Letby Inquiry: Safeguarding boss Alison Kelly ‘had good intentions’

The head of safeguarding at the hospital where Lucy Letby killed babies has told a public inquiry she had “good intentions”, despite failing to escalate concerns about the nurse.

Alison Kelly was director of nursing and executive lead for safeguarding at the Countess of Chester Hospital when Letby murdered seven infants and tried to kill seven others.

Senior consultant Dr Stephen Brearey told Ms Kelly in May 2016 that there were concerns about Letby’s links to unexplained deaths on the unit, the inquiry heard.

However Ms Kelly said at the time she “just didn’t see it as a safeguarding concern”.

The Thirlwall Inquiry, which is examining how Letby was able to commit her crimes, heard Ms Kelly did not submit a safeguarding referral to the local safeguarding board until March 2018.

Giving evidence at Liverpool Town Hall, Ms Kelly said: “There was no articulation of the actual issues, nobody had seen her do anything.

“There was terms used like ‘gut feeling’ and ‘drawer of doom’ which didn’t pinpoint any issues to do with Letby, so on the basis of that, I didn’t have any facts or evidence that I could base my decisions on.”

Barrister Nicholas de la Poer KC, counsel to the inquiry, asked why Ms Kelly did not report the concerns raised by doctors to NHS England in July 2016.

She said the decision not to do so “was a really fine balance” and she saw the concerns reported by doctors as “hearsay”.

However, she accepted that looking back, it was a safeguarding issue and she should have treated it as such.

“But neither did anybody else,” Ms Kelly said.

“I take my duties very, very seriously… but I was still relying on the teams from the unit upwards to bring any safeguarding concerns to me and nobody did.”

Mr de la Poer asked if she was “deliberately” trying to “withhold” information about someone possibly harming babies.

Ms Kelly replied: “No, as I have said, on reflection there were actions that I didn’t get right but the actions I did take were done with good intentions.”

The inquiry heard Ms Kelly’s safeguarding referral came in March 2018, almost a year after Cheshire Police were first called to investigate unexplained deaths and collapses on the unit.

Ms Kelly accepted the referral was “not detailed enough”.

Mr de la Poer asked: “Is it because you had a feeling of hostility towards the consultants and you didn’t think the police investigation was going anywhere?”

Ms Kelly said: “That’s not true.”

Before questioning began, Ms Kelly asked to make a statement to the inquiry in which she expressed her condolences to all of the families affected.

“I’m really sorry for all the distress they’ve experienced over the last few years and are currently experiencing as we sit here today,” she said.

“I didn’t get everything right at the time, however the decisions I made were done with the best intentions.”

Letby, then 34, was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others, including two attempts on one infant, between June 2015 and June 2016.

She is serving 15 whole life sentences.

The public inquiry is now in its 11th week and is expected to sit until early 2025.

Its findings will likely be published in autumn next year.