it is time for Senator Shenton to consider his position on this matter. - 2 - Due to your supportive and passionate response to my initial concerns, and to all the horrendous childcare failings that we have learned about in the past year, I am writing to request that you consider posing a question to Senator Shenton in the States Assembly tomorrow. I understand that this is a ‘questions without notice’ session, so Mr Pollard will not be able to draft Senator Shenton’s response this time. My question to Senator Shenton would be: “In light of the following ‘tangible facts’, perhaps you might now find enough independently corroborated evidence to agree that a re-investigation into my complaints about childcare practices at Greenfields might hold some merit?” I list below the evidence that I believe is “tangible” enough to satisfy Senator Shenton, all of which can be “corroborated independently”: BBC South West “The Politics Show” (aired 13th January 2008)Witness statements taken as part of Madeline Davies’ investigation Police interviews with former residents of Greenfields/Les Chênes Information received by Gerald WhiteInformation received by Andrew WilliamsonInformation received by the Howard League for Penal Reform A quick solution to this might be to request that the terms of reference for the Howard League for Penal Reform be extended to include full consideration of the Grand Prix behaviour management regime. I realise that this would not re-investigate my personal treatment by my line manager, Joe Kennedy - an unpleasant experience which he can continue to put his staff through as he was allowed to return to work following suspension, investigation and disciplinary hearing. This would however serve to properly investigate the treatment of vulnerable children in Jersey’s secure children’s home over a period of years until I discontinued use of abusive practices in October 2006. Thank you for your relentless support in these matters. I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience. Yours sincerely Simon Bellwood"

Thank you all, keep posting a name or initial as it is much easier to follow.

Also, if you have any information that may assist in finally getting rid of those senior civil servants who have allowed this institutional abuse to continue for so long then now is the time to speak up - not for me, but for the children of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

One more thing before I go.

Rumour has it that there is an informer, a spy, a grass, amongst the staff within the residential service.

Let us set the record straight, this is a myth. In truth, there are lots of them.

They are everywhere.

Trust nobody.

Check for cameras.

They are watching you.

They are so deep undercover working for the WSS (Whistleblowers Secret Service) that they will never be caught.

They are the best we have got. On this subject, agent 329 (you know who you are) you reported to me last week, or was it last year, that the managers (Phil Dennett especially) were so desperate to know who gave me the copy of the team meeting minutes that they stated that if they found out who gave them to me they would be sacked immediately.

These minutes by the way, are the ones which prove that Phil Dennett and Joe Kennedy changed their minds on the criteria for solitary confinement just after they had received my complaint.

And, for the benefit of Senator Shenton, yes these minutes could also be considered as tangible facts that can be corroborated independently.

I am undecided as to whether or not I should disclose the name of these informers to you all.

Actually there is no need as this information passed through so many hands that it disguised the actual perpetrator to the extent that I am not even sure that I know who it was.

Okay, lets not pull any punches here.

The trail is as follows, Madeleine Davies included these minutes in her evidence to the Corporate Parent (it was forgotten that Suart Syvret was the actual CP with Kinnard and Vibert and they (he at least) were never told of this meeting). In this meeting, Madeleine Davies gave the minutes to Mike Pollard, who subsequently gave it to Stuart Syvret who gave it to me.

Great isn't it?

Mike Pollard soon realised things had got a little f**ked up and then tried to get the information back from me.

Emma Martins, Data Protection Commissioner issued an enforcement notice on Mike Pollard, as a result of my Subject Access request, and he had to give me a redacted version of the information.

I destroyed the original copy I had received though Senator Syvret, as requested, however, the version given to me through Mike Pollard (the redacted version) was the same - quite comical really.

So I suppose with some hesitation, I should thank Madeleiane Davies and Mike Pollard for being so incompetent and giving me some of the 'Tangible facts' as requested by Senator Shenton, the Minister for Health and Social Security.

Speak again soon

Simon

Response to Comments

Dear All

I am sorry for the delay in responding to comments, which have turned out to be something of a hot topic.

Despite my lack of attention, I am very pleased to read that people have started to create a dialogue amongst themselves which, in my view, is great news.

So that we make take this to another level please can I ask people to sign the end of the comments with a name.

You do not need to register, you will still come up as anonymous but you will simply write a name or initials at the end of each of your comments.

This way it will make it easier for people to respond to each other rather than everyone being call Anon!!

In response to your comments I offer you the following.

My mentioning the name of the arrested man

I wrote a very brief post on Thursday late afternoon and then retracted the identity of the man the following morning.

