Professor Jean MacLellan to lead Margaret Fleming inquiry
The Inverclyde Health & Social Care Partnership has announced that Professor Jean MacLellan OBE will head up the independent inquiry into the circumstances leading up to the tragic death of Margaret Fleming.
The inquiry, known as a Significant Case Review (SCR), will examine the role of all the agencies that were involved with Margaret and the circumstances that led to her death. A SCR is normally held when a person involved with health and social care services has died or suffered significant harm.
In Margaret Fleming’s case the Significant Case Review is a joint Adult Protection Committee and Child Protection Committee review.
A spokesperson for the Inverclyde Health & Social Care Partnership said, “We have now appointed Professor Jean Maclellan OBE to head up the Significant Case Review (SCR). The inquiry’s first planning meeting is scheduled for February. This will be a full, independent inquiry which will include all the agencies which were involved with Margaret during her life. The final report will be published when it is complete. We expect that this will take some six months.
“We have always been very clear that there would be a rigorous inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Margaret Fleming’s tragic death. However, the legal process had to run its course first. We were advised by the Procurator Fiscal that the inquiry couldn’t start until the trial of Edward Cairney and Avril Jones, and any subsequent appeals, were complete.
“A key area for the SCR team will be to uncover any lessons that are to be learned from the extensive cover up carried out by Edward Cairney and Avril Jones to hide their appalling treatment of Margaret, while she was in their care, and the murder that they subsequently committed.”
The SCR’s final report will be sent to the Care Inspectorate. It evaluates all Significant Case Reviews and reports publicly on their findings to provide the public with an independent check on the quality of the services that are provided for children, young people and adults.
Significant Case Reviews are intended to make sure that awareness about how vulnerable people have come to harm is widely shared and to promote improvements in child and adult protection across the country.