Kendall compares DWP deaths to Mid Staffs hospital scandal, as she opens door to new ‘safeguarding duty’

Labour’s new work and pensions secretary has told MPs that she is open to the idea of her department being subject to a legal “safeguarding duty”, a move that could transform its approach to the safety of disabled benefit claimants.

Liz Kendall, who made the comment in her first appearance before the Commons work and pensions committee, compared the countless deaths linked to her new department with the Mid Staffs hospital scandal, in which hundreds of patients died as a result of poor care.

She told the committee’s new chair, Debbie Abrahams, who had asked if she believed such a duty should be imposed on the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP): “I am open to the suggestion.

“I don’t just want people to be safe, which is the bare minimum, I want the best possible standard of care and support for people who rely on us.

“I think that being open about problems is the only way you solve them.”

Abrahams had told her that the committee had reopened its inquiry into DWP safeguarding (see separate story), which was originally launched following the deaths of hundreds – and possibly many more – of “vulnerable claimants”.

Kendall told the committee that “when there were problems in the NHS around Mid Staffs hospital, mistakes being made, but not being open about them, learning from mistakes to put into best practice, then a duty of candour was brought in. 

“I don’t think laws alone change behaviour. It’s about culture and leadership from the top. 

“But they can help… I sometimes think you need to look at both.”

She added: “So, it isn’t a commitment to doing it, but I am open to it, because we want to make sure… all of our policies, procedures, practices, contracts, staff, training… all of that has got to be right.  

“And I’m very open to looking at all the possible mechanisms for achieving that. “

Her comments follow the repeated insistence by Conservative predecessors, including both Mel Stride and Therese Coffey, that DWP did not have a duty of care to those claiming benefits.

Coffey said four years ago that such a duty should be left to “the local councils, the social services, the doctors and other people”.

But only this week, Alison Burton, whose father-in-law Errol Graham starved to death after DWP wrongly stopped his benefits when he missed a work capability assessment, said DWP needed to have a legal duty of care to those receiving benefits.

Speaking as the committee reopened its safeguarding inquiry, she told Disability News Service (DNS): “I think if they had one it would go a long way to resolve a lot of the issues.”

After being told of Kendall’s comments, she said this morning (Thursday): “Let’s hope this is the first step forward to making sure the department is accountable for its actions.”

Evidence collected by DNS and others, stretching back more than a decade, has shown how DWP repeatedly ignored recommendations to improve the safety of its disability benefits assessment systems, leading to countless avoidable deaths.

It also shows how DWP hid evidence from independent reviews, and how the department failed to keep track of the actions taken in response to recommendations made by its own secret reviews.

Evidence also demonstrates that the cultural problems within DWP extend far beyond the assessment system, touching all aspects of its dealings with disabled people in the social security system.

The evidence, compiled over the last decade by DNS and other journalists, academics and activists, shows systemic negligence by DWP, a culture of cover-up and denial, and a refusal to accept that the department has a duty of care to those disabled people claiming support through the social security system.

Much of that evidence has been brought together in a detailed timeline, as part of the Deaths by Welfare project headed by Dr China Mills and supported by Healing Justice Ldn, which works with marginalised and oppressed communities.

The Department: How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence, John Pring’s book on the deaths linked to DWP, is published by Pluto Press 

Credit for this article goes to the Disability News Network