Dr Richard Wayne Seamark, a consultant psychiatrist, has been disqualified as a company director for seven years following an investigation by the Insolvency Service.

His company, Care+ Ltd, went into creditors’ voluntary liquidation on 17 March 2016. The estimated deficiency to creditors and shareholders was £350,381. The Insolvency Service investigation was aided by various healthcare regulators including the Care Quality Commission (CQC), NHS England and Lewisham Clinical Commissioning Group, with further information provided by London Fire Brigade.

Various concerns were raised about the quality of care being provided by the company, including:

• Care + did not report all serious incidents, including medicine errors
• One patient had been locked in their room for several weeks in breach of the patient’s human rights
• Defibrillator pads, used to restart a person’s heart, had expired seven years prior to the CQC’s last inspection in February 2016 and an oxygen cylinder was not properly secured
• The environment was neglected and not kept clean or properly maintained
• Premises operated by Care + did not comply with Fire Regulations

The CQC ultimately cancelled the company’s registration on 11 April 2016 after a three-day inspection of one of its independent mental health hospitals in February 2016 found Care+ ‘inadequate’ in every area inspected.

Robert Clarke, Head of Insolvent Investigations North at the Insolvency Service, said:

The failure by Dr Seamark to adequately safeguard patients’ well-being and safety presented a significant risk to vulnerable patients, staff and members of the public. His disqualification sends a clear message that such appalling behaviour will not be tolerated in the context of the wider corporate regime.

I would like to thank all those who assisted our investigation and helping to ensure a successful outcome.

The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy accepted a Disqualification Undertaking from him which began on 11 September 2017. The disqualification means that Dr Seamark cannot control or manage any limited company without leave of the court until 2024.

Notes to editors

Dr Richard Wayne Seamark date of birth is May 1960 and he currently resides in Queensland, Australia.

Care+ Limited (CRO No. 05627818) was incorporated on 16 November 2005 and had a registered office at 55 North Cross Road, East Dulwich, London, SE22 9ET.

Dr Seamark was a director from 18 November 2005, until the company went into creditors’ voluntary liquidation on 17 March 2016. The estimated deficiency to creditors and shareholders is £350,381.

The matters of unfitness, which Dr Seamark did not dispute in the Disqualification Undertaking, were that:

• He failed to ensure Care+ Limited complied with its statutory requirements under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 and the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009 in respect of the services and care provided at two Mental Health Independent Hospitals and one Residential Social Care Nursing Home, in that:

1. Between March 2015 and February 2016 the Care Quality Commission carried out at least four inspections across three of the services operated by Care+. It was found that standards were not being met and regulations were being breached in all locations. The CQC issued Care+ with Enforcement Notices and Warnings following those inspections.

2. Between 3 and 5 February 2016, CQC carried out an inspection of one of the Mental Health Independent Hospitals operated by Care+ and returned a finding of ‘Inadequate’ due to serious regulatory breaches, including those relating to patient safety and leadership. The CQC found that the service had not had a Registered Manager for 11 months prior to the inspection and that there was a systemic failure to assess, monitor and improve the safety, care and treatment of patients.

• He failed to ensure the company complied with statutory requirements under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 in respect of the facilities provided at one Mental Health Independent Hospital, one Residential Social Care Nursing Home and two Supported Living services.

A disqualification order has the effect that without specific permission of a court, a person with a disqualification cannot:

• act as a director of a company
• take part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of a company or limited liability partnership
• be a receiver of a company’s property

Disqualification undertakings are the administrative equivalent of a disqualification order but do not involve court proceedings.

Persons subject to a disqualification order are bound by a range of other restrictions.

The Insolvency Service, an executive agency sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), administers the insolvency regime, and aims to deliver and promote a range of investigation and enforcement activities both civil and criminal in nature, to support fair and open markets. We do this by effectively enforcing the statutory company and insolvency regimes, maintaining public confidence in those regimes and reducing the harm caused to victims of fraudulent activity and to the business community, including dealing with the disqualification of directors in corporate failures.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available.

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UK Government Minister Guto Bebb MP set out the UK Government’s commitment to tackling poverty in Wales at a Policy Forum for Wales event in Cardiff today (12 October).

The Minister told an audience of senior politicians and academics about the Prime Minister’s mission to “build a country where no one and no community is left behind,” by improving access to employment and making it pay to be in work.

