Essex County Council Complaints
Why am I blogging about this instead of seeking a resolution with Essex County Council?
If you have found this blog you likely already know why.
It doesn’t matter how much evidence you have if there is nobody to show it to. The complaints department solely exists to find loopholes as to why they cannot answer your complaint.
I’m privileged, I am well aware of how privileged I am. I am also tenacious, I also still have my children and there is nothing Essex County Council can do about that. There is absolutely no risk to my children with writing this blog.
Where a loophole doesn’t exist, they make things up.
There is a whole document from the LGO that is very clear on what best practice for complaints handling is. If that had been followed my complaint would have been dealt with under the three stage children’s act complaints process as the LGO states that the local authority should act in the best interests of the complainant.
I actually got told that the best practice guidance document from the LGO is meaningless as it’s only guidance so they don’t have to follow it. It’s true they don’t, it’s just that if they were truly putting the resident at the heart of everything they do, they would. They don’t even hide how bad they are.
Essex County Council claim they follow the six pillars of customer excellence as detailed on the following link.
https://customerthinking.kpmg.co.uk/articles/the-six-pillars-of-customer-experience-excellence/
As detailed on the following job advert that i’ve spoken about on my other blog here:
Lead and manage continuous improvement projects across customer services to ensure a culture of embracing change and the Six Pillars of Customer Excellence is embedded across the service.
Just focusing briefly on one of those six pillars, Empathy.
On the same email where Beverly Sargeant, Statutory Regulatory Compliance Lead, mentioned my child attempting suicide, she also told me that the reasons why Essex County Council were refusing to investigate my complain were all my fault.
Integrity? Lies come easier to them than the truth, although I wouldn’t know as i’ve never actually managed to get them to tell the truth.
Even with Paul Turner the Monitoring Officer finding out that the reason they refused to investigate my complaint was false, instead of then being honest, they lied some more. Not little lies, huge ones. Stating it was multiple complaints when it wasn’t. Stating they had confused Social Work England with disciplinary action when emails from a year ago prove they knew the difference, and stating that my complaint was refused for being late.
Upon providing the monitoring officer with the reasons why what they were saying wasn’t true, I got ghosted. Essex County Council Complaints run on the basis that residents are stupid, or will give up easily. When they don’t give up they just ignore you.
Too much power in the hands of those who use it to advance their careers.
Local authorities complaints is a very important role in keeping the residents safe. At Essex County Council it is run by those who only care about how they look.
Shamsun Noor, Head of Statutory and Regulated Customer Services is corrupt. To protect himself and his department he told a series of barefaced lies to the monitoring officer. I’m just a mere resident, he is the head of a department, I get ghosted, he gets a pat on the back. Likely in the running for the next promotion.
Robbie Watson-Levey, Complaints and Compliance Manager, he knows all of this and is more than happy for his staff to do whatever makes him look best.
I tried for 15 months and they just bullied me relentlessly. They went to extremes. It doesn’t matter how much evidence you have, it doesn’t matter how right you are, they will bully you. They are allowed to lie through their teeth. It isn’t just encouraged it’s condoned. Pam Parkes was complicit in this. She knew back in March that the reasons that the complaints department was refusing to investigate my complaint was a load of rubbish. Not only did she not challenge them and act with integrity by standing up for a resident of Essex, she actively sought to cover up for them.
Pam Parkes has recently become an Executive Director during this time, her pay has now increased to £160k
She’s got no integrity, she has no ethics. She is paid a hell of a lot of public money to do things right for the residents. She had a prime example of maladministration delivered straight to her inbox, she didn’t ignore it, she actively participated in covering it up.
I have proof of this. The ethics, integrity, and morals are all just for show. When the time came when she really could have made a difference, she decided that protecting Essex County Council despite knowing that would further emotional harm to a vulnerable resident, was more important.
So she gets rewarded because that is what Essex County Council do, a promotion and an extra £20k a year.
