The NSPCC sent an immediate response to our JCB campaign letter, submitted to them on Monday 12th October and demanding an explanation of why they felt it was ok to accept a massive donation from a company renting out their equipment for the destruction of West Bank homes. Our concerns are not new to them, their reply clearly highlights that they have spent time considering just how serious and damaging taking this money from JCB would be. The reply is below:
Dear [SWAN],
The NSPCC’s mission is to prevent cruelty to children, fighting child abuse in the UK and providing support and advice to both victims and professionals.
In line with Charity Commission guidance the NSPCC has produced ethical corporate fundraising guidelines reflecting its values in relation to this goal and undertakes due diligence based on criteria approved by its Trustees in relation to corporate partners.
The purpose of the above due diligence is to ensure that the NSPCC is not associated with any organisation connected with slavery, human trafficking and child labour or where a director or officer has been convicted of a sexual offence.
The export activities of a corporate do not form part of our ethical checks unless there is demonstrable evidence that there is an association between such corporate and a country on which the UK Government/Department of Trade has formally imposed trade restrictions.
The issues which your letter raised were discussed by the Board of Trustees and having also considered our Complaints Policy further, it appears that your allegations relate directly to JCB’s activities rather than the NSPCC’s. Therefore, in accordance with this policy, I suggest that you contact JCB direct.
We are grateful for the employees of JCB who continue to fundraise for our work with and for children in the UK.
Yours sincerely,
Josephine Swinhoe
Executive Director of Income Generation
Yet the worries are serious – and the public are concerned. The Guardian on Friday saw numerous letters submitted expressing dismay at JCB’s actions, and SWAN are responding publicly. Watch this space. Do contact the press and join our campaign.
As social workers, service users and carers we welcome the
publication of Amnesty International’s report which exposes the government’s
criminal failure to protect elderly and vulnerable people in care homes during
the pandemic. The report makes very difficult reading as it lays out the
statistical evidence for deaths in care homes during the pandemic. 18,562
deaths from Covid in care homes from December 2019 to June 2020 , the vast
majority of these people over the age of 65. This represents 40% of the total
number of Covid deaths. 13,884 (76%) died in care homes the remainder in
hospital after leaving care homes. The actual number of Covid deaths likely to
be much higher as the number of Covid “excess deaths” was 28,186 a 46% increase
on the number of deaths in care homes for the same period last year. These are
shocking statistics and it needs to be remembered that each number represents a
human life lost and the devastating effect this has on family and carers.
Amnesty International rightly challenge Matt Hancock’s
assertion that the government placed a ring of steel around care homes to
protect their residence. The government knew that the UKs 400,000 care home
residents were particularly vulnerable to the Covid virus.
Amnesty cites the following as the evidence of the
governments failure to discharge its Article 2 and Article 3 towards UK
citizens with regard its positive duty to protect life and protect its citizens
from inhumane and degrading treatment:
Mass discharges from hospital into care homes of
patients infected or possibly infected with COVID-19 and advice that
“[n]egative tests are not required prior to transfers / admissions into the
care home”.
Advice to care homes that “no personal
protective equipment (PPE) is required if the worker and the resident are not
symptomatic,” and a failure to ensure adequate provisions of PPE to care homes.
A
failure to assess care homes’ capability to cope with and isolate infected or
possibly infected patients discharged from hospitals, and failure to put in
place adequate emergency mechanisms to help care homes respond to additional
needs and diminished resources.
A failure to ensure regular testing of care
home workers and residents.
Imposition of blanket Do Not Attempt
Resuscitation (DNAR) orders on residents of many care homes around the country
and restrictions on residents’ access to hospital.
Suspension of regular oversight procedures for
care homes by the statutory regulating body, the Care Quality Commission (CQC),
and the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
SWAN supports the demands of Amnesty International
including a full and independent public inquiry.
We are now entering the second wave of the pandemic and
this criminal negligence must not be repeated. We support the immediate demands
of Amnesty International:
Equal access for care home residents, staff,
and visitors to regular testing.
Adequate representation and involvement of the
social care and care home sector in the decision-making processes related to
matters which impact care home residents at all levels.
Adequate
and continued supply of PPE for care homes to enable them to comply with
national guidance and ensure all staff have undertaken training on its purpose
and correct use.
Adequate mechanism to assess and build the
capacity of care homes to deliver appropriate infection prevention and control,
including in regard to their ability to isolate new or returning residents
effectively and limiting the movement of staff as much as possible between care
homes; and to provide adequate care for residents with COVID-19 and other
residents.
Full access for care home residents to the NHS
services to which they are entitled.
A thorough review of DNAR forms that have been
added to care home residents’ care plans and medical files since the beginning
of the pandemic to ensure they have been completed with the full knowledge,
consideration and consultation of the resident and/or their family or
independent advocate where they do not have mental capacity, according to the
terms set out in the Mental Capacity Act. Ensure all staff working in the home
understand when and how DNARs apply and that they do not in themselves indicate
that a patient does not want to be taken to hospital or does not want to
receive (non-CPR) medical treatment.
Empowerment of care homes to develop visiting
policies which respect and fulfil residents’ human rights and which give voice
and agency to them, their families, and/or their legal guardian, while ensuring
their safety and that of their fellow residents.
