Manx Care’s board decided not to pursue disciplinary action against senior social care leaders despite an independent report recommending proceedings, a Tynwald select committee has heard.
Chief Executive Teresa Cope told the committee examining whistleblowing policy implementation that the Martin Blackburn report, commissioned following serious concerns raised by staff, identified significant cultural issues within the social care directorate.
“That report did recommend that further disciplinary investigations were to be conducted against some individuals who held senior roles within social care,” Ms Cope said.
However, she confirmed the board opted against following that recommendation, noting that by the time of the report, “some of those individuals had already left the organisation”.
Difficult Time
Ms Cope identified the root cause as a cost improvement exercise in 2018, before Manx Care was established, which had removed significant numbers of senior leadership roles from social care.
“Fundamentally a lot of the challenges staff who were spoken to link back to suddenly a very significant loss of senior leadership, of organisational memory, of experience and that falling to others within the team,” she said.
The chief executive defended the board’s decision not to pursue disciplinary action against those who remained.
Our assessment on the board was it was just more important to culturally move on and to not penalise some of those individuals who I think were doing the best possible job they could under very, very difficult circumstances.”
She acknowledged the decision created tensions within the organisation.
“I think what we had at that time was a number of staff very deeply unhappy that people who they thought were not being good leaders, not supporting them, not being held to account through a disciplinary process,” Ms Cope said.
“And obviously the people who were in senior leadership feeling really disaffected by the outcomes of that report.”
The investigation stemmed from an anonymous letter sent by social care staff during Cope’s first week as chief executive in April 2021, raising significant concerns about leadership in the directorate.
The committee hearing, chaired by Julie Edge MHK, also heard that staff survey results showed only 49 per cent of staff feel safe to speak up, with 29 per cent confident concerns would be addressed.
Ms Cope said social care had been “a very unhappy place” when Manx Care began but insisted the situation had improved, citing better recruitment, reduced vacancies and improved retention figures.
The committee is examining whistleblowing policy implementation across Manx Care and government departments.
Source: Manx News, 14 February 2026
