Will the Cabinet Secretary outline the lessons that have been learnt from the Kris Wade scandal at the ABMU Health Board? (TAQ0043)

There are important, wide-ranging lessons to be learned from this case by the whole of the national health service here in Wales, including Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Local Health Board. I’ve asked Healthcare Inspectorate Wales to undertake an independent review to provide further reassurance and ensure that lessons are learned. I set this out in my recent statement, and will keep Assembly Members up to date.

Thank you for that response. It’s quite hard to know where to start in relation to this issue—an internal report that is fundamentally flawed, and what a former consultant at ABMU said was created by middle-grade managers as a bolt-on to their day job. That, in itself, is a damning indictment of this report. You say today that it’s an independent review. What I read in the written statement was that it was to be an assessment of this review. So, I would like clarification that it is going to be a truly independent review. And yesterday, the First Minister said, and I quote:

‘It is absolutely crucial that the investigation is independent. It’s not for me then to tell Healthcare Inspectorate Wales what they should and shouldn’t do’.

Yet, the outline of a limited remit is in your statement last week. So, I want to know, if this is the remit, will you commit to changing it? Because we need to look at the case as a whole, including the mistakes made by ABMU in the initial handling of allegations against Kris Wade: his employment, the failure to get a Criminal Records Bureau check, the failure to dismiss him, possible nepotism, and the very real possibility that if ABMU had acted sooner, the murder of Christine James might have been prevented. These are questions that we really need to get to grips with, as well as the potential conflict of interest that exists now with the interim chief executive of the health board.

I want to understand as well, without being disrespectful, how did it take so long for you to give this to Healthcare Inspectorate Wales? I am led to understand that this report was ready in January, and we only had a written statement last week. Why did you decide on Healthcare Inspectorate Wales rather than an independent review, as has happened in other cases, so I can understand that process, and how will it happen so that people can give evidence to it, so that those who were allegedly asked to give evidence in the last internal investigation can give evidence and those who are directly affected by this scandal can be involved in the process? I met with the husband of Christine James, the lady who was murdered by Kris Wade, yesterday—Stuart James—and he had to put on the television and find out via the television that this report even existed. That is, frankly, unacceptable. We cannot have a situation where people have to watch the media for them to find out what’s happening in relation to a person who has done something fundamentally awful to a member of his family. So, I’ll finish with this, and he doesn’t want to do any media interviews, but this is what he told me:

‘It should be remembered that this murder has had significant life-changing effects, both upon Christine James’s family, who are left behind, and also those individuals who are mistreated in the care environment where they should have been at their safest. It is not about numbers, cost, political prizes. It is about getting to the truth and ensuring that those responsible for the failings are brought to account and that they themselves understand what those failings are.’

I plead with you, Cabinet Secretary: there are managers and people who have made decisions who are still in their roles or who have had payouts from that health board who simply should not have had them, based on the way that they’ve operated in this health board, and I will not, as far as I am an Assembly Member, let these people down. Victims have been let down. We have seen scandals in the past by care homes, by celebrities in the British system, and we cannot let this happen under our watch. So, please, please make sure that this independent inquiry works for the sake of all those involved.

I take the view that the independent review remit is sufficiently broad for HIW to do their job. They are genuinely an independent inspectorate, and the challenge is to ensure that they provide a review that does provide reassurance in looking at what happened. There’s also a challenge for all of us in understanding, not just what happened at the time, but where we are now as well. And some of this is about the assurance we provide for our system moving forward. Health Inspectorate Wales is the appropriate body to undertake this investigation. I know you made a number of comments about linking the conduct complained of during the employment and the subsequent murder. It’s worth reminding ourselves that the three issues complained of were referred to the police and it was the criminal justice system that investigated and decided not to pursue any further action. I think there are genuine questions for us to understand about what happened at the time and whether that will that be the same approach taken now.