Firstly, I would like to again apologise to this man and his family as this decision, on my part, was made in haste.

This was not done as a personal vendetta against this man, this was done because I felt the net had started to close in on those senior civil servants that have managed to cover up disasters in the children's service for years.

This was a big piece of news and I acted inappropriately.

Will the States close my site down?

They might do, we all know they would like to.

I have been receiving correspondence from Emma Martins, Data Protection Commissioner for some time and she has told me that she will be taking action against me as of the 4th June.

I have taken a leaf out of the States of Jersey book and have ignored her!!

If she does take action I will post it all on here, I will also be reporting her to the States of Jersey police for harassment and intimidation of a witness.

If I get taken to court for breach of Data Protection I will be asking for handouts to pay the fine, I would also enjoy making public all of my concerns which I am trying to raise through my blog.

The attention that a court case would attract from the worlds media would serve my blog, and my cause, well!

Interestingly, the Social Security Department have threatened legal action as well, as I have not paid any social security since I was sacked.

They have assessed me on my salary for the States of Jersey which was nearly 50K, now I am earning a pittance. I told them my choice was simple, I can choose to pay them or feed my daughter and not go bankrupt.

I think they may choose not to take legal action, if they do, I might quite enjoy it.

You should act more responsibly given your professional background, but then I shouldn't be surprised given your past behaviour

Can the person who wrote this post please be brave enough to contact me or this blog further as I would like to discuss this matter in more depth. I am curious to understand what my past behaviour was that has failed to surprise the author?

Is he a friend of Joe Kennedy. It would be interesting to see who are his friends and allies in the establishment !! Like minded people usually stick together!!

Joe Kennedy and the XXXX man were colleagues. The XXXX man was in the meeting with Joe Kennedy when the member of staff was allowed to resign in October 2006 after he (the member of staff) had got a client of social services pregnant. Actually, they told the man that he either resigns now or they will sack him - all tbhis before they had even heard his point of view or considered a disciplinary route. Phil Dennett investiagted the matter but, hey, we all know the answer there.

The man resigned with immediate affect rather than Joe Kennedy and the arrested man pursuing disciplinary action.

Why don't you post ALL comments, Simon, rather than those that support you? My guess is that you aren't as popular as you believe you are!

I do post all comments. There are only 3 comments since I began this blog that I have chosen not to post. Two of these were for reasons of libel as the author accused people of wrongdoing and there was no evidence to substantiate such claims.

The third one was about the author not feeling endeared to me after I said that I did not care about Jersey's international reputation if it was at the cost of good childcare - a comment I still stand by.

The reason I chose not to post this was because it served no purpose to what my blog was about.

I fully accept that not all readers will agree with me. I have not done what I have done to win popularity, generally if you want to be popular you become all things to all people. That clearly is not me.

I am loved by some and hated by many - this I accept.

No matter what it may transpire any arrested person has or has not done, if another person is so committed to justice, to sit as a self appointed judge and jury on a person is fundamentally contrary to justice.

I have already covered this but I would like to point out that although I named this person I did not judge him. I simply stated that he had been arrested, a fact which was true and undisputed.

I made no judgement and I certainly did not convict him as suggested. I am not excusing my actions I am simply placing them back into the context they have been removed from.

The point many of you are missing about the naming of "XXXX XXXX" is that, in a small community, mud sticks.

I agree that mud sticks but I did not miss the point, this is why I removed it. Also, this comment went on to say I was self appointed judge and jury, I have already mentioned, I made no judgement etc etc. It was a mistake, it was rectified.

Pardon my ignorance but it was my understanding that Mr Bellwood was sacked for incompetence and not for whistleblowing. Didn't he admit that at the tribunal?

I was sacked for incapability yet the States of Jersey have never provided any evidence of this apart from a few of Joe Kennedy's buddies saying I was rude and arrogant. The very people who endorsed and sanctioned the grandprix system. The very people who were responsible for its existence.

My view is the only thing I was incompetent at, was unlawfully locking up children, but hey, who I am to play judge and jury.

Just for your information, I was the manager of a Secure Children's Home in the UK for two and a half years before coming to Jersey, I received commendations for my work and I went to the tribunal in Jersey with 30 exemplary references from ex colleagues and peers.

Interesting that I have tried to tell more- but my posts aren't being published-to make it look like you have 'scared me away' I suspect?

All posts have been published, this is the truth, apart from the three mentioned already but they were in April.

