THE former manager of a scandal-hit care home exposed on national TV has won an unfair dismissal claim in Newcastle.

Liz White, acting manager of Chesterholme care home in Hexham, Northumberland from October 2010 to February 2012, was also registered manager of Winterbourne View private hospital in South Gloucestershire before a BBC Panorama probe in May 2011 revealed serious abuse of vulnerable mental health patients there.

Owners Castlebeck Care suspended Ms White a year ago and following disciplinary hearings and an appeal, upheld her dismissal for “management and operational failures”.

But Castlebeck failed to supply important documents which deprived Ms White of a fair hearing, an industrial tribunal in Newcastle has ruled.

However, although Ms White’s sacking was “procedurally unfair”, Employment Judge David Hesselberth ruled that her own failures made her 50% responsible for her own dismissal.

Ms White transferred to Hexham in October 2010, and was manager at Chesterholme when police and care chiefs found evidence of ill treatment of a mental care patient which led to the conviction and imprisonment of a 24-year-old care worker.

However, the dismissal letter to Ms White said there were “no substantive issues at Chesterholme justifying disciplinary action”, although there was “an unsatisfactory state of affairs on certain aspects of cleanliness and food service”.

The disciplinary action related to her time at Winterbourne View as well as Arden Vale in Birmingham, where Ms White managed for 11 months from June 2007 to May 2008 before transferring to Winterbourne. There was no suggestion that she was ever involved in the abuse of patients.

Six Winterbourne care workers were last year sent to jail and five more given suspended sentences.

When appointed acting manager at Chesterholme in Hexham, Ms White remained as registered manager of Winterbourne View, where in March 2010 she had reported suspicions of drug-taking among staff to management, though no action was taken.

On October 11, 2010, long-serving charge nurse Terry Bryan sent Ms White’s successor as manager, Jim Fazarally, a whistle-blowing email on the state of affairs at Winterbourne View.

And in May 2011 an undercover reporter who secured a work post at Winterbourne View filmed the Panorama expose which shocked the nation.

On February 6, 2012, Ms White was suspended on full pay amid Care Quality Commission concerns over her registration at Winterbourne.

A disciplinary hearing in April 2012 then said she had to be held accountable for failures at Arden Vale and Winterbourne View, though not at Chesterholme in Hexham.

Ms White appealed, claiming information had been withheld from her and that Castlebeck HR director Sue Browell’s report was “inaccurate and misleading”.

When Castlebeck Chief Operating Officer Simon Harrison upheld the dismissal on May 22, 2012, his comment that she “should have been dismissed earlier” meant he could not have had an open mind, the Newcastle tribunal ruled.

Ms White was represented by Newcastle-based Employment law barrister Antoine Tinnion.

The tribunal judgement ruled: “There was a considerable amount of evidence by way of documentation which was not provided to the claimant during the disciplinary process and the claimant was entitled to that evidence.

“There was no good reason for non-disclosure and the claimant suffered serious prejudice as a result.

“Ms Browell’s investigation was inadequate and ... the belief in the claimant’s guilt could not be reasonable.

“The appeal process was flawed and prejudged in that Mr Harrison in his statement (said) “the company should have dismissed her sooner”.

However, the tribunal judgement added: “It is accepted that there was a chance that the claimant would have been dismissed had a fair disciplinary procedure been used.”

In cross-examination, Ms White agreed she had to accept “her share of responsibility”. The tribunal said Ms White contributed to her own dismissal as there was “sufficient and unequivocal evidence” of managerial failure.

The portion of contributory blame was put at 50% – and the percentage chance that Ms White would have been dismissed under a fair procedure was also put at 50%. A remedies hearing will now be arranged to decide compensation.

In the aftermath of the tribunal, Darlington-based Castlebeck Care issued a statement which said they were pursuing a “zero-tolerance” policy on performance issues.

Chief Operating Officer Simon Harrison said: “We have publicly promised to treat any performance issues with zero-tolerance and that is exactly what we are doing. It is an intrinsic and necessary part of our policies for providing good and safe care to those who use our services.”

In the past 18 months the new board and management at Castlebeck says it has made a number of significant changes to ensure the quality of care is “the best it can possibly be” and that services are “appropriately and professionally managed”.