The correspondent who drew this article to Owl’s attention pointed out that the same situation, regarding accountability, applies to council CEO’s. (Especially those who double or triple-hat their roles by adding “Head of Paid Staff” and even “Director of Planning” to their portfolio, giving themselves tremendous power).

Hospital managers should be regulated in a similar way to doctors and nurses, the senior doctor who first raised concerns about Lucy Letby has said.

By Malu Cursino www.bbc.co.uk

Dr Stephen Brearey was the lead consultant on the neonatal unit where serial killer Letby worked and raised the alarm in October 2015.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme there was “no apparent accountability” for what NHS managers do in trusts.

She murdered seven babies and attempted to murder six others in a neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, in Cheshire.

The first five murders in all happened between June and October 2015 and – despite months of warnings – the final two were in June 2016.

In an interview, Dr Brearey claimed senior staff at the Countess of Chester Hospital were worried about reputational damage to the organisation.

He said that instead of acting on his warnings he and his colleagues lives were made very difficult – so much so that they felt under attack. “You go to senior colleagues with a problem, and you come away confused and anxious,” Dr Brearey explained.

And he claimed his experience was not uncommon in the NHS. Dr Brearey said he had been contacted by clinicians across the UK “in the last three days” who tell him “clinicians raised concerns with senior members of the hospital and their lives were made very difficult by doing that”.

“I can’t emphasise enough how difficult a position this puts the clinician in,” he went on to say. “Carrying out your clinical practice in that environment is very difficult.”

The consultant added: “Doctors and nurses all have the regulatory bodies that we have to answer to, and quite often we’ll see senior managers who have no apparent accountability for what they do in our trusts and then move to other trusts.”

He said he worries about senior managers’ future actions, adding that “there doesn’t seem to be any system to make them accountable, and for them to justify their actions in a systematic way”.

Dr Brearey also said he did not consider himself a whistleblower, but “I was simply trying to escalate concerns that all my colleagues shared, of a spike in mortality, an association with a member of staff, the unusual nature of these events, and the unusual timing of these events.

“We had reviewed all the cases on multiple occasions with an external expert and put all those concerns on paper and I felt really I was following a process rather than speaking out.”

In a statement, an NHS spokesperson said: “It is absolutely vital that everyone working in the NHS feels they can raise concerns and that these are acted on and we have reminded NHS leaders about the importance of this following the verdict last week.”

They added that every NHS trust is expected to adopt an updated Freedom To Speak Up policy, and ensure the information is easily accessible to staff.

Dr Naru Narayanan, president of the doctors’ union the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association, told Sky News there should “better protection for people who raise concerns”.

“But we see time and again that people who do so face retribution, revenge and retaliation, and they fear for their careers,” Dr Narayanan added.

This is not the first time there has been a call for the professional regulation of managers.

A series of reviews over the past decade or so have put forward proposals for greater oversight of managers in the health service, including the Francis Review into the Stafford Hospital scandal.

Doctors and nurses have to measure up to fitness to practice standards and must be registered with a regulatory body that aims to ensure they are safe to care for patients.

But NHS managers do not. A code of conduct was established in 2002, asking that managers act in the best interest of patients and listen to concerns when they are raised. However, there is no real national mechanism to ensure the code is applied.

In recent years the government has talked about beefing up regulation, but nothing concrete has happened that has radically changed the approach to NHS management.

Supporters of regulation believe it would also lead to the introduction of consistent training and standards for managers – but there are concerns about cost and introducing more regulation and red-tape. There is already an inspection regime covering all NHS services that is meant to ensure staff including managers are providing safe care and have proper procedures in place to address that when it is not.

On Friday, the government announced an independent inquiry into the events surrounding the Letby case.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has said the inquiry should consider whether NHS managers need to be regulated in the same way as doctors.

Dr Brearey has said that given the “magnitude of the events that occurred” and the impact Letby’s crimes have had on so many families, the inquiry should be judge led and have statutory powers – so witnesses can be forced to give evidence if needed. It is “clearly what the parents deserve,” he added.

