By blurring the boundaries between people, professions, the public and private sectors, and responsibility and accountability, Common Purpose encourages its “graduates” to believe that as newly elected leaders they can work together outside existing political and social structures to achieve a paradigm shift or change (so-called “leadership beyond authority”).In doing so, personal loyalties are “re-positioned” to CP colleagues and their networks.No wonder local government has been labelled “unfit for purpose” in the latest official report.
In our May 2013 UK column we published an in-depth discussion of the report ( A Shared Purpose for the NHS: Towards One Million Change Agents ) which emerged from a 31-month public inquiry into unnecessary deaths in Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust.
Presenting his findings, Robert Francis QC told the audience: “This is a case in point.
This is a story of horrific and unnecessary suffering suffered by hundreds of people, who were abandoned by a system that ignored warning signs and put corporate self-interest and cost control above patients and their safety.
Francis argued there was a lack of care, compassion and humanity, and that the most basic standards of care and patients' fundamental right to dignity were not respected. He also claimed there was a lack of leadership. Among the report's recommendations was that an NHS Leadership College should be established to allow managers to share best practice.
One of the four assessors was Sir Cyril Chantler. Lord Chantler also Media Standards Trust Board There he sat alongside Sir David Bell (assessor for Common Purpose and the Leveson Inquiry) and Julia Middleton, CEO of Common Purpose.
Chantler was chairman of the King's Fund London from 2004 to 2010. According to its website, the King's Fund “has been developing confident, capable and imaginative leaders within the NHS for over 30 years. Now, more than ever, the NHS needs the right leaders at all levels who are ready to drive improvement and drive change in times of financial challenge.”
Common Purpose's NHS leadership training is not mentioned once in Volume 3 of the Francis report. UK Column researchers have uncovered the fact that the East Midlands Leadership Academy, run in partnership with Common Purpose and the King's Fund, provided training to many NHS staff.
We also found a number of examples of external executive coaching organisations providing training to the NHS through Neuro-Linguistic Programming experts, which contains direct evidence of organisational involvement. NLP LifeThis organization has trainers Dr. Richard Bandler Stage Hypnotist Paul McKennaBandler is a co-founder of the field of Neuro-Linguistic Programming.
The Francis report highlighted the “horrific and unnecessary suffering suffered by hundreds of people.” Yet we have not heard of any criminal prosecutions or other sanctions against those responsible, and shortly after the scandal became public, Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust was set to be dissolvedIs it ironic to assume that this measure is aimed at preventing civil lawsuits seeking damages for negligence?
Rotherham Common Purpose Effect
The ongoing scandal over the industrial scale of child abuse in Rotherham has given us the opportunity to bring to the public's attention the network of common purpose activists found within a strategic partnership made up of a range of public sector organisations in Rotherham and the surrounding area.
Page 159 of the Jay ReportIndependent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham 1997 – 2013' is just unpleasant to read. The following excerpt from the report's executive summary gives the impression:
- Our conservative estimate is that approximately 1,400 children were victims of sexual exploitation during the entire study period, from 1997 to 2013.
- Girls were raped by multiple assailants, trafficked to other towns and cities in the north of England, abducted, beaten and intimidated. In some cases children were doused in gasoline, threatened with being set on fire or at gunpoint, forced to witness brutal rapes and threatened that they would be next if they told anyone. Girls as young as 11 were raped by multiple male assailants.
- A collective failure of political and executive leadership was evident over the first 12 years covered by this study.
- The police did not prioritise CSE, treated many child victims with contempt and did not treat abuse as a crime. Further glaring evidence came from three reports made known to the police and the council in 2002, 2003 and 2006 which described the situation in Rotherham in stark detail. The first report was effectively suppressed, the others ignored and no action taken to address the problems they identified.
- In 2004-05 seminars for elected members and senior officers, this abusive behaviour was laid out in the most explicit terms.
The rest of the Jay Report is equally reprehensible: for 16 years, not only did the police and social services turn a blind eye, but at times the police even harassed whistleblowers.
Is there a provable behind-the-scenes link between senior figures at South Yorkshire Police and officers at Rotherham MBC?
David Crompton: “I care more about my reputation than I do about catching abusers” Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police (2012-present). Deputy Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, based in Compton. Common Purpose Matrix Graduates (1994).
Robert Dyson QPM: He was interim Chief Constable before the appointment of David Compton. He is currently the Independent Chair of Barnsley's Safeguarding Children Board. Common Purpose Matrix Class of 2000 It is a member of the Common Purpose Sheffield City Region Group.
Martin: “Council officials will not be subject to disciplinary action.” Kimber: Chief Executive of Rotherham MBC (2009-present). Mr Kimber recently declared to MPs that child sexual abuse records were “disappearing from the council archives”. Mr Kimber, who was Director of Services at Barnsley Urban Borough Council in 1992, said: Common Purpose Matrix Alumni.
Is there evidence that CP is involved in strategic partnerships?