On the point about the link between the three serious issues complained of during his time in employment and the murder, I think politicians of any shade should hesitate before seeking to draw a direct link between the employment and the murder. I think it is important to understand, following the review, whether there is any real evidence that the behaviour complained of had any part to play in the subsequent murder. I do understand why there are such high emotions around this by people directly affected and the families, both of the alleged victims, the three people who had raised complaints about Kris Wade during his conduct as an employee, as well as the family of Christine James. So, I take this seriously, and I do await the report from HIW and the review they’re undertaking and I don’t seek to limit their ability to talk to people in undertaking a proper and robust review of what’s happened. I’ve said I’ll keep Members updated. If there’s more for me or the Government to do, once that review is provided, then I’ll be completely transparent with Members about decisions that I take and further next steps if they’re required.

Cabinet Secretary, the findings of ABMU’s internal report on Kris Wade stated that they did not robustly pursue complaints and stated, in effect, that there was a culture in some areas of basing actions on, I quote, ‘the believability of patients’ is absolutely shocking. I note, and fully supported the calls of the BMA and other opposition parties that there should be an independent inquiry. I am glad that the First Minister stated his support for this yesterday. We want the health board to uphold the highest of standards. The public cannot be assured that it will do this if we simply let it to investigate itself. Consequently, Cabinet Secretary, can you update us on what discussions you have had with Healthcare Inspectorate Wales to expedite an independent inquiry? Thank you.

Thank you for the comments and questions. The health board review, the internal review, I know has regularly been referred to as being flawed. It’s not a whitewash. When you look at and read the report they recognise there were failings in the way they went about their business, both through the initial employment of Kris Wade and through dealing with the complaints that were made about his conduct as an employee of the health board. And I think it’s really important to recognise that we expect health boards to investigate themselves, and to understand, where something has gone wrong, including when it’s gone seriously wrong, they still have a responsibility to investigate that conduct and to try for themselves to understand lessons to be learned, in addition to the ability to have an independent review. I think the fact that they’ve been prepared to say to themselves that they recognise that there were failings, they recognise that the initial complaints were not robustly investigated, that the approach focused too much on the believability of the complainants, rather than actually trying to find the truth—those are things that none of us should try and pretend are not in that report and are not serious issues in the here and now as to how we expect future concerns to be properly and robustly dealt with. In addition to those health boards needing to investigate themselves, I set out in this case, as I said earlier in response to the question and in the written statement, that HIW will undertake their own independent review, they will report and I will ensure that Members are fully up to date, including, of course, making available the report that they do provide.

Last week, Cabinet Secretary, I met with the chair of ABMU and the senior officer who was one of the seekers of that report to seek reassurances that if this situation arose today, it would be identified quicker and we wouldn’t be having the same failures that happened before. Whilst the Member for South Wales West keeps harping on about lessons learnt, it is important to my constituents that lessons are learnt again, because they need the confidence that the systems are in place. Now, they assured me that they were in place, but will you ensure that HIW not just assess their assessment, but they’re actually comfortable and confident that the systems that have been identified are in place so that this cannot happen again, and that that will be part of the remit?

I think that is covered in the remit. We expect the assurance to be provided by HIW about current practice, to look at the identified and recognised failings and assure that those are things we have designed out of our system—as an example, the challenge about not properly checking the criminal records check. It’s one thing to say, ‘Well, would that person have passed a records check even if it had been done at the time, at the point of initial employment?’, and, actually, it’s likely they would have done, but the challenge is, in any event: how do you actually remove the risk? And we now have a process across the national health service where shared services undertake that, so people should not be able to get into our national health service in the same way and avoid a criminal records check, for example. So, I recognise the point that you make, robustly as well, that there does need to be proper reassurance that Members can place faith and reliance, because it matters not just to Members within the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg university health board area; this is an issue for the whole service to take lessons and learning from and to properly reassure the public about the way I expect our health service to behave.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. The next question is from Angela Burns.