Currently, the inquiry that has been announced is non-statutory, meaning it has lesser powers.

Asked whether the inquiry should be statutory, Ms Keegan said that option “is on the table” and “can be discussed”.

The inquiry aims to look into the wider circumstances surrounding what happened, including the handling of clinicians’ concerns.

Former chief executive of the hospital Tony Chambers and former medical director Ian Harvey, who were in charge at the time Letby was working at the hospital, have said they will co-operate fully with the inquiry.

Alison Kelly, who was the senior manager in charge of nursing at the time, is being investigated, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, or NMC, said on Tuesday.

She had previously been suspended from her current role as director of nursing for Rochdale Care Organisation, part of the Northern Care Alliance, “in light of information” that emerged during the trial.

NMC, the nursing regulator in the UK, said it will investigate Ms Kelly’s role as director of nursing at the Countess of Chester Hospital, a position she left in 2021.

Separately, calls are growing for the government to change the law to compel convicts to attend sentencing. Letby refused to turn up in the dock at Manchester Crown Court on Monday.

The judge proceeded without her and addressed her as if she were in the dock.

Letby was given multiple whole-life terms – one for each offence – becoming only the fourth woman in UK history to receive the sentence of whole life order. The trial lasted for more than 10 months and is believed to be the longest murder trial in the UK.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it was “cowardly that people who commit such horrendous crimes do not face their victims”.

Clutching test tubes, notepads and wearing wellies, Alice and Olivia and their parents Helen and Erik are on a mission.

By Jonathan Morris www.bbc.co.uk

Their aim is to sample the water of a stream which meanders through the town of Modbury in south Devon, eventually entering the sea at Mothecombe.

The family, who are acting as citizen scientists, are part of a community group of about 120 people who are monitoring the River Erme and its tributaries for pollution.

Campaigners believe the work could lead to real change in the water quality of British rivers and beaches by raising awareness of problem pollution areas.

The Westcountry Rivers Trust (WRT) trains citizen scientists to take samples legally and safely.

‘Fix things’

The volunteers then record their results and upload them to a map on the WRT website.

Mother Helen said: “There’s quite a small, passionate group who have been measuring the local streams and rivers.

“We’ve all read about the pollution in our rivers and we can see it because I have an app on my phone and I’ll get a notification that it’s not safe to swim on the beach and the children go on the beach all the time.”

She believes citizen scientists can make a difference “if there are enough people who are passionate about it”.

“I think you’ve got to be part of trying to fix things for rivers and streams and hold to account the people and companies that are polluting the rivers and making it unsafe for our children to swim on the beaches,” she said.

“No-one’s going to make a difference by doing nothing, and you know, we’re doing it for them and they love being part of it, they love being involved.”

Also among the Holbeton Citizen Science group, also known as the Dippers, is Chris Grey, a retired lawyer who lives near the River Erme.

“We want to know what’s going on in our rivers and how we can improve them,” he said.

“To lobby we need hard science.”

The group is planning to test all the tributaries of the Erme, from Modbury to Ugborough, with the help of landlord John Mildmay-White who allows them access to his land.

Testing is also happening on the River Dart and is expected to start on the River Avon soon.

The rivers can be affected by combined sewer overflows, which are pipes that release untreated sewage into waterways when treatment works are overwhelmed by wet weather.

They can also be affected by run-off from farms, which can carry phosphates and lead to build-up of algae that can kill wildlife, according to the WRT.

Phosphates, chemicals found in fertiliser, sewage and farm slurry are among the pollutants being tested for.

Downstream from Modbury, Flete Estate landowner John Mildmay-White said the aim of the testing was to start building an understanding of “where do we need to investigate more, which particular stream or brook is changing when it rains and where can we isolate the source of pollution so we can do some more scientific testing”.

He added they wanted to improve the “ecological state of the river, but currently we have got issues with the salmon population, the trout population and biodiversity within the water and this all needs to improve”.

Pinpointing the problem areas is the work of WRT, which feeds information from citizen scientists into a map that is being used to put pressure on politicians, the Environment Agency and water companies.