Full transparency in the collection and
publication of all relevant data related to the deaths of older people in care
homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The balancing of human rights is complex, peoples right to
life needs to be protected and we understand that social distancing and
shielding the vulnerable are necessary steps to protect infection. But the
protection from abuse and the right to contact with our families are also
important. Adequate funding for ongoing testing in care homes and for local
authority staff could ensure that safe visiting takes place. Social workers,
healthcare professionals, families and representatives could safely have “eyes
on” visits to ensure residents wellbeing and undertake statutory protection of
the vulnerable.
SWAN believes that this was an avoidable tragedy and the
blame for what has happened lays firmly with the current Conservative
government. 40 years of neo liberal policies in social care and public health
have undermined the capacity of public services to protect the most vulnerable
in our society which has been compounded by over a decade of austerity. The government’s
negligence, belief in herd immunity and prioritising the handing of contracts
to private firms is further evidence that concern for profits overrides concern
for human life.
We ask our members and supporters to read the full report
from Amnesty, share this statement and ask our trade unions and professional
bodies to do the same.
SWAN believes that these tragedies will continue until we have
fully funded national care service that is accountable to service users, carers
and the public.
The UK Palestinian Mental Health Network recently highlighted to SWAN that the NSPCC has accepted a £5 million pound donation from JCB.
This is highly problematic and has led to SWAN spearheading a social work campaign to have the NSPCC refuse this money. Today we publish our campaign letter, sent to their CEO and signed by SWAN and 14 other high profile social work professionals. Any further letters sent by Swan supporters will encourage the NSPCC to respond. Can you help? Read ours below:
Peter Wanless
NSPCC CEO
Neil Berkett
Chair of the Trustees
Weston House
42 Curtain Lane
London
EC2A 3NH 11-10-20
Dear Peter and Neil,
We are writing to you in
regard to the NSPCCs decision to accept a donation from JC Bamford Excavators Ltd (JCB).
This is because we believe there is very clear evidence that these machines
being used to demolish Palestinian homes in the Occupied Palestinian
Territories.
We
do not accept that the NSPCC can exonerate itself from all responsibility by
claiming that this relates to JCB’s activities and not that of the NSPCC.
We
refer you to Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which states: “The
Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian
population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual
or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons
from occupied territory.”
JCB
has been fully informed of the use of its equipment in ongoing violations of
Palestinian human rights, yet continues to supply its Israeli partner, Comasco,
with that equipment. Consequently, JCB may be aiding and
abetting the commission by another person of a grave breach of the Fourth
Geneva Convention.
In March 2016 the United National
Human Rights Council adopted resolution 31/36 that
called upon business
enterprises in all states to take all measures necessary to comply with the
Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The UN identified a number of
business activities that raised particular human rights violations concerns.
These included the supply of equipment and materials facilitating the
construction and the expansion of settlements, the supply of equipment for the
demolition of housing and property and the destruction of agricultural farms,
greenhouses, olives groves and crops.
Subsequently,
in 2020, the UN report A/HRC/43/71 named
JCB as one of 112 business entities which the UN
Human Rights Office considers in breach of international law.
JCB are currently the subject of a formal complaint by
eminent lawyers (Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights) who cite JCB’s failures
under OECD guidelines to apply due diligence within their human rights
obligations.
Research
by the Shoal Collective found that JCB’s products were used in 2018 in at least
130 demolitions, including the destruction of at least 2 schools and 31 homes.
These demolitions displaced 163 people, including 31 children. They generally
are used to carry out demolitions in vulnerable farming or Bedouin communities
in the Jordan Valley or the South Hebron Hills. The bulldozers were most often
used to destroy people’s homes or animal structures, olive and fruit trees.
They were also used to destroy wells, and community freshwater systems, cutting
off villagers from water sources. Reports
complied in 2019 found that JCB machinery was involved in demolition of
property that displaced 123 people and 39 children.
We
recognise the excellent work NSPCC does and applaude your aim to “Give a voice
to children when no one is listening” and to “fight for every childhood.”
But British children should not benefit at the expense of Palestinian children
and their families. Nor should a charity accept money from a company complicit
in war crimes.
We
therefore call on the NSPCC to demonstrate a truly ethical position, cease to
take money from JCB and prove that every child matters.
We
very much look forward to your reply and hope that the NSPCC will reconsider
its position.
Yours,
Alissa De Luca-Ruane on behalf of:
Social Work Action Network Steering Committee
Professor Nigel Parton
Emeritus Professor, University of Huddersfield
University
of Huddersfield
Dr Nigel Patrick Thomas
Professor Emeritus of Childhood and Youth
Associate Director, The Centre for Children and Young People’s Participation
School of Social
Work, Care and Community
University of
Central Lancashire
Norma Baldwin
Professor of Child Care and Protection (Emeritus)
University of Dundee
Ian Butler – Emeritus Professor of Social Work at the
University of Bath.
Kate
Ramsden, UNISON Scotland (and children’s
rights officer).
Diana
Neslen, Retired Social Worker
Professor Claudia Bernard
Co-Head of Department
Head of Postgraduate Research
Social, Therapeutic & Community Studies
Goldsmiths, University of London
John Stevenson
Retired Social Work Team Manger
Past Chair UNISON Scotland Communications
Committee
Leah
Levane, co-chair, Jewish Voice for Labour
Barrie
Levine – Lecturer in social Work, Glasgow
University.
Lorraine
Radford, Emeritus Professor of Social Policy
and Social Work, University of Central Lancashire, UK.
Henry Maitles
Emeritus Professor of Education
School of Education and Social
Sciences
University of the West of Scotland
Ann
Davis, FAcSS
Emeritus Professor Social Work and Mental Health
University of Birmingham