The solicitors at Ward Hadaway in Newcastle who drew up an non-disclosure agreement which could have prevented whistleblowers exposing concerns about North East Ambulance Service have been given an official warning by a regulator. Two solicitors at the firm have been investigated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority over a so-called "gagging clause" in agreements which were presented to two whistleblowers including Paul Calvert who had sought to expose failings at NEAS. They have now been given official warnings - though the SRA found they "had not breached their professional obligations".
The whistleblowers had attempted to raise issues related to cases where the ambulance service either did not inform coroners about investigations into deaths, or altered documentation before submitting it to coroners. NEAS accepted "historical failings" in 2022 and an NHS England commissioned report by Dame Marianne Griffiths found "leadership dysfunction" led to the issues - which critics and the families involved alleged amounted to "cover-ups". Read more: Review highlights 'leadership dysfunction' led to alleged 'cover-ups' at North East Ambulance service Keep up to date with all the latest local news from Newcastle with our free newsletter Following Dame Marianne's review, Helen Ray - the NEAS chief executive - accepted "grave errors" had been made .
Since then, the ambulance service has been working to implement a series of improvement recommendations and work with the families invol.