In his speech to the forum, the Minister demonstrated the impact that record employment across the UK (as well as 93,000 more people in work in Wales than in 2010) and the introduction of the National Living Wage is having on reducing absolute poverty.

The Minister also spoke about UK Government plans to reduce the number of children living in workless families, by introducing statutory measures to address parental worklessness and children’s educational attainment, areas known to make the biggest difference to disadvantaged children.

UK Government Minister for Wales Guto Bebb said:

This government is serious about tackling poverty in Wales. We’ve taken decisive action to create the right conditions for employment, making sure that more people are in work and are earning a living wage.

Welfare reform in Wales is transforming the lives of those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds for the better. Universal Credit is simplifying the tax and benefit system while supporting those on the lowest incomes.

Creating the correct conditions for job creation through the ambitious Industrial Strategy remains at the heart of the UK Government’s priorities. I am optimistic that as we leave the EU, we will develop a new and lasting partnership which enables businesses across the UK to continue to trade with their partners in the EU.

The UK Government recognises how important the availability of affordable housing is in the fight against poverty. That’s why last week the Prime Minister announced £2bn to be made available to increase the affordable housing stock in England, and I ask the Welsh Government to consider if a similar policy is needed in Wales.

Further information:

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The Queen has approved knighthoods for Michael Penning and Robert Syms.

• Sector-led improvement initiative for local authorities, backed by £20 million
• Launch of new What Works Centre for children’s social care

A multi-million pound government initiative to improve the lives of vulnerable children and families has been announced today by Robert Goodwill, Minister for Children and Families.

In a speech to the National Children and Adults Services (NCAS) conference in Bournemouth, Minister Goodwill announced up to £20 million for a new programme to help all councils improve their services – with a sharp focus on making sure those at risk of failure can make vital improvements.

The programme will give councils the tools they need to build stronger services for our most vulnerable children. This includes:

• Tailored peer support for local authorities, bringing in more councils to the successful Partners in Practice programme;
• The testing of ‘Regional Improvement Alliances’, made up of neighbouring local authorities. Alliances will see councils challenging each other on standards, agreeing local improvement priorities, and sharing best practice, in order to deliver more for children and families.

In his speech at the NCAS conference today, Minister Goodwill said:

There is nothing more important than the safety and wellbeing of children. Yet, too many young people, and their families, are being let down by poor quality services – or worse, left at risk of harm. That is why we must take decisive action where performance is not good enough.

Our interventions programme is yielding real results: 36 local authorities have been lifted out of intervention since 2010 and we are seeing a positive impact from the independent children’s social care trusts that we have set up in Doncaster and Slough.

My commitment is that we will build a self-improving system, one that spots where challenges are emerging, and quickly puts the right support in place.

In addition, the Department for Education has announced that Nesta will set up its new What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care, with a focus on improving outcomes for children who are at risk of, or suffering from, abuse or neglect.

The Centre will develop a powerful evidence base that supports best practice on the frontline.

This is a key part of the government’s commitment to ensuring experts and practitioners across the country learn from the latest best practice.

Geoff Mulgan, Chief Executive of Nesta, said:

This new What Works Centre is a great opportunity to support improvement in children’s care – and ultimately to improve the lives of many children who deserve better.

Nesta and our partners Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), the Alliance for Useful Evidence, FutureGov and Traversum will be working very closely with frontline professionals, listening, learning and adapting to feedback and evidence throughout this set-up phase. We’ll also draw on the experiences of other What Works Centres on how to gather evidence, but even more importantly, how to make it useful and used.

Working in partnership with the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) and the Local Government Association (LGA), the Department will also test new Regional Improvement Alliances. These will enable local authorities to assess their own performance, and to challenge the performance of regional peers. Alliances will become the backbone of the new improvement system, with the aim of setting one up in every region by April 2018.

Five councils will now begin taking the National Assessment and Accreditation System forward in its first phase (alpha), with a further 12 -13 in the second phase (beta).

The Department for Education has today invited local authorities with a good or better Ofsted judgement overall and across all sub-judgments to express an interest in joining the Partners in Practice programme, with an assessment and selection process to follow.

The Lord Chancellor has announced the appointment of Zip Jila for a tenure of 3 years.