The chief executive of a mental health trust has offered an apology to bereaved families at an inquiry into the deaths of more than 2,000 people.
The Lampard Inquiry, chaired by Baroness Kate Lampard, is examining deaths at NHS-run inpatient units in Essex between 2000 and 2023.
It will include those who died within three months of discharge, and those who died as inpatients receiving NHS-funded care in the independent sector.
Paul Scott, chief executive officer of Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT), gave evidence to a hearing held at Arundel House in central London on Thursday.
Early in his evidence, he said: “I’d like to offer an apology and condolences to all families who have lost loved ones under the care of Essex mental health.
“I have listened when I first joined, I’ve met many families, at the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) prosecution (which saw the trust fined £1.5 million in 2021 over failures to remove ligature points) I was in the court for that and I’ve heard testimonies through this inquiry as well.
“They’ve been brave, powerful and heartbreaking.
“These have deeply affected me and motivated me to make a real difference and I’m sorry for their enduring pain.
“Since joining the organisation I have given everything I have to try and improve safety and I will continue to do so.”
Mr Scott became chief executive of EPUT in 2020.
EPUT was formed in 2017 following a merger of the former North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust and the South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust.
Mr Scott described the HSE prosecution as “extremely sobering and shocking to listen to very powerful testimonies of families in the courtroom, how they’d been failed, the impact it had on them”.
“The responsibility I felt to address that was very powerful with me,” he said.
“I still remember that every day, that day is probably one of the most profound days of my life.”
He said that a 2022 Dispatches documentary, where an undercover reporter looked at conditions on wards, was “equally very shocking, especially when it’s our services and the services I’m responsible for”.
Mr Scott referred to an opening statement that a barrister for EPUT gave in September last year “where we were very clear about accepting the failings of the past”.
Detailing these, he said: “We admitted to failings around ligature points and other environmental risks; staff members’ culture and conduct; sexual and physical abuse; absconding; discharge and assessment of patients; involvement of family and friends and staff engagement with investigations.”
Nicholas Griffin KC, counsel to the inquiry, asked Mr Scott if “financial pressures have adversely impacted patient safety since the merger” of the predecessor trusts to form EPUT.
Mr Scott said: “Since I’ve joined there has been no financial constraints on our inpatient wards – the constraint is the supply of staff.
“I think prior to that there was very strict financial control, now whether you call that financial constraint or not…
“My view was we should have been investing more earlier.”
Mr Scott also apologised for the impact of a “late submission” to the inquiry which he said was “intended to update” the inquiry on work that had been done by EPUT.
He acknowledged the “delay and disruption to the inquiry as a result of our submission”.
Mr Griffin gave a closing statement at the end of Thursday’s hearing, which marked the conclusion of a three-week session before the next public hearings of the inquiry in July.
He described the three-week block which has now concluded as “introductory in nature and… intended to set out background and contextual matters”.
He said that the July hearings will focus on “those who died while under the care of EPUT’s predecessor trusts”.
Melanie Leahy, whose 20-year-old son, Matthew, died in 2012 while a patient at a mental health facility, said after Thursday’s sitting of the inquiry that she feared the inquiry would “come up against the various brick walls I have over the last 13 years of campaigning for the truth”.
“I sincerely hope this is not the case,” she said.
Nina Ali, partner at Hodge Jones & Allen solicitors, which is representing 126 families, said some of the families were left with an “overwhelming sense of dissatisfaction” following the three-week block of hearings.
“The reality that has been presented does not mirror their experience, which is extremely difficult to reconcile,” she said.
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