Care in the UK over two weeks in December 2012

1 December 2012: TENS of thousands of vulnerable people are being physically and mentally abused by the very people meant to be caring for them. Disturbing figures reveal that 130,000 adults were ill treated – usually at the hands of carers or family. Abuse most often took place in their own home or care home.  Read more here.

1 December 2012: Abuse of elderly patients by NHS staff rises by a third in one year with a  shocking 36,000 offences reported last year alone.  Read more here.

1 December 2012: Care home regulation criticised by Norman Lamb.  Regulation of the care sector is not fit for purpose, care minister Norman Lamb has said as he unveiled proposals on English care homes for consultation. He also said there was a “significant lack of corporate accountability for the quality of care”. One suggested measure involves companies having to open up their books to inspectors to ensure they are financially sound. Read more here.

1 December 2012: Care home companies could be forced to open books to prevent another ‘Southern Cross’ collapse.  Read more here.

4 December 2012: Care home job advertisements ‘encouraging’ criminals to apply.  Convicted criminals have been encouraged to apply for jobs in care homes looking after frail, elderly people.  Read more here.

4 December 2012: Ann Clwyd, Labour MP tells of inhumane treatment and says she fears normalisation of cruelty now rife among NHS nurses.  Ann Clwyd has said her biggest regret is that she didn’t “stand in the hospital corridor and scream” in protest at the “almost callous lack of care” with which nurses treated her husband as he lay dying in the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.  Read more here.

4 December 2012: Melton Court care home to be closed by Friday. The manager of a South Yorkshire care home, which has been ordered to close by Friday, says she is in talks with two potential new providers. The 21 residents at Melton Court in Maltby have to find new homes, after it emerged the owner is in prison. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) revoked Ishtiaq Zahir’s licence and said the home is operating illegally.  Read more here.

5 December 2012: A PENSIONER with Alzheimer’s died after she plunged down a lift shaft when the door was left unsecured, a court heard yesterday. Annfield Plain company faces health and safety charges after tragedy.   Read more here.

5 December 2012: Wrexham – Concerns over care at mental health hospital.  Read more here.

6 December 2012: Leicester – Dementia sufferer ‘left in agony’ at George Hythe House care home in Beaumont Leys, court hears.  An 89-year-old dementia sufferer was left in agony for four hours with a broken thigh  because a care home supervisor could not be bothered to assess her, a   jury heard. Sarah Bewley was “too busy” doing paperwork to see the woman after she suffered a fall, despite several requests from a care assistant, it was claimed.  Read more here.  See below.

7 December 2012: Regulator moves closer to setting up ‘negative register’ of adult care staff.   If the proposals are approved by government, a national code of conduct would be applied to workforce and the HCPC would consider serious complaints made about individual professionals; any decisions to uphold a complaint would be made public, as would the resulting sanction.

A “negative register” would be maintained of those found unfit to practise.  Read more here.

7 December 2012:  Leicester – Jury clears Leicester care home boss of neglect charge.  After the not guilty verdict was announced, Judge Lynn Tayton QC said: “This case raises very worrying issues, particularly concerning systems that seemed to be in place which created a situation in which no-one took responsibility for the care of this lady.  “She was left in severe and unnecessary pain for a number of hours.”I hope those in charge of the home have looked at the systems and the staff training.” Read more here.

7 December 2012:   Chorley, Lancs – A care-home worker and her husband who subjected  their children to years of horrific abuse were facing jail yesterday after being  convicted of cruelty.  Read more here.

8 December 2012: Wolverhampton – An investigation has been launched into safeguarding at a care home, which helps people with mental health, drugs and alcohol problems.  Read more here.

8 December 2012: Derby – A national health watchdog has issued a damning report on a privately-run Derby care home.  The Care Quality Commission has told the company  that owns Cleeve Villas Nursing Home, in Wilson Street, to do more to protect the safety and welfare of residents – or face legal action.  Among the problems identified were:

• No organised stock control system of medicines
• Failure of staff to update crucial medical documents
• Care plans reviews not completed on time
• Failure to ensure prescribed medicines were always available
• Medicine doses not being documented, meaning it was unclear whether medications had been administered
• No appropriate systems in place for the safe disposal of medicines when they were no longer required.

Read more here.

Read the CQC report on Cleeve Villas here.

