[2025] UKUT 321 (AAC)

JH met with MOO and MA on 27 March 2023. This was termed an Appeal meeting. MA, MOO’s representative, declared she and MOO had not had the Notes (Minutes) from the Disciplinary meeting the previous month, although MOO had received the Outcome letter (which contained the terms of her summary dismissal) [59].

MA expressed dissatisfaction with the failure to have proper investigatory interviews with the staff who were present when the incident with RR occurred. MA argued that the short statements given to the manager (EO) on 5 February 2023 were not capable of addressing the questions raised. MA indicated that one of the statements said MOO ran at the service user, RR, but the other said she did not [61].

MA is said to have felt unsettled by the initial lead investigation starting with one manager and now the Appeal meeting being with the Operations Manager. EO did not in her notes specify what MA had to say about the police officer who came on 7 February 2023 [73]. He was the officer that according to EO’s earlier notes asked if RR had been hit by MOO. [38]. MA’s concerns were expressed in the terms “at that level something had been adapted.”

The appeal outcome was not favourable to MOO and her dismissal was confirmed. The letter with the final decision was sent in a letter dated 1 April 2023. A key part of the reasoning was reliance on the alleged testimony of three witnesses including the service user, RR, who said that MOO had carried out the described assault.

As far as the DBS is concerned, an acknowledgement was made (the section “Allegations or Circumstances”) [99] that the witness statements of those at the Home in the room where the incident occurred were not available. These would include the key statements of support staff BB and MJL. The DBS relied on unsigned notes of EO before the Appeal on 27 March 2023 and notes from meetings with three staff on 21 March 2023. “Corroboration” was referred to several times. MOO made statements that the initial statements of BB and MJL on 5 March 2023 were not consistent. They had raised questions about how or whether MOO ever hit RR as described. EO’s unsigned notes of what the witnesses said all start with the date 21 March 2023 and end with the date 27 March 2023. MOO relied on the fact that the DBS made no comment on this dating inconsistency nor that such interviews were coterminous with the Appeal hearing and that being more detailed interviews, they should have taken place.

A referral to the DBS was made.