Women’s Radio talks to campaigners Melanie Leahy and Julia Hopper about the growing call for a Statutory Public Inquiry into Essex Partnership University NHS Trust (EPUT)

Interviewed by Anna Kennedy on her show ‘All Things Autism’ on Women’s Radio they discussed the ongoing call for a statutory public inquiry to compel witnesses to give evidence into Essex Mental Health Service failures; joined by 83 other families across the county.

Two bereaved parents, Melanie Leahy and Julia Hopper, are campaigning, with other families, for a statutory public inquiry to ensure that all the required evidence is included in the investigation. Julia’s son Chris was autistic and she shared her story along with Melanie Leahy whose son, Matthew died over a decade ago. Both women are dedicated to getting to the truth as to what happened to their children, whilst in the care of Essex Mental Health Services. They were joined by Nina Ali, partner at Hodge Jones & Allen who is representing the families.

Nina revealed, “This rather unusual step has been taken by the chair of the current inquiry Dr. Strathdee, some two years after this inquiry has been up and running, she has come forward in an open letter said effectively the current inquiry, without any statutory power is not going to be able to deliver its remit i.e. deployed in more simple language it’s not fit for purpose because of the 14,000 staff that were approached, invited to come give evidence, 11 came forward”

Nina added, “The families want a statutory inquiry because it carries legal powers to compel evidence to be brought forward under oath.”

You can listen here to the compelling insight into the failures of EPUT on Women’s Radio available on SoundCloud:

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