Chair Baroness Kate Lampard CBE
Arundel House, 6 Temple Place, London WC2R 2PG
April hearings are scheduled between Monday 28 April-15 May 2025*
On 9 September 2024, a statutory public inquiry opened into the deaths of mental health inpatients in Essex. The Inquiry will now resume on Monday 28 April.
The Lampard Inquiry was set up to investigate the deaths of people who died while they were a patient on a mental health ward in Essex between 2000 and 2023. This is the first public inquiry into mental health services that has ever been held in England and established by a Minister.
As a result of its expertise on deaths in mental health services and their involvement with Essex families and nationally, the charity INQUEST has now for the first time been given core participant status in a public inquiry.
The Lampard Inquiry’s next public hearing is scheduled to be held from 28 April to 15 May 2025. The hearing will be in-person at Arundel House in London. The hearing will also be streamed online for those wishing to follow the proceedings remotely. You can view the April Hearing’s timetable.
The hearings will include important contextual evidence relating to the provision of mental health inpatient care in Essex. The Inquiry also intends to hear evidence relating to some systemic issues around the provision of care.
The Inquiry will be hearing evidence from Essex healthcare providers and other relevant organisations. The Inquiry will not hear evidence from families or those with lived experience at the April hearing.
Our director Deborah Coles will be giving evidence on the 12 of May.
Deborah Coles at INQUEST, said: “For this inquiry to succeed in preventing future deaths, there needs to be an absolute commitment to ‘duty of candour’ and full disclosure of all facts and data. Bereaved families and the public deserve a lot more than empty promises of ‘lessons learnt’ and excuses to explain away countless deaths.”
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
For further information, to note your interest and to arrange interviews, please contact Selen Cavcav at [email protected].
*Please note the Inquiry will not be sitting on Fridays or on Monday 5 and Wednesday 7 May.
INQUEST and families are represented by INQUEST Lawyers Group member Charlotte Haworth Hird and Amy Ooi of Bhatt Murphy, and Anna Morris KC and Lilian Lewis of Garden Court North Chambers.
Other core participants include Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT), North East London NHS Foundation Trust, Care Quality Commission, Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England.
Find out more about the Lampard Inquiry here.
The full Terms of Reference for the inquiry can be found here.
INQUEST’s opening submissions to the inquiry are available here.
Recent deaths in Essex mental healthcare:
- Sophie Alderman, died on 19 August 2022, aged 27, after having applied a ligature in her bedroom while a detained inpatient at Willow Ward, Rochford Hospital, Essex. An inquest found she died by ‘misadventure’. Media release.
- Morgan-Rose Hart, 18, died on 12 July 2022 after being found unresponsive on 6 July 2022 on Chelmer Ward at the Derwent Centre, an adult acute mental health ward in Essex. An inquest found that neglect contributed to her death. Media release.
- Marion Michel, 56, died of self-inflicted injuries on 4 March 2022 whilst an inpatient at Brockfield House, a secure mental health unit in Essex. An inquest found that the absence of a specific risk assessment may have contributed to her death. Media release.
- Chris Nota, 19, had been under the care of Essex mental health services when he died on 8 July 2020 after falling from a height in Southend. An inquest found that multiple failures in care contributed to his death. Media release.
- Edwige Nsilu, 20, died on 5 February 2020 after being found unresponsive at St Andrews Healthcare Essex. An inquest concluded that neglect contributed to her death. Media release.
- Bethany Lilley was 28 when she died whilst an informal patient on Thorpe Ward at Basildon Mental Health Unit on the evening of Wednesday 16 January 2019. The inquest in March 2022 concluded that her death was contributed to by neglect due to a plethora of failings by Essex University Partnership Trust. Media release.
Other relevant cases: Deaths of people in the care of Essex mental health services, November 2020
In 2021, EPUT was prosecuted in relation to health and safety failings concerning ligature points. The Trust was fined £1,500,000. NHS-Trust-sentencing-remarks-16Jun21.pdf">Sentencing remarks.
Journalists should refer to the Samaritans Media Guidelines for reporting suicide and self-harm and guidance for reporting on inquests.
Statutory Inquiry Into Deaths In Essex Mental Health Services To Resume
CONTENT WARNING: Please read with care as this page may involve information on death, suicide, mental illness, disability, state neglect, and police and prison violence that some people may find upsetting. If you need support, please visit our support page.
Chair Baroness Kate Lampard CBE
Arundel House, 6 Temple Place, London WC2R 2PG
April hearings are scheduled between Monday 28 April-15 May 2025*
On 9 September 2024, a statutory public inquiry opened into the deaths of mental health inpatients in Essex. The Inquiry will now resume on Monday 28 April.
The Lampard Inquiry was set up to investigate the deaths of people who died while they were a patient on a mental health ward in Essex between 2000 and 2023. This is the first public inquiry into mental health services that has ever been held in England and established by a Minister.
As a result of its expertise on deaths in mental health services and their involvement with Essex families and nationally, the charity INQUEST has now for the first time been given core participant status in a public inquiry.
The Lampard Inquiry’s next public hearing is scheduled to be held from 28 April to 15 May 2025. The hearing will be in-person at Arundel House in London. The hearing will also be streamed online for those wishing to follow the proceedings remotely. You can view the April Hearing’s timetable.
The hearings will include important contextual evidence relating to the provision of mental health inpatient care in Essex. The Inquiry also intends to hear evidence relating to some systemic issues around the provision of care.
The Inquiry will be hearing evidence from Essex healthcare providers and other relevant organisations. The Inquiry will not hear evidence from families or those with lived experience at the April hearing.
Our director Deborah Coles will be giving evidence on the 12 of May.
Deborah Coles at INQUEST, said: “For this inquiry to succeed in preventing future deaths, there needs to be an absolute commitment to ‘duty of candour’ and full disclosure of all facts and data. Bereaved families and the public deserve a lot more than empty promises of ‘lessons learnt’ and excuses to explain away countless deaths.”
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
For further information, to note your interest and to arrange interviews, please contact Selen Cavcav at [email protected].
*Please note the Inquiry will not be sitting on Fridays or on Monday 5 and Wednesday 7 May.
INQUEST and families are represented by INQUEST Lawyers Group member Charlotte Haworth Hird and Amy Ooi of Bhatt Murphy, and Anna Morris KC and Lilian Lewis of Garden Court North Chambers.
Other core participants include Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT), North East London NHS Foundation Trust, Care Quality Commission, Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England.
Find out more about the Lampard Inquiry here.
The full Terms of Reference for the inquiry can be found here.
INQUEST’s opening submissions to the inquiry are available here.
Recent deaths in Essex mental healthcare:
Other relevant cases: Deaths of people in the care of Essex mental health services, November 2020
In 2021, EPUT was prosecuted in relation to health and safety failings concerning ligature points. The Trust was fined £1,500,000. NHS-Trust-sentencing-remarks-16Jun21.pdf">Sentencing remarks.
Journalists should refer to the Samaritans Media Guidelines for reporting suicide and self-harm and guidance for reporting on inquests.
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