Bromley St. Andrew

Part of God's family on Earth. Welcoming, friendly, inclusive and human. Come and join us!

[Henryk ⚓️ 🕊️☕️ @HenrykMatysiak2]

@A_AMilne @NaomiLWood Goodbyes can be awkward, unless there comes a time when it becomes a regular occurrence. Then some people - just say - something like - see you around then, or bon voyage…

[A.A.Milne @A_AMilne]

They all felt awkward and unhappy suddenly, because it was a sort of good-bye they were saying, and they didn’t want to think about it. So they stood around, and waited for somebody else to speak, and they nudged each other, and said “Go on.” ~A.A.Milne #startingschool

[A.A.Milne @A_AMilne]

"There were many golden Saturdays where we would picnic. I remember particularly a day in Highgate Woods - if you had been there, you would have seen two little boys very content, lying one each side of a large stone slab, racing caterpillars." ~A.A.Milne #Saturday

[dawn turney @DTTOON1]

@StevenJonMiller @ragdollyanna2 UK pensioners pay into
the pension scheme for many years yet receive a very low comparable income to other European countries. Shame on every government that promotes this

[Amelia @amelia_tweetz]

Women, the reason you can have a credit card in your own name and don’t need a man’s signature to open a bank account is because of Gloria Steinem. RIP to this queen.

[‏ً @omgsidewalks]

when we say “crime is a social construct”.

what we mean is you, as an individual, can go to jaił for littering but a corporation can poıson the air, the soil, and the water of an entire town, and no one will go to jaił.

[Jen Wood - est optimum simpliciter @unojen_wood]

I thought Starmer became an MP so the people had a voice & dad was a toolmaker blah blah. So because he's not PM anymore sod the people and their voice it seems.

[SophieSpring97 @SophieP25397]

Excellent investigative journalism by ch.4 into Reform’s corruption.
How some people think Farage is like them and one of them is beyond my level of understanding.

[Disability News Service @johnpringdns]

MP asks DWP why it ignored her pleas for help after constituent attempted suicide over universal credit sanction threat
#DWP #UniversalCredit
@RushanaraAli
https://t.co/32w6qdwiQg

[Stormageddon @lawks1]

Johnson got rid of tories who opposed brexit, Badenoch's getting rid of those who support net zero or staying in the ECHR. Sensible people purged & they're left with nothing but dregs. Mark Francois as Shadow Defence Secretary FFS. What a clown show. #politicslive

[Luba Macpherson @LubaMacpherson]

This post could almost have been written about my own experience.

Nine years ago, my daughter voluntarily moved into brand-new supported accommodation in our city. The brochure promised independence, community life and help with ordinary day-to-day things. The facilities were wonderful.

The problems began almost immediately.

When I visited the next day, I found my daughter’s embroidered bedding, cushions and duvet thrown across the dirty, wet floor of her wet room because staff said she had been sweating during the night. Apart from everything else, it created a serious trip hazard for my disabled daughter trying to reach the toilet.

I raised it with the manager. Instead of concern, I was effectively told that her staff were experienced, had done nothing wrong, and that I was “annoying”.

I contacted Social Services. A social worker came, we discussed matters, and I genuinely believed things would improve.

They didn’t.

That incident became the beginning of years of complaints about increasingly concerning care and behaviour. But instead of properly investigating what I was raising, the local authority brought Court of Protection proceedings.

What I discovered afterwards was even more disturbing: during an important period of my daughter’s care, the accommodation appeared to have been providing intimate personal care and administering powerful medication without the CQC registration that should have been in place. That period was also when some of the most serious harm occurred.

I complained. I produced evidence. The court was informed. Regulators were informed.

Nine years later, I am still fighting.

Yesterday I received an Ombudsman's decision saying they could see no indication that anything had gone seriously wrong and would take no further action. I now have one month to challenge that decision, and I will. Not because I have great confidence in the complaints system anymore, but because my complaint was submitted through my MP, Jonathan Brash @JonathanBrash , and I want the evidence of what has been overlooked to be absolutely clear.