The Minister for Home affairs has authorised indefinite detention. This was done without consultation or political debate. What sort of a constitution do we have if we can sleep walk into totalitarian practises

I find this totally absurd. What is even more absurd is the following,

1. Those that have been following my blog since the start will have heard of the 15 year female who was held in Greenfields illegally rather than going to La Moye. Why can Senator Kinnard make a decision to indefinitely hold suspects, yet she cannot hold a 15 year old female in Greenfields on a custodial sentence?

2. Based on the above, why can Senator Kinnard not allow young people aged 15 and 16 to serve their sentence at Greenfields? After all, this would only require an address change from La Moye to Greenfields.

As for mud sticking - there have been no resignations.

Please can someone tell me what senior civil servants get sprayed with when they get their well paid jobs?

When I find the secret formula I am going to spay it on saucepans and shovels, I will be the richest man alive - The new teflon. I think Mike Pollard got sprayed twice!

Remember, please sign your comments with a name or inital so that we can track who is saying what.

You can be Koe Jennedy, Dill Pennett, Wrank Falker, Kendy Winnard, or Stuart Syvret!

Thank you for your time.

Simon

XXX XXX - Arrested

You may have seen the news today, the man that has not been named by the press is XXX XXX - many of you from social services will know him.

He was also in charge of XXXXXX about 6 years ago.

Any comments - I will post more later.

Updated 11.30am 13th June - The man has been released without charge so in the interests of justice, which I have been fighting for too, I have removed his name.

My apologies for any upset this may have caused this man and his family.

Commentary on Phil Dennett's report - Section 5 to the end

My apologies for not posting a blog recently I have been too exhausted with other commitments.

Anyway, back on task now, I have had a further look at Phil Dennett's report and I do not feel that the interviews that Phil Dennett conducted with staff merit any discussion here, it is all hear say, personal opinion and not worth bothering to comment upon - there is no external framework of reference so it has no evidential value in such an investigation.

Readers will draw their own conclusions and that is their personal choice, all I urge is that people research beyond what Phil Dennetts and Simon Bellwood suggest and look at research findings and evidence based practice - outside of Jersey.

On this point, the interesting thing about Phil Dennett's report is that he makes no reference to any standards. No reference to UK guidance, no evidence based practice, no Secure Accommodation Network guidance etc etc, why not?

Don't get me wrong, he did probably look for some though.

I decided to look at this in more detail, it got me thinking about how Phil Dennett, the man paid over £80K per year to look after some of the islands most vulnerable young people, would have tackled such an investigation.

I decided the best way to do this would be to put myself in his shoes, the first thing I did was a google search.

I started off with "secure children's home best practice guidance", however, this was like trying to prove that a chocolate teapot was a good idea.

Then I tried "Jersey's guide on how to run a secure children's home", this didn't work either as the results seemed to suggest that there was no such thing.

So, after some consideration I finally resorted to, "How to investigate the use of solitary confinement for young people, make it sound like best practice and get myself out of the shit".

Anyway, I digress, back to his report.

Section 8.4 of Phil Dennett's report states that none of the three staff that he interviewed found anything 'abusive' about either regime [The Grandprix system and the system in place in January 2007].

I do not wish to belittle the three staff involved but in the context of the investigation I would like to ask these staff if they are happy to be known as 'not having a problem with locking up children in solitary confinement', that's vulnerable children in solitary confinement - not sentenced criminal children?

I know this sounds harsh but if the whole subject was not so shockingly abusive then I would find it hilarious that Phil Dennett, the man who is paid a lot taxpayers money, would rely on the opinion of three staff who are not professionally qualified child care workers, three staff who have no experience of childcare services outside of Jersey, people who have never worked in a secure establishment anywhere other than Greenfields.

If Phil Dennett considered that these three staff members opinions were so valid then why would he have not also considered the opinion of the Secure Accommodation Network http://www.secureaccommodation.org.uk/ Why would he have chosen not to contact the lead inspector of secure children's homes in the UK, who works for Ofsted, whose role is to inspect the whole of the UK's secure children's homes - I gave the mobile telephone number of this inspector, with her consent, to Marnie Baudains, and I know that no one, absolutely no one from the States of Jersey telephoned her.

Why did he not contact the Howard League for Penal Reform http://www.howardleague.org/?

Why did he not make reference to the published report written by Lord Carlile into the use of Physical Restraint, Solitary Confinement and Strip Searching in the Secure Estate which was published in January 2006 just a year before his investigation into the use of solitary confinement in a secure children's home?

His references to the opinion of three members of staff which could never be considered as a specialists - I am confused.

