How Social Services officials hoodwink the honours system.
By Jack Frost
The Essex County Council mystery surrounding the CBE
awarded to Liz Railton?
By Jack Frost…….29 December 2007
Just as social workers routinely mislead and corrupt the Family Court
proceedings, resulting in innocent and vulnerable members of the public losing
their children to care and adoption; there is yet another aspect of local
government corruption that has not received any public attention, but which
deserves the spotlight focussed on it. I refer to what has become known as
public awards. These awards are announced in the Queens Birthday Honours List,
at the end of June and the New Year Honours list.
Most persons are familiar with the cash for peerages scandal, in which it was
revealed that senior Labour Party officials with access to Tony Blair, the Prime
Minister, had been involved with encouraging rich business men to donate
millions of pounds to the Labour Party, in a clandestine way; classifying their
donations as a loan and thus not subject to disclosure and therefore unlikely to
be considered an attempt to buy honours. Whilst this has been extensively
reported and the Metropolitan Police began a criminal investigation, there is
another equally disturbing irregularity involving local government officials,
which has not been receiving any attention. This scandal involves the nomination
for public awards, of local government officials by other local government
officials; whilst shrouding the nominator in complete secrecy. Not only might
there be irregularities in the nominations, but the recipient of the award might
also be so hopelessly undeserving of the award, as to bring the whole process
into disrepute.
If the CBEs awarded to Liz Railton and her cronies are anything to go by, local
government’s success in corrupting the public awards system is just as
successfully managed, as the false allegations of child abuse levelled at
ordinary members of the public. And just as the cronyism and opacity of the
Family Courts obscures and conceals their villainy; so too in one area of public
awards, is cronyism, opacity and chicanery, obvious; some would say, rife!
The awarding of public honours, such as the OBE, MBE, CBE, knighthoods, etc, to
those who do not deserve them, makes a mockery of the whole Honours System. So
how you might wonder is this accomplished and how has it managed to remain in
the shadows ?
If you hadn’t already guessed; it has been possible, because of the lack of
transparency, the labyrinthine connections between those involved in nominating
a person for an award and the recipient, and the ability of local government
officials to threaten the public and the press, who may wish to reveal
information of public concern.
To understand how the system has been corrupted, let’s look at a case in point.
In the Queens Birthday Honours List, in June 2006, it was announced that
Elizabeth Railton ( Director of Children’s Services for Essex County Council ),
also known as Liz Railton, had been awarded the CBE ( Commander of the British
Empire). This is a very high and prestigious award. The announcement was greeted
with disbelief in Essex. Many senior officials in Essex County Council were
stunned. Lord Hanningfield, the Leader of Essex County Council informed me in
writing, “ No employee of Essex County Council nominated Liz Railton for an
award”. This was later repeated to me in a letter from the Head of Law &
Administration. So just who nominated Liz Railton for the CBE and what was so
outstanding about her performance? Despite much effort on my part, no one to
date, has admitted nominating Liz Railton for an award.
The performance of Liz Railton.
A number of Essex residents had written in to complain to the General Scrutiny
Committee ( GSC) of Essex County Council ( ECC ), in December 2004, after Liz
Railton had submitted a false and incorrect report to the GSC on 14 December
2004, exonerating social workers, when there was evidence of their involvement
in serious irregularities and gross misconduct. The GSC is the senior most
overview & scrutiny committee of the council. Liz Railton’s report to the GSC
was a response to a series of articles in the Telegraph, by Cassandra Jardine,
which were critical of ECC’s Children’s Social Services. Other local papers and
elected councillors had also publicly criticised Liz Railton’s department and
voiced concern. The criticism’s continued thorough 2005 in the national and
local papers, when Eric Pickles MP ( Brentwood & Ongar) delivered a withering
attack on Liz Railton’s department, in the House of Commons on 2 May 2005(
Adoption Bill Debate. See Hansard).. And the ECC’s Children’s Services
Department are, as you read this, currently being criticised in local papers and
by parents. Some of the complaints have been upheld, some have reached the
courts, been confirmed and found to be proven, whilst others are piling up to be
heard.
In one well documented incident, it was reported to the GSC, that Liz Railton
was the chair of a prestigious committee; the Essex Child Protection Committee(
ECPC) , now renamed the Essex Safeguarding Children Board (ESCB) and had not
taken action against a fellow committee member, Dr. Geetha Kugan, who had
engaged in serious misconduct and law breaking, which had been reported. Dr.
Geetha Kugan was also a member of the ECPC, the premier child protection
committee of the council. She had been witnessed falsely accusing a mother of
child abuse, in order to have the child taken into local authority care and
receive unnecessary medical treatment. This merely to support her colleagues,
Dr. Aloke Agrawal and Dr. RN Mahesh Babu, who needed a ‘professional’ to get
them out of trouble. Despite Liz Railton being informed in detail, she took no
action to investigate, suspend or remove Dr. Geetha Kugan from membership of the
committee. Dr. Geetha is still a member of the ESCB!