That list of failures is just the kind of thing most people don’t know about, so  awareness raised to the top is what we need in the world of care.

When it comes to the comment made by the spokeswoman for Cleeve Villas Care Services : “As a dedicated provider of care services, we at Cleeve Villas have taken on board the suggestions from CQC as to how to enhance our overall performance and have already taken steps working with a specialist healthcare consultancy to address these.”Our aim as always is to ensure the individual and complex needs of our residents are met.”

I don’t believe you.  Yet.  This is not the first CQC detailing same/similar problems.   What has taken you so long to show that you care enough to provide good quality care?

9 December 2012: Vulnerable care home residents are treated like “brutes or malfunctioning machines”, said Hilary Mantel, the author, as she spoke of the “utterly depressing” search to find accommodation for a disabled friend.  Read more here.

10 December 2012:  We haven’t a clue how much a care home will cost us.  The vexed question of how we pay for the care needs of Britain’s ageing population rears its ugly head so often that it is no wonder everyone thinks it is a pain in the neck.  Read more here.

10 December 2012: Star ratings: Families need reliable information on care home performance.  Read more here.

10 December 2012: Preventative care for elderly under threat.  Services have been cut or frozen by two-thirds of local councils since coalition came to power, according to ComRes study.  Read more here.

10 December 2012: A Birmingham care home is being investigated by council and health bosses amid  allegations of neglect.  Bramley Court Care Home, in School Road, Yardley Wood, is facing the probe  after a complaint was made about the standard of care given to elderly  residents. New admissions have been suspended while a joint investigation is carried out  by the city council and NHS Birmingham and Solihull.  It is not the first time the home has been in the spotlight over its  treatment of residents. In August a report by watchdog, the Care Quality Commission, found residents  were being put at risk of not receiving adequate food and drink.  Read more here.

10 December 2012: Winterbourne View scandal prompts new care guidelinesReport warns that care sector risks slipping back into institutional culture typified by Victorian asylum system.

The report warns that, elsewhere, staffing cuts caused by reduced fees paid to care providers are causing residents to be left alone for hours at a time and are fostering excessive reliance on use of drugs and on physical restraint, “often for minor perceived misdemeanours”.

Brendan Sarsfield, Family Mosaic’s chief executive, said: “We would argue that if providers don’t believe this has ever happened in their services, it just may be that they haven’t looked hard enough.  Read more here.

10 December 2012: Care home provider Family Mosaic has warned that the care sector is in danger of slipping back into the institutional ways of the past and is urging care providers “not to be complacent” and be vigilant for danger signs of abuse.  Read more here.

10 December 2012: Winterbourne View scandal: Government rethinks use of hospitals.  Norman Lamb said “”We need to have a situation where people who run care organisations – public or private sector or voluntary – know that they are accountable for the services they provide and there are consequences if they don’t.”  You can’t argue with that so let’s home he brings about accountability.  Read more here.

12 December 2012: Copthorne, Sussex – Care home boss suspended over death of patient.  A care home manager has been suspended by the Nursing and Midwifery Council over allegations she shredded a document to cover up a mistake which led to the death of a resident. The resident of  Orchid View care home in Copthorne was given three times the prescribed dosage of Warfarin, a drug used to prevent blood clots, over 17 days in 2010. Read more here.

12 December 2012: Stockton care home boss denies a catalogue of failures.  Meal times at the home were “appallingly organised” and 15 out of 17 patients  lost weight over a one-month period, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.  Read more here.

12 December 2012: York care home warned to make urgent improvements.  The Care Quality Commission has issued a formal warning to Mimosa Healthcare (No 4) Limited, which is the registered provider of Birchlands Care Home, that they are failing to protect the safety and welfare of the people using the service.  Read more here.

12 December 2012: Wall Heath care home told to shape up or face enforcement action.  The Care Quality Commision (CQC) is demanding an improvement in the standards of care at Holbeche House after inspectors found failings during an unannounced visit in October.  The Wolverhampton Road home, which is run by Four Seasons (Bamford) Limited, was found to be below standards for the care and welfare of service users and assessing and monitoring the quality of services.  Andrea Gordon, deputy director of operations (central region) for CQC, said: “The law says these are the standards that everyone should be able to expect. Providers have a duty to ensure they are compliant.  Read more here.

