Mark Sanderson has left.
This is the guy who tweeted “It’s albinism not albinos, dummies” in response to a media article, after being appointed Head of Quality Improvement at Leonard Cheshire and whilst still working for Mencap. When I tweeted a challenge to him using the word “dummies” as a pejorative, he complained to his bosses, saying that he found this as unwanted and unwarranted harassment, that other staff have experienced similar and that staff should be protected from me.
His boss initially supported him, agreed that me following him and challenging him on Twitter (where he’d publicly identified himself as HoQI at Leonard Cheshire) was inappropriate and asked for (and received) permission to show the Chief Executive, but eventually made him send a weasel worded apology when I kicked off. They wrote it, and then he watered it down till he could “live with it”. Following which he deleted the tweet then denied ever making it.
Eventually, following an investigation into the handling of my complaint about his reaction to my tweet and the subsequent critical report by Leeds City Council, LCD was forced to apologise.
I must say myself and other social care service users haven’t noticed social care quality provision by the charity improve whilst he was Head of Quality Improvement (for less than two years.)
Linked In still has him down as “Successful Strategic Manager” working at Leonard Cheshire Disability. I just hope that wherever he is working, he’s got more commitment to service users, integrity, honesty and professionalism than he demonstrated with me whilst working at Leonard Cheshire.
Thanks as ever to the most excellent cartoonist, Crippen
I see from Linked In that Mark Sanderson is now head of mobility for the Guide Dogs Association. (He seems to not be aware that blocking me from seeing his Linked In profile doesn’t block anybody who isn’t logged in viewing it! – including me.) I can only hope, with forlorn difficulty, that he has learned to avoid using disablist insults, unprofessional communications about service users and to treat people with dignity and respect, as he will now no doubt be dealing face to face with his clients (and I don’t mean the guide dogs.)
He has another, apparently abandoned, Linked In profile where he modestly self-describes as an “Experienced, successful senior third sector Director and aspiring Chief Executive”. I shall lead others to consider whether his move from being (ostensibly) Head of Quality Improvement at Leonard Cheshire to Guide Dogs for the Blind’s Reading Mobility Team Manager (PDF) is evidence of his success and progression in his stated career plan.