There were other incidents; including a very serious conflict of interests in
which Liz Railton was simultaneously a director and trustee of the charity, BAAF(
the British Association of Adoption & Fostering) whilst being engaged in policy
decisions and procedures in relation to fostering and adoption. Another notable
incident was the attempt by Liz Railton’s department to obstruct and silence
County Councillor Barry Aspinell from carrying out his legitimate political
duty, when he responded to a plea for help from his constituents, the Brentwood
Low IQ couple. Essex County Council sought an injunction on entirely dubious
grounds and the council’s barrister was heard in court, seeking a custodial
sentence for County Councillor Barry Aspinell, when the councillor was actually
carrying out his lawful political duty. When the judge dismissed the case
against County Councillor Barry Aspinell, Liz Railton’s department reported
Aspinell to the Standards Board for England. This could have had serious
consequences for the Councillor Aspinell. This too was dismissed by the
Standards Board.
Liz Railton’s department did not give up. It then reported a number of the
newspapers who published articles about the conduct of the council, to the Press
Complaints Commission. All the complaints were dismissed. There have also been
grave suspicions supported by documentation, that Liz Railton’s department
ignored, obstructed and kept from elected councillors, the Corporate Parenting
legislation enacted in October 2003, so that elected councillors would be
ignorant of the law and be excluded from assisting their constituents pleas for
help, after their constituent’s children had been taken into council care. No
prizes for guessing that Liz Railton and her cronies do not rate transparency,
fairness in public life and compliance with the law. …….And there is more,
including evidence that the Equality & Disability legislation have also been
breached by Essex County Council, repeatedly, over a number of years.
So how then did Liz Railton receive the CBE in the Queens Birthday Honours List,
in June 2006? Puzzled, I contacted the Ceremonial Secretariat, part of the
Cabinet Office and the office responsible for vetting those who receive awards
and also responsible for withdrawing awards. I asked who had nominated Liz
Railton for the award and what efforts had been made to vet her as a suitable
candidate for an award. Despite putting forward a cogent case for the CBE to be
withdrawn, no action followed . The reply from the Ceremonial Secretariat is
very clear. It will not release information concerning the identity of the
person/s who nominated her for an award. They suggested I might contact the
Local Government Secretariat. But surely the public is entitled to know who is
nominating persons; especially when the recipients have caused the mayhem left
by Liz Railton and when her employers announced emphatically, that they hadn’t
nominated her! The suspicion is that there is a group of fellow travellers (
local government officials) who are recommending each other on the basis of the
buggins- turn principle, regardless of the suitability or otherwise of the
person.
Currently all the checks and scrutiny in relation to public awards focus on the
private and commercial sector. Those who nominate persons for awards are
themselves checked, as are those who are nominated for an award. The deliberate
gap in the process relates to the public sector only! There are compelling
reasons for believing that ad hoc groups, serving only their own interests, have
taken control of the process and the usual lack of transparency associated with
local government and its connections have done the rest. Not only is local
government allowed to nominate persons who by any reckoning are ill deserving of
an award, they are also able to conceal and disguise that they have been
involved in such activity. Hence, one is not able to find out who exactly
nominated Liz Railton. Had Liz Railton been an employee of a private company,
the information would not have been concealed or disguised.
Gordon Brown, the new Prime Minister, is under pressure to fundamentally reform
the Honours System. Though you can bet that the Labour Party’s cronies in local
government, have not been included in the anticipated reforms. Corruption is not
only that which relates to the handing over of money in return for awards. It is
also the systematic subterfuge that dispenses public awards, which then result
in the recipient receiving further promotion and enhanced status. And by any
reckoning, the information concerning Liz Railton, is indeed confirmation of
this point.
‘When the powerful can live beyond the law, corruption is never far away’; so
wrote Max Hastings, in the Guardian, recently. He was referring to the lack of
transparency associated with the activities of the Russian oligarchs and other
powerful and well placed leaders of developing countries. Though one doesn’t
have to look that far, to see it in operation in Essex.
It was only recently, after I heard John Coughlan, the President of the
Association of Directors of Social Services ( ADSS ) being interviewed on radio,
that the penny dropped. This was when I realised how this game works. ADSS is a
membership union, of directors of social services from around England. Liz
Railton was also a member of the group. ADSS acts as the spokesperson for social
workers and departments that are being publicly criticised. ADSS encourages the
policies of opacity and unaccountability, which is the lifeblood of social
workers. It is very likely that against all the odds, one or other connection
involving ADSS, nominated Liz Railton, then withdrew to conceal its hand.
The award of the CBE to Liz Railton, is a disgrace. Those who nominated her and
have then resorted to concealing their involvement, should be thoroughly
ashamed. The Ceremonial Secretariat too, should hang its head in shame. What is
the difference between business men giving huge donations to the Labour Party,
disguised as loans, but which have been traced to be directly linked to the
receipt of honours, and local government officials who disguise and conceal
their involvement, in order to nominate one of their cronies for an award she
ill deserved?