12 December 2012: Nurse at Rodborough care home slept with vulnerable female patient and invited another to swingers’ parties. Trevor Rice, a senior triage mental health nurse at Park House Mental Health Resource Centre, was formally removed from his post by a Nursing and Midwifery Council disciplinary committee on November 23.   Read more here.

12 December 2012: A bungling nurse who was cleared to work in Sussex despite making a number of shocking errors is being investigated for a second time.   Nicanor Sindanum made national headlines after he was allowed to continue to work as a nurse despite being found guilty of 17 serious errors by a nursing panel while working in Scotland.   In June this year a nine-month banning order imposed by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) in September 2011 was revoked and replaced with conditions of practice order.  This meant that, despite his failings, Sindanum was allowed to start work for an Eastbourne care home so long as he told bosses that he had restrictions placed on him. But now it has emerged that Sindanum faces a second investigation for alleged failings dating from 2009.  Read more here.

13 December 2012: Slyne-with-Hest, Lancashire – Four people have been charged with offences under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 following a police investigation into the mistreatment of residents at a care home in Slyne.  Read more here.

13 December 2012: Wales – More should be done to reduce Wales’ reliance on using care homes as a way to look after older people, says a group of Assembly Members.  The assembly’s health committee has backed moves to help people keep their independence for as long as possible. Families need simple and accessible information about the options available for elderly relatives, it said. It pointed out that many elderly people who pay for their own care were unaware of the help available to them.  Read more here.

13 December 202: Panshanger, Welwyn, Herts -Massive arrogance’ jibe as ‘out of scale’ care home plans thrown out.  Read more here.

13 December 2012: Morpeth, Northumberland – Coroner hits out at care of woman in Morpeth home.  Mr Brown, recording a narrative verdict, yesterday concluded the fall “did  play a part” in Mrs McEwan’s death as the fractured femur caused immobility  which made her more susceptible to the fatal complaint. The coroner also found three serious failures in the care of Mrs McEwan.

He ruled senior carer Stephanie Wilson had left Mrs McEwan’s bed in an  elevated position, moments before she fell while trying to get into it.

Furthermore, Mr Brown said staff had failed by phoning a doctor’s surgery  instead of an ambulance after the fall, even though Mrs McEwan was in obvious  pain and in need of such care immediately.

Finally, the coroner said workers had been wrong to lift Mrs McEwan back on  the bed, saying they should have left her where she was comfortable until the  ambulance arrived.

Mr Brown nevertheless accepted that staff had been misguided and in need of  better training rather than motivated by malice.  Read more here.

13 December 2012: Croydon  – Are Croydon care homes up to the job of looking after borough’s most vulnerable?  Nearly a third of care homes in the south of the borough are failing patients and residents in one or more key standard, an Advertiser investigation has found.

Campaigners for better care say the findings paint a “dire” picture for sick and elderly people at a time when savings in care provision are set to be enforced.

Among those that are failing in one or more key standard are homes which charge elderly people up to £800 a week.

Stuart Routledge, chief executive of Age UK Croydon, said: “It is appalling that any nursing home should fail to protect the dignity and respect of their patients and residents.

“This survey underpins the urgency for social care funding reform so that those older people who struggle daily with chronic ill health, frailty and disability have the peace of mind that they will be well cared for at their time of need.

“In particular, this shows the dire consequences of a social care system that has been under increasing financial pressure over the last eight years and in many areas is now financially stripped to the bone.

“Staff across health and care services have a professional and moral duty to make sure the dignity of their patients and residents is enshrined in every action. This means involving people in decisions about their care, providing care that treats people with respect and helping people to be as independent possible.”

Read more here.

Social workers are revolting

Social workers are distraught about the portrayal of social work in Eastenders.  The storyline concerns young Lola, and her baby Lexi, who was removed from her mother’s care by a social worker.

1. Social workers outraged by EastEnders storyline about baby Lexi – more here
“The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) is engaged in a battle with the BBC over a storyline in EastEnders.

Last Friday, the TV soap featured a social worker removing a baby from a teenage mother, Lola, apparently without sufficient grounds to do so.

The BASW immediately condemned the plot. It accused BBC producers of being “too lazy and arrogant” to get their portrayal of the child protection process right.’

