NHS Trust Fined £200,000 Following Death of Ellame Ford-Dunn
An NHS trust has been fined £200,000 plus costs after pleading guilty to failing to provide safe care and treatment, resulting in the avoidable harm that led to the death of 17-year-old ellame Ford-Dunn. The sentencing took place on Wednesday, wiht District Judge Tessa Szagun presiding.
The prosecution, brought by the Care Quality Commission, confirmed to Ellame’s parents, Nancy and Ken Ford-Dunn, that their daughter “had been failed by a system that was meant to protect her.”
The trust acknowledged the ward where Ellame was a patient was not adequately equipped to manage vulnerable mental health patients,but stated it had accepted Ellame due to a national shortage of mental health beds for children and adolescents.
Judge Szagun emphasized the obligation of organizations caring for vulnerable individuals, stating, “Any organisation entrusted with the care of amongst the most vulnerable in society … should be alert to and proactive to changes in advice and guidance.” She added that this should have included recognizing the increased pressures on wards accommodating higher-risk patients like Ellame.
The Ford-Dunn family expressed profound grief and anger at the trust’s failure to prevent Ellame’s death. “There is no greater heartbreak than losing a child, but to loose a child you believed was being kept safe creates a pain beyond measure, and a deep, searing anger,” Ken Ford-Dunn said in a statement outside the court.
The family has urged the government to allocate the fine towards improving children’s mental health services, stating, “no financial penalty coudl ever feel proportionate to the destruction that has been caused.” They hope the funds will be used to strengthen support in an area of “urgent need.”
A separate claim for damages against the trust is ongoing. Ellame’s mother added, “We do not want to say more at this stage as we do not want to risk jeopardising the ongoing legal proceedings. This prosecution is an important step in highlighting just one of the many failings in Ellame’s care and brings a first taste of justice on behalf of our darling girl.”
Jodie Anderson, a senior caseworker at the charity Inquest, which has been supporting the family, called for ”urgent action to ensure further failures and harms by mental health services are prevented, and to ensure every child and young person in distress receives the care and support they need.”
Counsel for UHSussex,Eleanor Sanderson,told a hearing last month that the trust accepted a core failing was the 2019 missing patient policy,which lacked clarity on procedures to follow when a patient absconds.
An inquest into Ellame’s death was opened last year but adjourned pending the outcome of the prosecution.
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* UK and Ireland: Samaritans - freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie.
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