As an incendiary file usefully cataloguing over nine years of abuse allegations under three different owners at Kingsmead Lodge Nursing Home slowly makes its way to Blogger HQ, the spotlight may soon be falling upon the city council’s former Head of Adult Community Care in Bristol, Kathy Morgan, who would have been directly responsible for the home during much of this period.
With impeccable timing, Kathy, of course, has been recently promoted and is now head of social services in Bristol – or Strategic Director, Health and Social Care as the council’s new tedious Bum-Diseased management jargon has to put it.
For many of us the defining moment for this ambitious Counts Louse paper-shuffler came back in March 2005 during the infamous Lockleaze day care centre sit-in when 12 elderly and disabled people locked themselves into the centre for the night in protest at its proposed closure.
As the Friday evening turned to night with no end to the protest in sight, an increasingly irate council decided it was time to get the big guns in to get the protestors out. So the call went out to Adult Care boss Kathy who left a rather nice dinner party to waltz into the centre at 10pm to resolve the situation.
No doubt using all the skills she had carefully honed through years of mindless sycophantic arse-covering at Bill McCitterick’s criminally inept social services department, the great negotiator confidently strode in to directly confront the protestors.
“Right. Why don’t you all go home?” demanded the authoritative one.
“Why don’t you fucking go home Kathy?” came the immediate response from a female protestor in a wheelchair.
Cue applause, cheering and pandemonium from the rest of the protestors as the colour drained from Ms Morgan face before she turned and fled through the door she had entered just ten seconds previously and, er … went home!
Sensational, high end, six-figure sum management skills or wot?
Arguably things actually got worse for Morgan in the months following this when the same group started parading 10ft-high placards through town naming seven council officers, including Kathy, under the slogan: “Bristol social services’ list of uncaring professionals.”
This briefly led to city council legal boss Stephen McNamara blithering on about some kind of legal action against the protestors that never materialised until finally councillors – thoroughly sick of their own officers’ disastrous and damaging handling of this whole affair – had to step in and manage the climb down that rescued Kathy and her highly paid management team from any further abject humiliation at the hands of day care centre users.
I wonder if Kathy learnt anything from all this? This time, with serious abuse allegations involved, the stakes are much higher and potentially career threatening.
So will she be launching that investigation she’s legally required to undertake into Kingsmead Lodge or does she fancy bluffing and fumbling her way through this one on behalf of her healthcare business friends until some councillors show up and have to take action to sort out the mess she’s created (again)?
Watch this space.
6 responses so far ↓
John // February 15, 2009 at 7:55 pm
There may have been three different owners, but the abusive staff stayed the same. How has something so significant gone unnoticed by Kathy and her cronies and why has she still got a job?
Green at the gills // February 16, 2009 at 2:56 pm
That is a good point John. Why oh why are the counsel louces still sending good people into places that seem to have a history of problems associated to them?
Paulo // February 16, 2009 at 5:18 pm
On another matter I see our friend and potential Bristol MP Sam Townend is apparently neglecting his voters in Lambeth – Urban75 is a brixton based website and one concerned voter is annoyed with our Sam: http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=8717906
badnewswade // February 16, 2009 at 9:00 pm
“That is a good point John. Why oh why are the counsel louces still sending good people into places that seem to have a history of problems associated to them?”
What do people expect? This is one of the worst councils in Britain, the way it’s turned our city into an identikit Milton Keynes of traffic schemes, yuppy flats and shopping centres, taken money from the mouths of the poor to pay for it all and ruined our city’s culture while it was at it by trashing all of our free festivals. Their latest wheeze being to pave over all the greenery and sell old people into slavery.
Remember, this is just one institution that we know about. God knows what its’ like, for instance, in their childrens’ homes. I wouldn’t trust those fuckers as far as I could throw ‘em.
Apols for the rant… it just makes me see red the way this council routinely abuse their constituents.
Jozer // February 17, 2009 at 1:17 pm
“There may have been three different owners, but the abusive staff stayed the same. ”
This suggests that the changes in ownership were purely paper exersises. If none of them made any real changes to the staff team, or working practices, they were probably just helping out BCC with their corporate letterheads.
Over to you, BCC.
Mimosa: “expect arrests imminently”? « The Bristol Blogger // February 25, 2009 at 9:25 pm
[...] approach of sticking their heads firmly in the sand and hiding behind Social Services boss Kathy Morgan’s pretend [...]