PCT director jailed for CV lies
A former primary care trust director has been jailed for lying on his CV.
Lee Joseph Whitehead, 44, of White End Park, Bucks, was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison for lying to employers including Stoke on Trent PCT.
He claimed he had a BSc in psychology, an MSc in clinical psychology and a doctorate in psychology. He also said he was a chartered psychologist with full membership of the British Psychological Society.
Fraud
An investigation by the NHS Counter Fraud Service - prompted shortly after Mr Whitehead was hired by Stoke on Trent as director of planning and service modernisation in January 2007 - discovered he actually only held the BSc.
The service said he had also made the claims on applications going back to June 2003, including one to his previous employer Vale of Aylesbury PCT, where he worked as a director for nearly two years.
Risks to patients
NHS Counter Fraud Service head of operations Allan Carter said: "It is particularly unacceptable when those qualifications are of a clinical nature. This could cause real risks to the care of patients.
"It also devalues the hard work and effort put in by those people who have taken the time and trouble to obtain genuine qualifications.
"We have well established procedures and can check with previous employers and educational bodies to find the truth.
Alarm bells
"This should ring alarm bells with others that have made false claims on their CVs and where there is evidence we will always seek to bring a criminal prosecution."
Mr Carter said: "I would urge all health bodies to undertake robust pre-employment checks regardless of the previous roles people claim to have done."
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Readers' comments (19)
Anonymous | 7-Jan-2009 2:24 pm
This near miss underlines the pressing need to ensure that HR processes are properly and centrally managed to assure the correct processes are dealt with regarding the employment of all staff.
Lying on CV's is in my 30 years experience relatively common in varying degrees. The decentralising of good administration - the core purpose of HR, has placed us all as employers and consumers - at significant risk.
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Philip Bell | 7-Jan-2009 2:42 pm
Perhaps it is time to set up a recognised body like the GMC for Drs or the NMC for nurses and midwives to verify all qualifications for managers over a certain grade. Once of course verified will save all HR departments from having to do routine searches and save institutions the hassle of having to respond each time someone moves jobs
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Anonymous | 7-Jan-2009 3:03 pm
One wonders how he will account for the 12 week gap in employment on his CV. Rehabilitation?
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Anonymous | 7-Jan-2009 3:47 pm
Good lad - we all do it!
Unlucky though
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Dermot Ryan | 7-Jan-2009 3:52 pm
Most of my colleagues think that this is an essential qualification to become a PCT manager/director. After all it is part of their daily activities.
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Salman Rawaf | 7-Jan-2009 3:57 pm
It is now the right time that all CEOs, Directors and Associate Directors should obtain a full accreditation and registration with a recognised professional body similar to the GMC, GDC etc before applying to any post at that level in the NHS. This is the only way to ensure that these people are competent to do the job and the public can trust them in managing their health services.
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Salman Rawaf | 7-Jan-2009 3:57 pm
It is now the right time that all CEOs, Directors and Associate Directors should obtain a full accreditation and registration with a recognised professional body similar to the GMC, GDC etc before applying to any post at that level in the NHS. This is the only way to ensure that these people are competent to do the job and the public can trust them in managing their health services.
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Anonymous | 7-Jan-2009 11:20 pm
Good and I bet he isn't the only lying director at that level!
No wonder this institute provides a sub optimal level of service particularly to the most vulnerable people in our society..........
Mmmmmm I wonder how many so called directors and CEO's ever did or were just put in place because they were in a particular circle or network....yes and thats most of them! So much for following propper employment and recrutiment protocol....its a total farce!
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Anonymous | 8-Jan-2009 0:36 am
Why stop at CV checks?
How about checking whether they put in a full days work and the correct leave days are taken?
Competency for the role - agree re accreditation.
How are about starting at basic level and making sure that all at senior levels are computer literate to ensure efficiency.
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Mahamed Ally Soodin | 8-Jan-2009 2:51 pm
I have worked in the NHS for over 25 years and nothing surprises me. Let me tell Mr Whitehead that he can have my BSc(Hons), MSc, MBA, PhD and part ACCA as well as my clinical qualification because they are all of no use to me. I can NOT even secure a cleaning post with them in the NHS. This is because I am a BLACK man. All my life while applying for NHS jobs I had to hide my qualifications. If I do not show my qualifications, I am under qualified and when I show them, then I am over-qualified. The cowards refuse to acknowledge that they are racists.
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Anonymous | 8-Jan-2009 3:37 pm
If I'm honest, I'm more disapponted by most of the responses than the content of the article itself. They don't seem to reflect an intelligent professionalism expected here.