To help with my confusion I tried once more to put myself in his shoes, I googled, "How to investigate the use of solitary confinement for young people, make it sound like best practice and get myself out of the shit".

Then I had my answer - it was that simple.

What would have happened if Phil Dennett had one scrap of being an ethically bound social worker, one ounce of integrity - he would have declared that the Grandprix system was abusive.

The result,

Joe Kennedy would have been sacked.

Joe Kennedy would the have said, "Hold on a minute, I improved the practices - at least I stopped the magistrates ordering vulnerable young people to be locked in solitary confinement as they did before I arrived".

The magistrates would say, "Hold on a minute, we did order vulnerable young people to be locked in solitary confinement but then who is in charge of us...???"

Again I digress, section 9.1 of his report makes reference to an admissions procedure which [Phil Dennett] uses in an attempt to undermine the procedure introduced by me, one which incidentally is used throughout the UK and only it remains that only Jersey uses solitary confinement as part of an admissions procedure to secure accommodation.

On this point, if the procedure introduced by me was so awful then why is the procedure they follow now the same as mine.

No longer do they lock children in solitary confinement as part of their introduction to Greenfields.

Although the management still tell staff that all young people must shower in the admissions area (assuming that they are unclean and washing away any scrap of dignity that they may have)?

The rest of Phil Dennett's report is rather dull, it's constant reference to people's views that don't matter and no external benchmarking and referencing make it a complete Joke.

There are references to the reduction in the use of solitary confinement under Joe Kennedy's management - they did not record solitary confinement unless it was in the secure cells, or the Pits as it was known.

There was no recording of solitary confinement when it was done in bedrooms. These occurred daily, as an example, every day each young person after school was locked in their room for an hour, even with impeccable behaviour, this was all part of the routine. I stopped this, no reference from Phil Dennett though!

His report also makes reference to the Board of Visitors. These people reviewed no paperwork, attended no reviews, had no formal procedures to follow etc etc.

The most significant point with regard to this Board of Visitors is that if they were so good, so reliable to make reference to in a report that was used to dismiss me, why then, if the Board of Visitors was there to protect young people and ensure that their welfare was paramount, why did they not speak up about the Grandprix system and stop it when they inspected every month?

The report also refers to a set of policies which Joe Kennedy had purchased in the summer of 2006. Joe Kennedy had given me a CD rom and asked me to implement the policies across the residential service in September 2006.

Initially I accepted but then a few weeks later I asked Joe Kennedy to take the responsibility of the service wide policies back as I had too much to do completing my own job.

I was happy to develop policies for Greenfields but not do his job as well as my own.

He had been in post for over 3 years so he should actually have already put policies in place across the service.

Phil Dennett has always tried to lay blame on me for the lack of policies, I was there for just over four months and in that time, I worked over 70 hours per week and I was not able to develop the policies, in such a short period of time - the same policies that Joe Kennedy had failed to put in place for 3 years. Of course this was my fault though!

The interesting point about the reference to policies is that Phil Dennetts report states,

"Following Mr Kennedy's intervention, these policies are now in place..."

Team meeting minutes cite that Mr Kennedy introduced these policies in the weeks following my complaint being submitted, which was 2nd January 2007.

Despite these dates, Linda Dodds' report makes a similar reference as follows;

"There appears to be a high level of care with extensive policies and procedures underpinning the high standards set".

Her report was done in mid January 2007. This was one week after the policies had been written.

Her report was to look into current and previous practice - surely one would not make reference to 'extensive polices' when they were knowingly created after a complaint had been submitted - the very complaint you are investigating. Perhaps this is what is known as the process of 'Jersification' which Phil Dennett has referred to in team meeting minutes?

The best bit for me though is Phil Dennett's most recent submission.

He has stated to professor Upex (who has been commissioned following my employment tribunal to investigate the circumstances surrounding my employment and subsequent dismissal) that with the 'benefit of hindsight' it was not appropriate for him to be involved in the investigation into my complaint.

Can I say that again, Phil Dennet has stated that, with the benefit of hindsight, he does not think that it was appropriate for him to be involved in the investigation.

Hallelujah!!!

So Phil, if you have now got the benefit of hindsight do everyone a favour and resign with immediate affect so that you don't screw up anymore lives or fail to protect anymore children.

One final thing on Phil Dennett's report, I know I have mentioned it in a previous blog post but I want to write one more time the last paragraph of his report.

Why do I want to do this - because this statement is going to come back and haunt him.

For the record Phil Dennett stated,

"12.7 There are no signs or reports of an abusive regime being operated at either the previous or current Greenfields".