2. Fury over Eastenders’ ‘misleading’ social work storyline  – more here

‘An Eastenders plot line has sparked outrage among social workers who have criticised the BBC for misrepresenting their work and putting children at risk.’

I’m not quite sure how 5 minutes (approx)  in total of a fictional TV soap can be seen to be ‘putting children at risk’ but I’ll no doubt get the message eventually.

3. ‘Eastenders’ portrayal of social work left me in tears’  – more here
‘I am sure I am not the only one to feel aggrieved by last Friday’s Eastenders social work story line, not least because accurate procedures were not followed [when a character’s baby was taken away]. Was it police protection, section 20? Where was the immediate risk to the baby? As a social worker, I was in tears, as was a colleague of mine, watching how our profession was portrayed on television.

As a result, I sent a complaint to the BBC ….’

Stick with me – it gets worse.

4. The British Association of Social Workers: – more here
Eastenders demonising social workers – BASW leads fight back
‘BASW has sprung to the defence of the social work profession after being inundated by complaints from members about an EastEnders storyline involving care leaver Lola Pearce having her baby removed by an oppressive social worker Trish Barnes, played by Tessa Churchard.’
‘Commenting on the portrayal Bridget Robb, acting chief executive British Association of Social Workers said: “It is disgraceful to see a publicly funded broadcaster deliberately spreading misinformation about the child protection process because it is too lazy and arrogant to get it right. We regularly give advice to programmes about social work storylines; we would like to know who advised EastEnders so badly.” ‘

Having just watched the episode in question, I wish the social workers in my life had been as harmless as the Eastenders’ social worker character, but more importantly as ‘kind and caring’ as the BASW seems to think they all are in real life.

Eastenders is a soap. It is fiction! Remember,  nobody is suggesting that social workers are all ‘lazy and arrogant’ on occasion/sometimes/frequently/often, are they?  Yet, the BBC scriptwriters are lazy and arrogant, according to BASW.

The reaction from social workers and from the BASW has done more damage to their cause than did the Eastenders episodes.

“Eastenders’ shabby portrayal of an entire profession has made a tough job even tougher”, writes BASW acting Chief Executive.  Talk about over-egging the pudding.  This is a portrayal of one single fictional social worker – not an entire profession – in a TV soap.  It’s not a documentary.

“BASW is also urging all social workers to vote against Eastenders in the National TV Awards, unless the programme’s producers can demonstrate a proper understanding of why the portrayal has invited such concern among social workers.”  Is that a mature response to a problem, or is it a childish foot-stamping reaction?

BASW quotes a whole load of abusive Tweets about the Eastenders episode in question – without providing any evidence of the reasons for those tweets, or the background of ‘who’ tweeted ‘what’ – but if it’s in the best interests of BASW, that makes it OK, does it?  Not in my view.

Perhaps BASW doesn’t need evidence.

Perhaps BASW and social workers really are lazy and arrogant.

Perhaps BASW and social workers have memory problems – they seem to spout the same ‘excuses’ when it comes to criticism of their profession, even when that criticism comes from Judges.

As here  just a couple of years ago.   ‘Courts distrust evidence from social workers.  Judges delay decisions in urgent cases affecting vulnerable children to hear from other experts, says report.  Courts are refusing applications to take children into care because some members of the judiciary hold social workers in such low esteem that they do not trust their evidence, it will be claimed this week in a major study.’

If social workers and the BASW want a realistic portrayal of a social worker on TV, they might be more than horrified.  Their shiny self- image might be seriously tarnished.  I’d even volunteer to write an episode or three!

To all those social workers who have been reduced to tears by about 5 minutes in total (so far) of a fictional portrayal of social work, my message to you is that I would like you all to be reduced to tears as often as I’ve been by the real-life actions of social services.    

Arrogant and lazy in the extreme were the social workers in my life.  Manipulating and re-writing their ‘paperwork’, and doing so on the instructions of their Team Leader who instructed them to make sure it was ‘watertight’.   He accidentally sent me a copy of his internal email – and also of the massive legal advice he’d had to seek to allow him to validate (not!)  his despicable actions.  Making decisions about a mature person, vulnerable because of her dementia – decisions made totally against the Mental Capacity Act 2005, hence the need for the paperwork to be re-written and waterproofed, on the instruction of their Boss.

