Naively, we thought winning the tribunal would be the hard part. How wrong we were!

At a meeting on Christmas Eve, we were informed that due to ‘staffing’ issues at Eastway, Tom would be immediately moved to a private Hospital “the first one with a bed available anywhere in the country”. We were advised to bring a suitcase to the ward for him as he may be moved at any time.
Between Christmas and New Year Tom was assessed by professionals from two private hospitals. Then there were more assessments immediately into the New Year. 5 different private hospitals assessed him on one day alone!
A total of 12 assessments were organised by the Trust and Trafford Community Learning Disability Team. These actions completely disregarded Tom’s interests; he was confused and anxious, with no understanding of who all the visitors were.

These hospital providers came from all over the country: Lincolnshire, Birmingham, some from London and Essex, some from Wales.
We could only be open and transparent. We shared the written judgement from the Tribunal with every hospital provider and we let them see for themselves the evident ‘care’ Tom was receiving at Eastway and the physical conditions he endured.
Many of the professionals who assessed him had not been told by the Trust that Tom had won his tribunal appeal in December and there were repeated queries of how it would be helpful to Tom to move him several hundred miles from his family for a few weeks. In particular they queried that, given the family had been visiting him for 6 hours every day since the end of August when we became aware that he was being abused by the ward staff, separation from regular contact with us could not be anything other than detrimental to Tom.
These actions by the ward, and others, were undoubtedly in breach of the spirit of the tribunal decision, and the explicit direction that 11th February 2013 should be the latest that Tom was to return home. The Judgement was that he was to return home earlier as soon as some support was in place at home to ensure it would be a successful transition from hospital. The tribunal judgement explicitly stated “They therefore direct discharge. Reluctantly they do so on a deferred basis….Were support to become available more swiftly then they would expect Mr Green to be discharged home by his RC prior to the deferred date”.
We learnt during the first week in January 2013, that within a few days of the Tribunal in December, the Trust and Trafford Social Services had recorded their decision to act in direct contravention of the Tribunal Ruling and to send Tom to another hospital and then to Residential Care somewhere in the country on or before 11th February rather than home.

We therefore set about contacting home support providers to see if they would be able to put together, at short notice, a package for Tom with the hope of bringing him home as soon as possible. By the end of the second day, we had managed to find four appropriately qualified and experienced services, willing and able to support Tom at home. We found these from Trafford Social Services own list of ‘approved providers’ (why had Trafford Commissioners and Social Services found this so difficult?).

Support for Tom at home for part of the day was eventually agreed and he returned home on 7th February.
He is making a huge adjustment. He can’t leave the house on some days because he is so anxious that he is going back to Eastway. He is very distressed by any reference to the hospital or contact with anyone associated with it. He has nightmares. He has lost his confidence, his trust in people and has lost many of his previous social and communication skills. He is keen to go back to school but can’t yet cope with visiting school for more than 15 minutes and then has to return home.