Concerns raised over care of local woman with Down’s Syndrome, autism and learning difficulties

A mother from Droylsden has spoken out about what she describes as a “harrowing and exhausting” experience seeking support for a vulnerable family member.

Angela Smith, whose daughter Jacqueline is in her 50s and afflicted with Down’s syndrome, autism, learning difficulties and a mental age of 8 years, says the past 10 years have been a “nightmare” since she asked for help from Tameside social services.

“All I wanted was help,” Angela told the Tameside Reporter. “Jackie was struggling to adjust to a new day centre, and I just wanted some support to help her following a traumatic experience which involved her losing a friend. I never imagined it would lead to this.”

Angela and her daughter moved to Droylsden from Clayton 16 years ago. At the time, Jackie was living at home with Angela and attending a day care centre in Manchester. However, due to funding cuts, Jackie was transferred to a new centre in Droylsden in 2015 where she struggled to adjust to the new environment.

Following a traumatic period at her day centre in 2016, Tameside social services placed Jackie into enforced isolation at a care home in Hadfield for three weeks, which the family say made matters worse. Later, Jackie was reportedly placed in isolation at a flat in Stalybridge. Jackie had never had to live on her own before.

Angela said Jackie disliked the food provided by carers at Stalybridge, so she regularly brought meals to her daughter herself. But on one occasion, Angela said a social worker asked her not to visit. That same evening, Angela recalled that Jackie escaped from what was supposed to be a locked and alarmed room. She then escaped unnoticed from the secure building into the car park. Angela believes Jackie panicked, not knowing where she was. 

Staff called an ambulance, but the family allege they did not accompany Jackie to the hospital. The next morning, hospital staff phoned Angela to say that her daughter had arrived in Tameside A&E. Angela rushed to the hospital, but soon after, Jackie was escorted by two security personnel to the mental health unit. Angela says she was never told what had happened, nor was she given a diagnosis.

In April 2016, while at Tameside Hospital, Jackie was sectioned – a decision Angela says she was not informed about at the time – and subsequently moved over 140 miles away to a mental health facility in Aberdare. Angela says no justification for the move to Aberdare was ever provided to her. “One day I was told Jackie was being sent to Wales,” she said, “I wasn’t told why, so I told Jackie that she was going on holiday to Wales. That turned out to be as far from a holiday as it was possible to get.”

While at the Aberdare facility, Angela and her brother Kevin say that Jacqueline was regularly sedated as she was very sensitive to the noisy environment and scared of the male population. They claim that due to a lack of physical activity, she developed blood clots in her legs, which eventually travelled to her lungs. Jacqueline was rushed to hospital, and her family say she almost died as a result.

Jacqueline left Aberdare in October 2016 and returned home disabled, with critical acute breathing difficulties and severe gingivitis.

Angela and Kevin say they’ve spent thousands of pounds on legal advice throughout their efforts to advocate for Jacqueline’s care.

In 2016, Tameside Council applied for a Deprivation of Liberty hearing, claiming Jackie lacked the capacity to decide where she should live. Angela claims she was not given an opportunity to act as a party to those proceedings.

Angela claims the council manipulated the first court process to ensure she couldn’t attend the initial hearing that resulted in Jackie’s placement and created the precedent which detained Jackie in highly unsuitable care settings. A letter from TMBC dated Friday 17 March 2017, together with court documents, informed Angela of a Court of Protection hearing on Monday 20 March. Angela stated she only received the letter on Saturday 18 March - giving her zero working days’ notice.

Angela says she was given a legal form (COP5) to complete with no explanation or assistance and had no prior knowledge that a case was even going ahead. “I had no idea what was going on, no time to seek legal advice, and no chance to prepare any evidence,” Angela said. “They made it impossible for me to attend or take part, so I couldn’t speak for my daughter or tell the story of Adult Services’ appalling behaviour to a judge.”

In an incident in January 2018, the family told the Reporter how Jacqueline was admitted to Tameside Hospital for an operation. Angela says she was detained in an office at the hospital and prevented from involvement in her daughter’s health, after Jackie’s social worker allegedly quoted a false Court Order to hospital staff, according to the family. Angela says she wasn’t allowed to see her daughter until after 5pm on the day of the procedure - the first time Jackie had ever come round from anaesthetic without her mother present.

Angela and Kevin have also raised concerns about transparency in Jacqueline’s care arrangements. Angela told the Reporter she was told by TMBC that Jackie’s advocate had refused to share contact details, but when she contacted the advocacy organisation directly, they denied having made such a refusal.

Jacqueline now lives in a ground-floor flat in Denton, where she was moved at the end of May 2020. However, Angela believes her daughter’s current placement is worse for Jackie who remains socially isolated, and mentally and physically uncomfortable. Angela stated that the flat has privacy windows, which restrict Jackie’s ability to see outside, and Angela says Jackie’s chronic cough and asthma are triggered by tobacco smoke and vape aerosols caused by residents and others who regularly smoke or vape in the building’s corridors, outside her window, and in the car park which she needs to access on most days. Jackie reportedly becomes so distressed that even seeing people smoking causes her to cough and she has dialled 999 on some occasions.

Angela says that if Jackie had been happy, she would have been happy for her, but she says that has never been the case since she sought support.

Angela added: “I deeply regret moving to Droylsden. I always wonder what would have happened if we didn’t come here. Now poor Jackie is trapped for life in Tameside’s shocking care system.”

A Tameside Council spokesperson said: “We can’t comment on individual cases but we’re working separately with the family to understand and look at their concerns.”