Making decisions in a ward round that had long-lasting and devastating consequences for my relative – even though they had been warned by me about the possible consequences of the abuse of their powers of social services.

I used the words “if you do that, she will die”.  I was right.  They were wrong.

It took me years to get an explanation and a half-hearted apology from the Team Leader who was no ‘new kid on the block’’  He’d been around the block many times by the time his destructive power entered my life.

Apology?  I use that word loosely, but it went along the lines of the fact that the Mental Capacity Act is enormously difficult to understand, even for (so-called) professionals.  It included words like ‘new to this’, and ‘challenged’ but ignoring important matters like failing to do the decent thing, failing to consult properly with family, making decisions and fabricating paperwork to match his despicable directives.

It’s taken me more than 5 years to deal with the consequences of those decisions too – and my ‘dealing’ with it all is still serious, still ongoing and yes, I’ve shed more than a few tears over those 5 years.

The social workers in my life, and in the life of my relative, all colluded and contributed to the serious decline and unkind death of one gentle harmless kind individual.  Such was their arrogance; so great was their intransigence; so incompetent were they all.

That’s what I call shabby, irresponsible, despicable social work.

I won’t be shedding a single tear over the fictional portrayal of one fictional  social worker in Eastenders.

The BASW and its many social workers shouldn’t be shedding tears either.  They should all grow up and act responsibly and honestly, rather than hide behind their tears.

Bet you all that one single droplet of my tears is far more genuine than your accumulated and congealed tears.

Care UK & private equity & The Guardian

Every now and then you come across something that just takes your breath away.  Even though you may have been a Grauniad (sic!) reader since the age of 16, when you were first required to tell your English teacher which newspapers you had read each single day of the school  week.  Yes, I am old enough to know all about that – thanks to Miss Edwards!

This piece by Kirsty Scott in the Guardian has done just that.  It has rendered me breathless and speechless, almost.  Is this a journalist writing as only a journalist should be required to do – as a free spirit (*ish!!) remembering the need to earn a living and to pay the family bills, yet at the same time not selling her/his soul.  Not governed by anything other than the real free spirit of journalism.

Or is this someone acting as a paid promoter for Care UK?  Promoting private equity to boot!!!

I would dearly love to open the closed eyes of anyone who falls for this kind of promo.

Care UK killed my own relative within 10 days of arrival in a Care UK care home.

How did Care UK manage (for want of a better word) to do that?

Because Care UK had absolutely no systems in place to provide the kind of caring care that one 83 year old required – let alone the other residents, some of whom were younger and in far less need of care, and some were older in greater need of care.

I’m only talking about 3 years ago too, so don’t get the wrong impression of my anger at Kirsty Scott’s article.

Without permission, Kirsty Scott,  I bin your report.  I am not impressed.

As for the Guardian’s Social Care section  …. …. ……. it has been binned also.

Appeal court ruling clears way for councils to cut social care services

This Appeal Court ruling – reported here in The Guardian –  scares the hell out of me.  If this is called ‘care’ then show me the way to go home!  I’m tired of what we now perceive as being a caring way to provide care.

Local councils have been given the green light by the courts to cut social care services to elderly and disabled people previously assessed by law as needing them.

In a test case involving care support for a woman who was one of Britain’s leading ballerinas, the appeal court ruled that Kensington and Chelsea council in west London acted lawfully and reasonably in withdrawing some services to save money.

The judgment could affect services to hundreds of thousands of vulnerable adults, including care at home, meals-on-wheels, escorted transport and places at day centres.

Luke Clements, professor of law at Cardiff University and a leading expert on care legislation, described the judgment as “chilling”. He said: “There are two problems with this approach: one, a narrow legal one and the other that it is an indictment of any society that lays claim to be civilised.”

We should take no comfort from this cost-cutting undignified uncaring careless care.  If we do, then we have definitely lost any way to claim to be civilised.

Care home residents died from ‘severe neglect’

Will it never end? Will lessons never be learned?  Will we never be able to guarantee quality care in care homes?

Please tell me what more we have to do?

Guardian.co.uk carries this horrific story of neglect.

“Five elderly residents of a failing care home who died within two weeks of each other had suffered “severe neglect”, an official inquiry has concluded.

