Swansea Bay: Apology over disabled children's care

A health board has apologised over "completely unacceptable" issues with the treatment of disabled children and their families.

It comes after a highly critical report into Children's Community Nursing services at Swansea Bay health board.

It said there was a "perception of sanctions" for families who complained and that relationships between staff and parents "fractured easily".

The health board's chief executive said things would change in the service.

Mark Hackett said there had been "serious issues" with the nursing services and "sincerely apologised" to the affected families.

The report focused on the treatment of 20 families of children receiving continuing care in the health board between April 2019 and September 2020.

It said there was a lack of clear governance within the Children's Community Nursing services (CCN), which did not support the ability to identify concerning trends arising, as well as an accepted practice of incidents not being reported which also served to conceal emerging trends from the health board.

It added: "Parents were found to be frustrated due to poor communication and relationship management from the leaders of the CCN service, leading to a breakdown in the parent/service provider relationship.

"There was a perception of sanctions being imposed by the service should families complain leading to a lack of trust and/or total breakdown in the relationship with the team."

The report also criticised an "inflexible leadership style" which left staff feeling "frustrated and demoralised" after raising concerns over their ability to run a safe service during the Covid-19 pandemic.

It also found continuing care decisions for paediatric cases were made by an adult panel with "limited knowledge" to support the decision-making process, as well as a "lack of knowledge and understanding" of the wider health board processes.

The report added families had noted an improvement in communication and service delivery after actions were made by the health board prior to and during the independent review.

In a statement, Mark Hackett, the health board's chief executive, said: "Sadly, it is very clear from this independent report that there have been serious issues around care delivery and the leadership culture within our CCN service for some time.

"This is hugely disappointing and completely unacceptable. On behalf of the health board, I sincerely apologise to the families affected.

"Every effort is being made to ensure that in future the service will be far more inclusive, and focused on the needs of the individual child.

"Our priorities now are repairing relationships with families and working alongside them to improve our services."