Meanwhile, my daughter herself has brought a section 21A challenge to her deprivation of liberty. Despite her wanting my help, I had to fight through two court hearings simply to become a party to the proceedings because her advocate considered my involvement "undesirable".

That is what people need to understand about complaining.

Sometimes you start by saying, “Something is wrong with my loved one’s care.”

Years later, you find yourself buried under complaints procedures, regulators, lawyers and court hearings, while the original question remains unanswered:

What happened to the vulnerable person, and why did nobody stop it?

Families should never become the target simply because they refused to look away.

[@TrustUsNotTEWV @TrustUsNotTEWV]

@ZoeJames2024 Powerful post. You are absolutely fucking bang on. When the NHS tells families to “speak up” then treats them as the problem, that’s a failure of the system, not of the parent.

[Zoe James @ZoeJames2024]

And this is exactly why I keep saying the complaints system is broken.

I was actually contacted by a whistleblower who knows the staff I am talking about.

It was through that whistleblower that I found out that the psychologist I had raised concerns about had apparently been suspended for a YEAR.

A YEAR.

This was covered up by then saying they were ill.

Yet somehow, that was not information I was given when I was raising serious concerns about their conduct and the impact it was having on my daughter.

I was also told about previous concerns raised about this psychologist, and a history of safeguarding referrals being made against families who challenged or raised concerns.

One family was reportedly subjected to around 30 safeguarding referrals.

THIRTY.

Now stop and think about that.

If professionals inside the NHS are frightened to raise concerns about their own colleagues or organisation, because they fear what might happen to them, what bloody chance does an ordinary parent have?

Because I raised concerns.

I asked questions.

I refused to stay quiet when I believed my daughter was being harmed.

And instead of feeling protected by the complaints process, I found myself fighting the very system I was complaining about.

That is the problem.

The complaints system is supposed to be a safeguard.

It is supposed to be where concerns are taken seriously, investigated properly and acted upon where necessary.

But what happens when the people responsible for investigating the concerns are part of the same system?

Who investigates the investigators?

Who protects the families?

And who protects the vulnerable people at the centre of these complaints?

Because I shouldn't have needed a whistleblower to tell me what was going on.

Families shouldn't have to dig, fight, chase, publicly challenge and find people on the inside willing to speak to them before they can even begin to understand what has happened.

And if professionals genuinely feel they cannot safely raise concerns internally, then that tells you something is seriously wrong.

This isn't about me wanting revenge.

It isn't about me being a difficult parent.

It's about accountability.

It's about what happens when someone dares to question a professional.

And it's about whether the system actually protects vulnerable people, or protects the institution from the people brave enough to complain.

Because right now, I have far more questions than answers.

And I am bloody well not going away.

[Emma Holdsworth @ESzczambur93581]

@ZoeJames2024 @LubaMacpherson There was a whistle blowing line set up for NHS employees due to them being afraid of raising suspicions against their own establishment - that’s how bad the situation is - if they are professionals that dare not raise concerns?? Then the public have no chance

[Zoe James @ZoeJames2024]

Oh, I hear you. And so much of what you've said is exactly why I am so bloody fed up with this system. ❤️

Bullying. Victim blaming. Lies in records. Cover ups. And then another cover up when you challenge the first one.

And PALS?

PALS are an absolute bloody joke.

You are told to contact PALS as though they are some independent organisation that is going to swoop in, protect you and hold the NHS to account.

They're not.

They're part of the NHS.

So when the NHS is the organisation you are complaining about, you're basically being sent back into the same bloody system and told to complain about the system to the system.

How does that make any sense?

Where is the genuinely independent person who can walk in and say:

“ Right. Enough. We are going to investigate this properly. ”

Because that is what families need.

Not another form.

Not another email address.

Not another person telling you they'll “ look into it. ”

Not months and years of chasing.

And certainly not being made to feel like YOU are the problem because you dared to complain.

I've seen exactly how quickly the narrative can change when you start asking difficult questions.

Suddenly you're “ difficult. ”

Suddenly your motives are questioned.