Meanwhile i’ve had a year of bullying from various Essex County Council officers, i’ve been told repeatedly that all of my complaints have been investigated when the opposite is true. I’ve been told repeatedly that Essex County Council don’t have to investigate my complaint with various different reasons why not.
I’ve even drawn their attention to the best practice guidelines written by the LGO themselves only to be told that Essex County Council don’t have to follow them as they are only guidelines.
I’ve approached councillors, i’ve approached members of the executive team, i’ve done FOI requests which prove a lot of the maladministration. I’ve even been told that Essex County Council should have investigated my complaint but now can’t because they have another fake excuse.
I’ve been ghosted by the monitoring officer solely because I pointed out that the complaints team were yet again lying.
Meanwhile, I have four children, 3 of whom have autism. 3 of my children have significant mental health problems due to the emotional abuse from children’s services. One of them tried to kill themselves.
Not only have Essex County Council lied repeatedly to stop any kind of investigation, but they have actively prevented my children’s voices from being heard. Refusing to investigate has further harmed my family.
They don’t want to investigate because it’s easier for them to refuse and not have to hold themselves accountable.
One of the reasons that looking over old emails is incredibly painful for me is because of the amount of times i’ve clearly stated that a child would end up dying because of how bad children’s social care in Essex is with regards to child protection. So many times and I just wrote stupid emails to people who at the time I thought would listen. When baby boy died last August while he was on a child protection plan, I blame myself. I am partly responsible, I knew it would happen, I was very clear it would happen if they didn’t change how they do things. I sat there and did nothing when I should have gone public and now a child has lost their life.
A serious case review when Essex County Council are involved is pointless as they will lie.
My child attempted suicide, my child was very vocal both before and after that it was the emotional abuse they were victim to by social workers that led to the attempt.
Just one example of that
One example of many.
Essex County Council do not care when a child on a child in need plan attempts suicide. They do not care enough to investigate the reasons why. They do not listen to the child’s voice either before or after a suicide attempt. They are perfectly happy with doing absolutely nothing about it despite knowing that it may happen again.
I believe another child on a child in need plan attempted suicide last year, unfortunately that child succeeded. I imagine that Essex County Council’s reaction was “It’s not our fault, we are brilliant”, before doing absolutely no investigations regarding it.
Time after time my child was told there was nothing physically wrong with them and that i’d made it all up. A decades worth of visits to a paediatric neurologist, 2 and a half years of physiotherapy including in the water. Being told over and over again by medical people that child had something physically wrong with them.
Then Gabriel Lowrie comes along telling child there is nothing wrong and I made it all up. Gabriel Lowrie didn’t care that child was crying and incredibly distressed, he looked pretty smug with himself when he told me he’d told child i’d lied. Then Heidi Hibbett carried on. Heidi Hibbett didn’t care that child literally barricaded themselves in their room while screaming at the top of their lungs, Heidi Hibbett didn’t care when child was then self harming while Heidi Hibbett was on the other side of the door because my child was absolutely terrified of her.
Heidi Hibbett then proceeded to tell everyone that i’d obviously made my child do that and that she had a good relationship with my children. From the moment they met her they labelled her as evil and a monster, children’s instincts are often better than adults.
The same with Gabriel Lowrie who they hated, especially as he talked over them, would stop them talking if what they were saying didn’t go with what he wanted, and would talk over them. Unfortunately, Gabriel Lowrie either is, or soon will be, the father to a baby boy. 3 years ago he was in a relationship with Billie Faulkner, I am actually hoping that she is the mother to the child as I think she would make a good mother and most importantly, would make a good single mother, which is what I think the mother to Gabriel Lowrie’s baby should be.
All of this should be in the past but it’s not.
Just a few weeks ago I had a phone call from a manager at Family Solutions who was reading from the children’s notes. I have four children, 3 with autism, and also 3 of my children have significant mental health problems caused by signficant trauma.
