Oxford charity My Life My Choice breaks with Southern Health saying "You delivered nothing"

Members of My Life My Choice have penned a damning open letter to the much-criticised NHS trust's chairman Tim Smart saying the charity will no longer engage with its leadership.

Trustees voted on the move earlier today, the first time in the charity's 18-year history it has refused to engage with any individual or organisation.

The letter, signed by trustees Pam Bebbington, Jackie Scarrott, Shaun Picken and Dawn Wiltshire, reads: "After considerable time and effort by our Charity’s Champions in trying to help the leadership of Southern Health act in a responsible and kind way we now know that we have been wasting our time.

"After Connor Sparrowhawk’s death in 2013 the leadership of Southern Health were falling over themselves to speak with the people with learning disabilities that lead our charity.

"Your leaders promised our trustees to set up self-advocacy groups in Southern Health, commission our trainers with learning disabilities to carry out staff training, people with learning disabilities to sit on your board, and to provide money to us to help increase the take up of health checks for people with learning disabilities in Oxfordshire.

"You delivered nothing."

The letter goes on to say that trustees at My Life My Choice, which supports hundreds of people each year from its base in Park End Street, felt that initial contact from Southern Health had been a "patronising PR stunt".

In December last year the trust came under fire after NHS England's Mazars report revealed 722 people under its care had died unexpectedly within four years, only a minority of whose deaths had been investigated.

It came just months after an inquest into the death of Oxford teenager Connor Sparrowhawk, who drowned in a bath at Slade House in July 2013, ruled the death was "contributed to by neglect".

Earlier this year the Care Quality Commission called for radical action to be taken at care units run by the trust, including those in Oxfordshire.

Trustees from My Life My Choice added: "We were astounded to hear that your Medical Director is paid £360,000 per year. Most of our members live on £150 a week.

"The father of the NHS, Nye Bevan, would be turning in his grave.We think that the leadership of Southern Health have badly let us and the NHS down."

It also transpired today that Southern Health created a new job for its former chief executive, who resigned after saying her position had become untenable.

Katrina Percy announced her decision to stand down from the top position with Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust last week, but added that she was "delighted to be taking on an alternative role" with the organisation.

Ms Percy will get the the same pay and benefits of around £240,000 a year in her job "providing strategic advice to local GP leaders".

The trust's interim chairman Tim Smart told the BBC the new role will address work that "needed to be done".

Asked if the job existed previously he confirmed it did not, said Ms Percy was the only candidate and was "uniquely qualified for it", and said it had not been advertised.

Dismissing suggestions the move was a "fix" he said: "That is not the case. The case is that over the next few months the work that we've asked Katrina to do needed to be done in any event."

Commenting on the news of Ms Percy's change of job at the time, Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb said: "Reports that she will move into another well-paid job advising GPs on strategy are deeply concerning, and will aggravate the sense of injustice felt by the families of those who lost their lives."

In April Care Quality Commission inspectors found that robust arrangements to probe incidents at Southern Health, including deaths, had not been put in place, resulting in "missed opportunities" to prevent similar events.

Southern Health is a mental health trust providing services to 45,000 people across Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

It employs around 9,000 staff at more than 200 sites, including community hospitals, health centres, inpatient units and social care services.

Mark Aspinall, who resigned from the council of governors of the Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust in April, said the decision was "strange".

He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "The idea that the role has been created purely to move Katrina Percy sideways seems very strange."

Mr Aspinall said the whole board must take responsibility for the problems at the trust.

He added: "There are questions for the remainder of the board as well. You do start to wonder if there's a bit of wagon-circling going on here and whether they are starting to worry about their own positions a little."