Nicola Rogers, from WRT, said: “We don’t think at the moment that there’s enough testing happening to really tell us about the state of our rivers in the West Country, so citizen scientists can help us fill some of those data gaps.

“And it can do that because the numbers of people that can go out and test their rivers locally, gives us a really big data set which is really informative.

“With that density of data we can lobby their local politicians, their national politicians, anyone who can help them, to drive the change that they want to see to improve the quality of our regional waterways.”

South West Water (SWW) said it had “followed the rapid growth of citizen science in recent years with great interest” and it wanted to “expand their citizen science programmes among local communities”.

It added it was working with the trust on its own citizen science scheme.

“What became clear is that, for the citizen-collected data to realise its potential impact, there was an urgent need for greater volunteer training, more robust data collation and analysis, and clearly defined reporting mechanisms,” it said.

The Catchment Systems Thinking Cooperative, in which SWW and WRT are partners, was seeking to “create a radical step-change in the contribution of citizen science and community monitoring”.

A pilot scheme between SWW, the WRT and the University of Exeter was being set up on the River Tamar and SWW was backing citizen scientists on the River Dart.

An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “The Erme estuary is one of south Devon’s most popular local sites for bathing, and holds both Site of Special Scientific Interest and Marine Conservation Zone status.

“We are taking significant action to ensure water quality in the area is maintained.

“Citizen Science initiatives provide invaluable data, which complements our own monitoring and assessment work and enables a greater level of engagement with partners.”

People can report suspected pollution to the agency’s free 24-hour incident hotline 0800 807060.

The Tories are facing electoral oblivion in the red wall as a shock poll reveals they will lose every single seat.

Archie Mitchell www.independent.co.uk

Polling from Electoral Calculus, shared with The Independent, reveals all 42 red wall seats held by the Conservatives are set to return to Labour at the next general election.

The scale of the rebellion against the government appears to in part be driven by the spiralling cost of living, with a separate analysis seen by The Independent showing the crisis is having a devastating impact on Tory-held seats in the red wall.

The data, compiled by analytics firm Outra, show 15 Conservative-held red wall seats, which were won at the last election but have historically supported the Labour Party, are among the 50 constituencies with the highest number of financially distressed voters in the country.

Such as Great Grimsby, Blackpool South and Walsall North are among those with the highest portion of voters deemed financially vulnerable.

In total, 15 of the top 50 seats in which voters are at risk of falling behind on their bills were won by the Conservatives in 2019.

It follows research by investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown that shows the northeast has been hit hard by the cost of living crisis – with the joint lowest level of savings in the country, and just a third of households reporting they have enough cash left at the end of the month.

The figures will set alarm bells ringing in Downing Street, with experts warning that voters facing financial distress will make their voices heard in the ballot box.

Pollster and political analyst Robert Hayward pointed to a defining phrase from Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 run to unseat George HW Bush as US president: “It’s the economy, stupid.”

He told The Independent that the economy is “always the most important issue” on polling day across all age groups, social groups and genders.

Lord Hayward said it was especially important for the Conservatives, having historically been considered better managers of the economy than Labour.

“The government has to restore that credibility,” he warned.

Lord Hayward added that Mr Sunak’s party may be doing so “slowly”, with inflation finally falling, but without further progress before an expected general election in October 2024, the Conservatives will lose.

Almost two-thirds of voters believe the economy to be one of the top three issues facing the country, putting it significantly ahead of health and immigration, YouGov polling shows.

The risk of a red wall wipeout will also raise fears in Conservative HQ, with Lord Hayward warning it will leave Mr Sunak facing “serious difficulty” securing an overall majority.

Addressing the collapse in support facing Tories in the red wall, Lord Hayward said that while the party has achieved majorities without the voting bloc in the past, “it delivered the size of that majority last time around”.

He added that the failure to win those seats next year “would leave the Conservatives in serious difficulty trying to find an overall majority”.

Electoral Calculus chief executive Martin Baxter pointed to former PM Mr Johnson’s acknowledgement that red wall voters had “lent him” their support in 2019.