She sought to place the blame on me, saying we’d had input before and nothing had changed. Of course nothing had changed, hard for things to change when ECC tell your children their is nothing wrong with you despite a decades worth of paediatric neurology notes saying the opposite.
Not to mention with regards to my child’s suicide attempt stated that she was incredibly concerned that my child had attempted suicide, making clear it was due to my parenting.
We will be having a TAF meeting soon. If she is there and if she says anything like that which isn’t true, which is the fault of Essex County Council and not myself, i’m just going to walk out.
My child has told absolutely everyone, including the social workers at the time, the exact reason why they attempted suicide, naming both Heidi Hibbett and Gabriel Lowrie. Yet just a few weeks ago an employee of Essex County Council was judging me for something which my child has been very vocal about being caused by Heidi Hibbett and Gabriel Lowrie.
This has been more lengthy than I planned, but i’m angry.
My whole family is suffering from extensive trauma caused by Essex County Council.
One of my children is suffering from dissociative identity disorder, it used to be called multiple personality disorder. This is as a result of severe trauma my child suffered. Not only did my child suffer the trauma, but at the time it was happening social care refused my child access to mental health help, and medical help. They were very clear that all of my child’s problems were caused by sexual abuse and fabricated illnesses. This is despite the decades worth of neurology proof, absolute denials by my child regarding the accusation of sexual abuse, and my child begging the social workers to listen. My child hates Heidi Hibbett, obviously, but is also very vocal with regards to Gabriel Lowrie. Over and over again in tears asking me why he wouldn’t listen to them. Gabriel Lowrie should not be anywhere near vulnerable children, or any children for that matter.
So this is why Essex County Council’s complaints department is not fit for purpose. It’s why Shamsun Noor is a total waste of £80k a year, and why Robbie Watson-Levey is a total waste of £55k a year.
Then we have Pam Parkes, now an executive director, a pay rise of £20k a year to bring her up to £160k a year.
She is utterly corrupt and lacks integrity, her ethics are absolutely disgusting, she is more than happy actively covering up maladministration.
Given that calling an Executive Director corrupt and stating that she would need to utilise google to find out what integrity is, is quite the accusation, I think I probably should make a blog post with the proof.
I sent her an email in March regarding the excuse which was current at that time for ECC refusing to investigate my complaint. Pam Parkes would have known the moment she read my email that the excuse the complaints department was using was false.
If what they were stating was true then it meant that a social worker under investigation by Social Work England would have absolutely no action made against them by ECC until the conclusion of the fitness to practise process, which can take 2 years.
So I sent that to Pam Parkes who instantly would have known that what the complaints department was saying was fabricated. She then actively covered up their maladministration. She went over and above to protect Essex County Council despite knowing that in doing so would cause further emotional harm to myself.
Pam Parkes is a FCIPD, which means she is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. They yap on about their members having integrity and whatever, which is obviously a load of rubbish.
It would be interesting to be in an court type setting and hear what Pam Parkes had to say as to why the allegation i’ve made that she is corrupt and actively covered up maladministration isn’t true.
She would need to explain why that when reading that the complaints department were stating that my complaint couldn’t be investigated because Essex County Council won’t take disciplinary action against a social worker until the conclusion of social work england fitness to practise processes, she actively covered that up when if she had any integrity she would have challenged it.
So i’ve spent the past 15 months absolutely powerless, being bullied by Essex County Council, being made to feel like I am worthless, that my children are worthless. All while screaming at Essex County Council that they are putting children at risk.
Pam Parkes doesn’t care, all she cares about is her upgraded position and a wage increase which is what many people earn in a year.
Some of my benefits haven’t been paid, money that was for school clothes and also for two of my children to have a treat they have been looking forward to. This is how far apart we are from Essex County Council’s officers. I’m in pieces as I have no idea what to do about money, and there is Pam Parkes who has just been very well rewarded by Gavin Jones and the elected members, for covering up maladministration.