Suddenly your credibility is questioned.

Suddenly things get written about you that you say simply aren't true.

And then you're expected to fight your way through the complaints process to prove it.

It's bloody exhausting.

And meanwhile, the original concern can get completely buried.

That is what makes me so angry.

Because these aren't bloody complaints about the colour of the waiting room walls.

We're talking about vulnerable people.

We're talking about people's lives.

We're talking about families raising concerns because they genuinely believe something is wrong.

And if the response to that is to silence them, discredit them, blame them or make them regret ever speaking up, then what exactly is the complaints system protecting?

Because it certainly isn't protecting the person who had the courage to raise the concern.

I was contacted by a whistleblower who knows the staff I was talking about. That's how I found out things I should never have had to discover that way.

I found out about a year long suspension.

I was told about previous concerns.

I was told about a history of safeguarding referrals involving families who had raised concerns.

One family was reportedly subjected to around 30 safeguarding referrals.

Thirty.

THIRTY.

If professionals are frightened to speak up from inside the NHS, and families are frightened to complain from the outside because of what might happen to them afterwards, then we have a bloody serious problem.

And I am not going to sit quietly and pretend everything is fine.

It isn't.

People deserve answers.

Vulnerable people deserve protection.

Families deserve to be heard.

And complaints need to be investigated by people who are genuinely independent, not the organisation marking its own homework.

Because I'm bloody well done with being told to trust a system that has given me so many reasons not to.

And I won't shut up just because the system would find that more convenient. ❤️

[Wolfsbane Arrow @NHSvictimsVoice]

@ZoeJames2024 The exp I had was bullying, victim blaming and cover up on the cover up. Lies wrote in my records to make out mental health, proven not so! Harmed again as revenge by same pred staff! PALS waste of time! Lots of failings with no answers!

[Zoe James @ZoeJames2024]

THIS. This is exactly the bloody problem. ❤️

You try to get legal help and find there are hardly any solicitors willing or able to take your case.

You try to get justice and discover that unless you have money, knowledge, time and the bloody stamina to keep fighting, you're basically on your own.

Then you complain.

And what happens?

You get a complaints officer dealing with a complaint about their own organisation.

You get responses that, in my experience, can completely misrepresent what you've actually said.

You challenge it.

You escalate it.

You chase it.

You wait.

And eventually you're told to go to the Ombudsman.

And you're left thinking:

WHO THE HELL IS ACTUALLY INDEPENDENT HERE?

Because seriously, where is the person who isn't employed by the organisation you're complaining about?

Where is the person who isn't protecting the institution?

Where is the person who will actually look at the evidence and say,

“ Hang on. This isn't right. ”

That's what people need.

Not another bloody complaints process.

Not another form.

Not another email address.

Not another organisation telling you that your complaint has been “ considered ” while completely missing the bloody point.

And let's talk about Monitoring Officers too.

If you're complaining about a local authority and the person whose job it is to monitor the council is still part of that council, how independent does that actually feel to the person desperately trying to get accountability?

And then we get to the Ombudsman.

I've seen people asking exactly the same questions,

Who holds the Ombudsman to account?

Because once you've exhausted the complaints process and reached the Ombudsman, where the hell do you go if you believe THEY have got it wrong?

That's the problem.

Every bloody door seems to lead to another door.

And ordinary people are expected to keep knocking until they are exhausted enough to give up.

I refuse.

I've spent years fighting to get answers.

I shouldn't have to be a bloody investigator, legal researcher, records expert and campaigner just to get someone to properly listen.

And neither should anyone else.

Access to justice isn't real justice if ordinary people cannot realistically access it.

A system where the wealthy can buy legal representation while everyone else is left trying to navigate a maze of complaints, reviews, escalation procedures and Ombudsman processes isn't a system that feels like justice.

It's a bloody obstacle course.

And I'm sick of it.

I'm sick of being told to trust systems that give people every reason not to.

I'm sick of families being exhausted into silence.

And I'm especially sick of vulnerable people being left without proper protection because the people responsible for accountability are too close to the systems they're supposed to scrutinise.

