Consultancy advising health board in maternity scandal failed to take down document criticising parents despite saying it had done so

Martin Shipton

A consultancy that criticised parents who have campaigned for improvements at a failing maternity unit failed to take down a controversial statement from its website despite telling a health board that it had done so.

Niche Consulting is being paid to advise Swansea Bay University Health Board over the handling of a review into Singleton Hospital’s maternity unit in Swansea.

Healthcare Inspectorate Wales concluded in September 2023 that the safety and wellbeing of mothers and babies could not be guaranteed at the unit.

Review

The Welsh Government has refused to order a public inquiry into the scandal, leaving the health board to organise a review that has failed to gain the confidence of many parents.

Rob and Sian Channon’s five-year-old son Gethin suffered serious brain damage when he was born at the unit, due to medical negligence, and his parents have been at the forefront of the campaign for improvements.

The Channons and other parents were shocked by a briefing document published by Niche that accused them and, by implication, Nation.Cymru of running an unfair campaign against the unit and what parents see as the deeply flawed review process.

Niche’s document, written by the consultancy’s chief executive Kate Jury, argued that “a concerted campaign of misinformation should [not] be allowed to stand as ‘matters of fact’ and to disrupt a review in the public interest”.

‘Misinformation’

She continued: “This review has, in the last few months, been subject to a targeted campaign of misinformation from a range of communication sources, in the press and on social media. This has included harmful allegations, some of which have been personal in nature, involving in some cases, very concerning content. This campaign has sought to polarise debate and undermine public confidence in the review in all aspects, in its current form.”

Describing what she sees as a “coordinated campaign of misinformation”, Ms Jury stated: “There are generally five key themes associated with the coordinated campaign against this review, they include: a) referring to the review as a ‘sham’ and a ‘scam’ on a repetitive basis on social media and in the press; b) directly attacking the independence of the review on social media and in the press; c) saying that the review is ‘ignoring families’ and also ‘excluding families’; d) saying that the review is causing distress to the families who are involved in the ‘scandal’ and; e) saying that the review has not achieved anything so far, and therefore, should be ‘scrapped’.”

Ms Jury went on: “No basis in evidence or reasonable opinion has been provided for these allegations other than to install repetition of the words ‘sham’ and ‘scam’ on a consistent basis within the press and on social media. This approach is being used to diminish the review within the minds of the freethinking public.

“No basis in evidence or reasonable opinion has been provided to support the allegations that this review lacks independence. The independence of the review (or perceived lack thereof) has been consistently used to diminish the good standing of the review in the minds of the free-thinking public … There is no basis to assume that a review commissioned to examine services provided by the health board will only be independent if it is commissioned directly by the Welsh Government. The health board are not investigating themselves; they have directly commissioned external, independent reviewers, not previously known to them, and with no allegiances, duties or obligations towards them.

“Niche (amongst the external, independent reviewers) has an extensive and proven track record in delivering independent investigations and reviews; much of this evidence is available in the public domain.”

‘No basis’

In response to the allegation that the review is ignoring families and excluding them, Ms Jury stated: “No basis in evidence or reasonable opinion has been provided for these allegations other than versions of these statements being consistently repeated and used to diminish the good standing of the review within the minds of the free-thinking public.”

The Channons, and other parents, were outraged by the document, telling Nation.Cymru: “We have learned in recent days that Niche Consulting have compiled a document designed to attack us, our well intentioned, and, we strongly believe, fully accurate views of the health board’s maternity review. Our views are shared by the top UK maternity expert Donna Ockenden and maternity unit campaigners from Nottingham and Morecambe Bay.

“This document completely vindicates families’ decision to walk away from a review which is becoming more toxic by the week and has already been discredited.

“At the end of the day we are victims of a maternity scandal that left our son with lifelong serious disabilities, destroying his future and our family. If this is how they treat families like ours who simply want justice then they have no business being involved in this maternity review.”

Press

When the Channons complained to the health board about the statement, insisting that it be withdrawn and that Ms Jury should apologise, they received an email from its Chair Jan Williams stating: “[I] have been advised that the Niche Consult statement was written for the press, particularly to resolve the requests from the media which gave no response times. This position has improved and the statement has been removed from instant download.”

In fact, the statement was accessible until the afternoon of November 5, when it was taken down after Nation.Cymru asked why it hadn’t been and sent a statement to the health board and Niche from Mr Channon which said: “The Niche briefing note has had a profound impact on several families mental health.

“To read comments such as we provided no evidence of being distressed over the review is in itself distressing and a bare faced lie. We have never spread ‘misinformation’ about the review, the evidence of the review failings over 11 months is clear and indisputable.

“That the document was written by an expert in the review has stripped any credibility the review had. You cannot attack victims and be impartial enough to conduct an independent review.

“We have been told by SBUHB Chair Jan Williams and by review Chair Denise Chaffer that the Niche document has been removed. However we find this morning that the document is still online, and that these senior people have been misled, resulting in us suffering further distress when we find that isn’t the case.

“We want a written apology from Niche Consulting for the briefing document and an acknowledgment from them that their unacceptable behaviour has caused yet more harm to victims who have been through enough

“Once again we will write to [Health Secretary] Jeremy Miles and ask him to put an end to this whole farce; lives depend on it.”

Doubled down

Ms Jury sent us a long statement in which she doubled down on her criticisms in the briefing documents of the parents and Nation.Cymru. She stated: “Importantly, Mr. Channon has also been clear, as per your communication to us, that he fully intends to continue to call the review a ‘scam’ when it is published next year, regardless of the findings and that [continuing with the review] ‘is pointless’. This indicates that there is still a clear requirement for families to have the availability of a balanced view via other media outlets.

“Last week we provided a holding area for this statement as the unbalanced media seemed … to have abated. This statement has been held in abeyance pending further allegations and reports of the same and so no one has been misled in that regard by Niche or by anyone. The matter of residual links and the statement being obtainable relates to the legacy Cache which requires clearing.”

A Swansea Bay University Health Board spokesperson said: “As outlined by our Chair in her email correspondence with Mr Channon, the briefing document in question was prepared by Niche Consulting for use by the press after it had concluded that it could no longer ignore the allegations being levied against it in the context of the Independent Review. It was a matter for Niche Consulting and not the Health Board and that remains the case.

“We were informed that Niche Consulting had removed the statement from instant download and they have assured us that the statement is no longer accessible.

“Separately, we are pleased that the Independent Review continues to make good progress and are grateful to the hundreds of individuals who have engaged over recent weeks. The input and feedback from hundreds of individuals with experience of our maternity and neonatal services has been collected directly by the Independent Review itself and also by Llais, the independent patient advocate body, who are conducting their own engagement exercise that will be fed into the Independent Review.

“In addition, the clinical review team is making good progress on the first group of clinical cases it is reviewing and letters have gone out to other families whose cases will be reviewed. At the same time, the self-referral process remains open for any individual to get in touch with the Independent Review which they can do so via [email protected] “