The residents of Parkside House nursing home in Northampton died between 22 July and 6 August, 2009. They were aged between 83 and 100.

A serious case review into the deaths, published today, described standards of care at Parkside as appalling. It said signs of a rapid decline in standards at the home in the weeks before the first resident died had not been picked up.

At a press conference, it was disclosed that there was a lack of basic care, including ensuring residents had enough to eat and drink.

Verdicts of natural causes were recorded in all five deaths, but the review found they died from causes that “were considered to be consistent with the effects of severe neglect”.

Seven members of staff and the owner of the home were referred to the Nursing and Midwifery Council by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).”

The home had been inspected in November 2008.

The review said Parkside House’s CQC registration was for people suffering from dementia and long-standing mental illness. “However by July 2009 it is clear that they were actually looking after people with those needs plus considerable physical and nutritional needs that they simply could not manage.”

What is the point of inspections if they fail to connect?  If only the CQC would talk to and listen to the relatives of people with dementia – many of whom are at the end of their tether trying to achieve an acceptable standard of care for their loved ones with dementia – tragedies of this kind would no longer be happening.  But the CQC, and its predecessor, and local authorities and social services – to name but a few – seem to bend over backwards to ignore the pleas that come from family, but bend over backwards to preserve and protect the inefficient care industry.

BBC News has just picked up the same story.

At the risk of sounding trite, if these atrocities were happening to animals, there would be a public riot.

Mr Cameron, are we all in this together too?  Or is it just vulnerable elderly people with dementia who are in it?

Mr Cameron, you said today at your Conference “Fairness means giving people what they deserve“. 

Mr Cameron, be fair, then, and give elderly people in residential care the good care they deserve.  Otherwise your words are meaningless,.

The systems of protection need to change overnight.

Systems of protection need to be created.

The Coalition Government’s plans to privatise the NHS

A miscellany of comments on the Coalition’s plans to privatise the NHS by stealth and deception:

Seumas Milne writes in the Guardian: We cannot allow the end of the NHS in all but name. “In reality, Lansley’s health white paper opens the door to the comprehensive privatisation of healthcare and the end of the NHS as a national service.”  “The bottom line of this is the abolition of the NHS,” Dr David Price of Edinburgh University argues. “It will remove the government’s duty to provide a universal healthcare service.” His colleague, Professor Allyson Pollock, believes it will lead to “full privatisation”.”

Unison, Unite, Allyson Pollock and David Price, Denis Campbell of the Guardian , Martin Rathfelder of the Socialist Health Association all fear the same bleak future for the NHS – they can’t all be wrong, can they?

Essex County Council is having talks with Chelmsford-based Care UK about the fears local people have as a result of the budget cuts.

The Taxpayers’ Alliance Town Hall Rich List puts Essex County Council chief executive Joanna Killian on £265,000 a year – the highest-paid council boss in the country – so they’re watching closely.

Crop of the North – who describes himself as a lad from the North West sticks – asks What are they doing to our country? : “So the polite formalities have been done away with and the Tory Democrats are instigating a new period of Class War. We’ve already had the ‘get on your bike’ rhetoric, so consider this an extension in awfulness – new government, new politics folks!”

And suddenly, you’re reminded that there are a few MPs who care – so thanks Barbara Keeley – MP for Worsley and Eccles South – for introducing a Bill to Parliament to improve support for carers. “In Salford, nearly one quarter of unpaid carers are caring for more than 50 hours per week. Caring at this level takes a toll on the health of the carers, who are twice as likely to suffer ill health as other carers. Those caring for someone suffering from dementia or stroke disease are even more at risk of increased ill-health.  It is vital that GPs identify all such carers and offer them health checks and refer them for advice and support.” Good luck, I really wish you the very best of luck with your initiative.  It is long overdue, especially in the world of dementia care.

I wonder whether the same care will be found in all those companies who are waiting, panting, with their tongues out, for the opportunity to gobble up the bounty of the contracts soon to be made available via local authorities and in the privatised NHS, courtesy of the Coalition government.

Said it before, and I’ll say it again: we are surprised by and disappointed in you, Nick Clegg.  We are not surprised by but disappointed in you, David Cameron.  I hope you don’t get away with this savage attack.  No wonder you got together and arranged a secret “you can’t throw us out for years to come” pact.  Watch this space!