We deserve better.

Our families deserve better.

And I am bloody well not shutting up about it. ❤️

[🕊 ⚖️ Bo Peep @Hoarder55]

@ZoeJames2024 @Conservatives decimated #LegalAid

There are no Legal Aid solicitors

We have zero access to justice

Complaints officers in local councils cut & paste & misrepresent

Monitoring Officers side with local council

Have you seen Trustpilot reviews for the #Ombudsmen #Ombudsman?

[Zoe James @ZoeJames2024]

Let's talk about the #NHS and what happens when you dare to complain.

Because this is something people need to understand.

I didn't complain because I was bored.

I didn't complain because I had nothing better to do.

I didn't complain because I wanted a fight.

I complained because my daughter was being harmed.

I saw things happening that I believed were wrong.

I raised concerns.

I questioned decisions.

I challenged a professional.

Because that's what you are SUPPOSED to do when you believe a vulnerable person isn't being properly protected.

Except apparently there is a massive difference between telling people to " speak up " and actually having the audacity to SPEAK UP.

Because once I did?

Everything changed.

Instead of simply dealing with the concerns I had raised, I became the concern.

Think about that.

A mother raises concerns about what is happening to her vulnerable daughter...

and suddenly the spotlight turns onto the mother.

My behaviour.

My credibility.

My motives.

My questions.

My complaints.

My refusal to shut up.

Apparently that was easier to investigate than the original problem.

And THIS is what makes me so angry.

Because when you're dealing with a huge organisation like the NHS, they have the power.

They have the professionals.

They have the records.

They have the lawyers.

They have the complaints departments.

They have the language.

They have the institutional power.

And what does a parent have?

Their voice.

So when that parent uses the only weapon they have, their voice, why does the system seem so determined to take that away from them?

I was not asking for special treatment.

I was asking for my concerns to be properly investigated.

I was asking people to listen.

And instead I found myself fighting a system that seemed far more interested in dealing with ME than dealing with what I was raising.

That is the part I will never forget.

Because once you've experienced it, you see the complaints system very differently.

You realise that " please complain if you're unhappy " sounds wonderful until you actually make a complaint that someone doesn't want to hear.

Then suddenly you're difficult.

You're challenging.

You're unreasonable.

You're the problem.

No.

I was a mother trying to protect her daughter.

And I make absolutely no apology for that.

If my refusal to stay quiet makes me " difficult, " then so be it.

If asking questions makes me " difficult, " then so be it.

If refusing to accept answers I believe are inadequate makes me " difficult, " then I'll happily wear the fooking label.

Because my daughter's welfare matters more to me than making professionals comfortable.

And here's my message to the NHS:

Don't tell families to speak up if you're going to punish them for doing it.

Don't tell us complaints are welcomed if what you really mean is,

" We welcome complaints that don't make us uncomfortable. "

Don't tell us patient safety comes first if the person raising a patient safety concern ends up being treated like the problem.

And don't expect me to quietly disappear because the system has made it exhausting to keep fighting.

I'm still here.

I'm still asking questions.

I'm still documenting what happened.

I'm still challenging what I believe was wrong.

And I'm still speaking.

Because my daughter deserved better.

And frankly?

So does every vulnerable person whose family has the courage to say:

" Something isn't right here. "

Maybe the NHS should stop asking,

" Why won't this parent shut up? "

And start asking:

" Why did we give her something to complain about in the first place? "

[🇬🇧King 🇬🇧 @King0243_PJC]

Reform UK’s whole brand is “we’re not racist, look, we’ve got Muhammad Ziauddin Yusuf, a Muslim and son of Sri Lankan migrants.”

Then Zia sees a Somali-born council leader who grew up in Camden, ran the town hall, and might replace Starmer, and his brain goes straight to: AFRICA. Alarm. Do you understand what’s happening?

Yes. What is happening is the son of immigrants just used someone’s birthplace as a smear.

We understand, Zia. You made it. Now you want the door locked. Typical Reform.