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Anonymous | 8-Jan-2009 5:41 pm
This situation saddens me. I worked with Lee Whitehead for a short time in his last post. He worked very hard for the PCT and introduced structure to the Directorate when it was much needed. I agree he was foolish to falsify information on his CV, which is a case for counter fraud, but I do not believe he was incompetent. It really highlights the need for public bodies to be consistently rigorous and accountable in their appointments processes. I have a general concern that the heavy focus on graduate qualifications in the Agenda for Change person specs may tempt people to falsify information in order to be short-listed for more senior jobs. Is there a need to better evaluate competence and qualification equivalents? Perhaps the approval body for senior NHS managers, as proposed by another reader, has a role here.
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Patrick Newman | 8-Jan-2009 10:19 pm
In 2002/3 the Camden and Islington PCT’s and the Mental Health Trust secretly jointly appointed a Director of IT who was subsequently found to have made a false qualifications claim. No proper checks were made. I was subject for 9 months to a disciplinary ’investigation’ for alleged mishandling of what was a corrupt C.V. but which lead to NHS Fraud investigating his claims.
At no time during those 9 months did anyone check his qualifications. I resigned rather than subject myself to a contrived hearing. The Director was eventually sacked but the incident was not made public to protect the hapless and incompetent.
Who was the person who pursued me – David Lee who occasionally writes for HSJ in the ‘Good Management’ section?
People who obtain positions of profit through fraudulent means should be treated as criminals and prosecuted according to the scale of the offence.
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MEENA PATEL | 8-Jan-2009 10:24 pm
The whole recruitment process should be tightened up and should apply to ALL levels of staff nationwide. I have noticed in my 25 years of service, that when admin and clerical staff are appointed, managers are advised by HR to ask to view certificates, check that references tally up and question any gaps in employment etc. However when clinical staff (consultants) are appointed or Executives appointed, it all seems to be done word of mouth, so called "sherry parties" and Medical Staffing seem to loosen the reign. So much for Equal Opportunities. What Mr Whitehead has done was wrong and examples need to be set. Let's hope others learn from this.
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Anonymous | 9-Jan-2009 9:54 am
My many years in the NHS and in the public service have convinced me that if you expect things to be fair, you will be sadly disappointed. Some people are malicious, some make mistakes, some are genuinely caring and some will do anything to further their personal careers with no particular concern for patients or the greater good. Often we are mixture of all of these. Praise and blame are attributed often where it is most expedient for politicians and managers to do so. Some go to prison as a result of making bad decisions under the pressure they have been put under by their superiors. Others are promoted. Some are knighted. It's all a bit arbitrary.
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Anonymous | 9-Jan-2009 9:49 pm
I too worked with Lee Whitehead for many years both in his capacity as a Senior Manager for Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority and most recently when he worked as a Director for Vale of Aylesbury PCT (then Bucks PCT).
I too found him to be highly competent at his role and he always showed great leadership. It is worth noting that he went through the CPLNHS process for Directors and was considered to be above the bar. My recollection of the process was that this was based on the ability of current directors and not on academic qualifications. As per the other reader who responded, I too believe that the senseless requirement of academic qualifications may have driven some people to embelish their CVs, not that I condone such actions.
Agenda for Change places such importance in academia that it ignores individuals with a wealth of NHS experience and clinical qualifications, maybe that is why a number of organisations continue to fail monumentally in delivery and financial terms (e.g. Buckinghamshire PCT).
I only hope that former colleagues of Lee will have some humility and support him in his hour of need!
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Anonymous | 10-Jan-2009 1:51 am
I'm disappointed to hear people defending this - fraud is fraud. Yes, AfC has a strong focus on academic qualifications, but there's a reason for this - regardless of how experienced you are, there's still a tonne you can learn. I did an MSc solely to gain a piece of paper for my CV, but ended up humbled by how much I discovered that I *didn't* know. No matter how good Lee Whitehead was 'on the job', he would have been a lot *more* effective if he had have actually gained the qualifications he claimed.
Anyone - at any level - who thinks they don't have anything to learn from a formal qualification is fooling themselves. Forging the qualification is just an attempt to fool others as well.
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Anonymous | 10-Jan-2009 7:33 pm
With reference to Meena Patel's comments on the checking of clinical staff qualifications, whilst I can't comment on where she works I can on the area I do and the surrounding areas and I can assure her all succesful applicants, for medical posts, registrations, criminal records and GMC are checked and any issues of concern are followed up. They are also required to sign a 'fitness to pratcice' decleration. Why she would think medical staffing are 'soft' on this I have no idea but maybe she is thinking of a bygone age?
The same cannot be said of non clinically qualified senior managers and it is about time some sort of registration system is introduced for them. We still are dealing with a mentality from the Thatcher years that dictated anyone could manage in the NHS. The truth is they can't and have a very steep learning curve.
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Anonymous | 13-Jan-2009 2:02 am
12 weeks which should mean serving half the sentence of 6 weeks/1.5 months.
I have complained to the Government at the end of 2008 about two criminals convicted of being in possession of firearms illegally who on the same half rule will serve 20 to 22 months each. Sentencing policy mmmmm
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