Carol Heywood: Manager for Rotherham Local Strategic Partnerships (December 2008 – present) and policy leader at Rotherham Council, working with Rotherham's strategic partners to find locally led solutions to issues affecting the people and communities of Rotherham. Mr Heywood is also a member of the Common Purpose Sheffield City Region Group.
Joyce Thacker: Former Strategic Director of Children and Young People's Services at Rotherham MBC. He served as project advisor for a pilot programme run by Common Purpose addressing community cohesion and diversity issues in West Yorkshire. Tucker was until recently a member of Rotherham Health and Wellbeing Board where he sat with Martin Kimber, COE Rotherham MBC (Common Purpose). Janet WheatleyCEO Voluntary Action Rotherham (Shared Purpose) and Carol StubleyFinance Director, South Yorkshire & Bassetlaw Regional Team, NHS England (Shared Purpose).
In the Health & Wellbeing Board Members Interest Register dated 15 May 2013, Joyce Thacker did not declare any interest relationship with Common Purpose.
Zaida Ahmed: Community Cohesion Manager. According to LinkedIn, Zaida's current role is to “provide strategic leadership across the School Effectiveness Service (SES) and within Children and Young People's Services (CYPS) for programs that foster community cohesion in the school system.” According to the Yorkshire and Humber Improvement and Efficiency Partnership website, “Common Purpose has been commissioned to deliver the Get Connected leadership program, which includes Zaida Ahmed, who manages a multi-agency team of social workers, educators and health professionals to deliver fully integrated services for children, young people and families.” Zaida is also a qualified teacher, counsellor, youth worker and careers and connections adviser. Zaida qualified as a Justice of the Peace (JP) in 2007. She is also a Common Purpose alumna.
Member of Parliament Maroof Hussein: He has been the Labour Member of Parliament for Rotherham, South Yorkshire since 2002 and is currently Cabinet Member for Cohesion. He was appointed Judge of Rotherham Court in 2001. He is a graduate of the IDeA Leadership Academy, the Common Purpose Programme and the Westminster Leadership Academy's Next Generation Leaders in Local Government programmes. He is a member of the Rotherham Partnership Committee and the Yorkshire and Humber Local Government – Local Government Committee on Refugees and Migration (Yorkshire Migration).
Given the current situation, with two Common Purpose graduates involved in Community Cohesion in Rotherham, is it ironic to think that the ‘race card’ has been deliberately played to deflect attention from the real systemic issues surrounding the local network that Common Purpose manages?
Pedophiles with a common purpose
What would the following historical cases from Frank Sheenan, James Rennie and Matthew Byrne suggest to a hypothetical rational person aboard the Clapham Omnibus?
Frank Sheehan: In 2008, the Chief Fire Officer of the West Midlands Fire Service resigned with immediate effect. He Arrested on suspicion of creating obscene images of childrenIn 2009, Frank Sheenan was given a formal warning and placed on the sex offenders register for two years after the Crown Prosecution Service decided it would be “against the public interest” to prosecute him. Common Purpose 20:20 Class of 1998.
James Rennie He was the successful chief executive of LGBT Youth Scotland, an organisation that supports young gay people. A former secondary school teacher, he was often vocal in public about gay issues, particularly their impact on young people. But the High Court in Edinburgh found him to be “tainted by abnormal urges”. He was charged with and ultimately convicted of sexually abusing children over a period of several years.We started when Lenny was 3 months old. Common Purpose Matrix 2003 Graduates.
Matthew ByrneThe boss of a children's charity A series of sadistic sexual assaults on prostitutes Byrne forced his victim to dress as a schoolgirl in a “torture chamber bedroom” before carrying out a horrific sexual assault at his Wirral home in 2010. Byrne also admitted four charges of making indecent images of children. In 2008, the charity boss was featured in Liverpool: Sung & Unsung, a photography book featuring “the people who best represent the city” and “those making decisions that affect the whole city”. He was one of 86 notable people featured in the book, along with the then Merseyside Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe, comedian Ken Dodd and Archbishop Patrick Kelly. Byrne was Common Purpose Advisory Group Members They also helped select other individuals suitable for Common Purpose training.
In the neighbouring Greater Manchester area, Superintendent Peter Fahy and two detectives were recently given notices of criminal conduct and serious misconduct. by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). The charges against Mr Fahy relate to allegations he supported an inadequate investigation into a suspected sexual offence. The Detective Superintendent and Detective Chief Inspector have also been served with criminal and gross misconduct notices for their roles in the investigation. Deputy Inspector Terry Sweeney has been served with a gross misconduct notice over allegations that GMP secretly disposed of the bodies of Harold Shipman's victims.
It’s no surprise that Peter Fay appears in Common Purpose’s promotional video, “What Makes Collaboration Successful?” He’s also a member of UNCIVPOL (the United Nations Civilian Police).
Can Common Purpose Graduate’s involvement in the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust case, the Leveson Inquiry and their presence in the Strategic Network Partnership which failed to protect vulnerable children in Rotherham be explained away as mere coincidence?