The answer is that there is no difference. Indeed, there is now information
which confirms that local government officials have actually got a stranglehold
over these public awards and have outmanoeuvred the Ceremonial Secretariat to
such an extent, that it is the Ceremonial Secretariat which now rubber stamps
the local government nominations from certain quarters. It is also noticeable
that Liz Railton and her fellow members of the Association of Directors of
Social Services are enjoying the certainty of buggins- turn awards.
This is all so different from the hurdles and obstacles put in the way of
genuine public spirited members of the public, who volunteer and carry out
valuable service to their communities over many years, through all weathers, for
no payment and in the finest traditions of selfless altruism, but who receive no
public acknowledgement or thanks. Take for example, Trevor Williamson ( 56), a
parent who lives not far from my home, also in Essex. Trevor served in the Royal
Artillary, for 6 years and for the last 15 years has been head coach and bottle
washer for Sporting 77, a local football club. He began his involvement with
Sporting 77, by assisting his son Andrew, who played for the club, then became a
parent representative, then manager/coach. Besides organising and planning the
clubs weekly fixture itinerary for 12 teams between the ages of 13 –60, he and
one helper, Peter Bastindorf, completely gutted and restored the 100 x 24 x
15 , club house. Work on the club house took 2 years, working evenings and
weekends. In addition Trevor was involved in club training, practise and Sunday
games. Not forgetting the risks faced by all adults who work with children and
adolescents. He has been the chairman and is now the President of Sporting 77.
His commitment to his community has been relentless and sustained over the last
15 years. He has also been the Neighbourhood Watch Coordinator for his area.
There is a great shortage of Trevor Williamsons, all over the country, who are
needed to assist young persons and communities. The difficulties in getting
volunteers to take on these responsibilities, today, are well recorded. It is
noticeable that Trevor Williamson is not considered worthy of a public award.
Not for him the mighty CBE. Not even an OBE. No! Not even thanks from the
Ceremonial Secretariat. That would be too much. Though the Ceremonial
Secretariat allows local government officials to pick the awards they wish, then
hide their involvement, despite the disreputable records of those such as Liz
Railton. Because local government officials have found a way to get for
themselves, buggins- turn awards. And the Ceremonial Secretariat must surely be
complicit in such a charade and disreputable practise.
And as if to prove the point, it has just been announced today, in the New Year
Honours List, that Anthony Gordon Douglas ( Chief Executive, Children & Family
Court Advisory & Support Service. CAFCASS) has been awarded the CBE. Now isn’t
this a coincidence! Not an OBE, not an MBE……But the more prestigious CBE!
And is it just another coincidence that Anthony Gordon Douglas was also a member
of the Association of Directors of Social Services ( ADSS). Douglas, like Liz
Railton is also a director and trustee of the charity, the British Association
for Adoption and Fostering ( BAAF); identifying a similar conflict of interests.
In his position as Chief Executive of CAFCASS, he is required to be completely
impartial and inform and support the court in its duty towards the children who
feature in the cases coming before the Family Courts. Which is why there are
grave concerns that his involvement with a charity ( BAAF) that has been
advocating more adoptions and which charity has often come out in support of Liz
Railton’s failing department; places him and CAFCASS at odds with the
impartiality expected of him. It is noticeable that Douglas is not involved with
a charity that espouses the benefits of children staying with their birth
families or their extended families. His involvement with BAAF makes a point of
espousing foster care and adoption.
It has also been learned that Anthony Gordon Douglas, is quite an author. Though
for reasons one can only guess at, almost all his books are sold to local
authorities! It is also noticeable that BAAF plays quite a part in acting as his
bookseller. Is it not strange how all these senior local government officials
coagulate around a particular honey pot; exclusively funded by the state, then
mask their activities with dollops of threatening secrecy.
So just who nominated Anthony Gordon Douglas, for the CBE? Or is this a question
that is going the way of the mystery surrounding the nomination of the ill
deserving Liz Railton? Will John Coughlan, the President of the Association of
Directors of Social Services ( ADSS ) respond?. Or will the Trappist vow of
silence suddenly descend on the loquacious Coughlan. He is never though
reluctant to appear on TV or the radio and convey the impression of
dispassionate reason, whilst always defending social workers, regardless of
their conduct.
So Trevor Williamson and all the many selfless members of the public who give
generously of their time and efforts, and not forgetting elected councillors,
are ignored and preference for awards given to the chummy world inhabited by Liz
Railton, Anthony Gordon Douglas, and the other local government officials; for
whom the OBE is the poor relation. And like days of old when the Military Cross
was only ever awarded to commissioned officers, a discernable pattern has
developed, of a small group of insiders, choosing one of their own for a
prestigious award, purely on the basis of buggins- turn. And the authorities
wonder why the public mood is one of suspicion, fear and keeping some distance
from local government social services.
…END…
Fassit UK Correspondent
Jack Frost author of 'The Gulag of the Family Courts...Book1' ISBN 9 781430
316350
http://www.gulagofthefamilycourts.com/