“And it looks like they are taking it back,” he said. “The Conservative tide went up that beach in 2019, and it looks like the tide is going out again.”

The pollster is forecasting that the Tories will lose all 42 of their red wall seats.

And Mr Baxter said that while the economic figures “underline” the struggle in voters in those areas for the Conservatives, the prospect of the party holding on to power in the general election is already “not likely”.

Nationally, Electoral Calculus predicts a landslide Labour victory, winning around 460 seats, with the Conservatives reduced to just 90 seats.

Many red wall seats were turned blue in 2019 as voters repulsed by the Labour leader at the time, Jeremy Corbyn, backed Boris Johnson to “Get Brexit Done” and “level up” neglected towns and cities.

But Outra’s figures show that in many of those seats, voters are now feeling the pinch of the cost of living squeeze.

In Great Grimsby, which Mr Johnson loyalist Lia Nici won from Labour’s Melanie Onn in 2019, more than a quarter of constituents are at risk of financial distress.

Ms Onn, who is Labour’s candidate hoping to win back Great Grimsby next year, told The Independent the figures “laid bare the reality of life under the Conservatives”.

“Areas like ours that placed trust in the Tories have been hit the hardest,” she added.

Ms Onn said: “Their economic mismanagement has caused incomes to nosedive, revealing a disregard for ordinary working people.”

In Blackpool South, held by suspended Tory MP Scott Benton, just under a quarter risk not being able to meet payments. And in Walsall North, represented by Eddie Hughes, 23.1 per cent of voters are at risk of financial distress.

Other Tory MPs believed to be vulnerable to losing their seats include Jonathan Gullis, Johnny Mercer and Jack Brereton.

A housing commission has written to ministers calling for them to enforce new measures on holiday lets in Devon.

The Devon Housing Commission was only fully launched in July and has produced their report in commendable short order, though Owl has yet to find a copy in the public domain. 

Government is based in affluent London and the South East. This is the region where people seem to believe they have a “birthright” to a second home in the country. Despite our regional feelings, will Ministers drag their feet on this? – Owl

By Georgina Barnes www.bbc.co.uk

Companies such as Airbnb were responsible for properties switching from long-term to short-term lets, the Devon Housing Commission (DHC) said.

It called for new measures to control the growth of short-term lettings and curb a shortage of homes.

Airbnb said it welcomes regulation and supports the introduction of a host register.

The commission is a partnership between 11 local authorities in Devon to “address the broken housing market”.

Evidence from the University of Exeter suggested an increase of more than 10% in second homes across Devon since 2021, with one in 11 homes in South Hams being either second, holiday or empty homes.

The university also found some wards in Devon had more than 10% of housing as holiday homes – which was over 30% in Salcombe and Thurlestone.

The DHC said there was “widespread concern” that properties switching from long to short-term lettings were a “key reason for the fall of 50% in private lettings” across the county between 2019 and 2021.

Commissioners wrote to Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and Lucy Frazer, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, calling for them to enable councils to “limit growth of short-term lets” by private landlords or companies.

The DHC said the letter set out two proposals for legislative change, with the first requiring registration of short-term lettings “in order to establish the facts”, and to require change of use planning consent for any new short-term lettings to allow local authorities to determine how many holiday lets “should be created” in their patch.

The commission also said it recognised the power government had given to local authorities to increase council tax on second homes by up to 100%, but recommended councils “ring fence the extra revenue” for “meeting the housing shortages that second homes can exacerbate”.

The local authorities involved include Devon County Council, Exeter City Council, East Devon District Council, South Hams District Council, Plymouth City Council, North Devon District Council, Mid Devon District Council and Teignbridge District Council, West Devon Borough Council, Torridge District Council and Torbay Council.

An Airbnb spokesperson said: “Airbnb welcomes regulation and has long-led calls for the introduction of a Host register to give authorities the information they need.

“The typical UK host rents their space for just three nights a month, and we want to work with policymakers to support everyday Hosts and clampdown on speculators that drive local concerns.”