I will be interested to see the response to this FOI - my now deceased brother resided at this residential school from 1982/3 till 1988.
I also think its disgraceful that this horror house establishment is still run as a residential school just changed the name to Talbot House and the phone number is still the same as when it was called Feversham.
Newcastle Council and Mind Charity should hang their head in shame for not protecting the vunerable children placed in Feversham.

Dear Rachele, I can well understand your strong feelings regarding the scandal of child abuse that took place at Feversham School, and the loss of your brother.

I was the social worker who blew the whistle on the abuses in 1987.
I am seriously concerned that apart from the police prosecutions there has been no proper independent investigation of what went on there and how it occurred. A number of survivors and victims want answers to their questions and I have been trying for over 3 years to get someone to investigate these matters, to no avail. It appears to me that an independent inquiry is being blocked by unknown influences.

As you will probably know a number of inquiries have taken place when historical child abuse has come to light, for example on Savile's vile abuses. I want to know what is different about the abuse at Feversham School.

Lastly the current occupation of the premises at Feversham are nothing to do with the regime where these dreadful things occurred. It is not a residential school anymore and it operates on a completely different model.

hi Ian, I remember my brother mentioning a social worker at feversham that was trying to help bring the abuse to light that must have been you.
also in 1984/85 when my brother was at home for weekend my mam got the local police to come to our house as my brother had mentioned being abused but nothing much was done he was also running away loads of times even in his bare feet and the police always came and made him go back to feversham.
I have a letter which my local MP has to summit when and if they start the independent inquiry into historic abuse.
I also have loads of questions that I would liked answered and feel that a lot of things have been swept under the carpet regarding other aspects of the overall treatment from the doctors/phychartrists there should even be video evidence of incident where my mam walked out on video of a session because she was disgusted by the way the phychologist was going on with her son.

Many of the children were not legally in the Care of the Local Authority but simply placed by Education Departments. This was also a great scandal as the Government accepted no responsibility for their care in the broader capacity that was required.

That also opens up the need to look historically at all of those children and young people who were not subject to any independent, never mind State, oversight but just 'abandoned' to these Institutions.

There must be many people who know a great deal and one can only hope that the national Inquiry will also seek to encompass Residential Establishments outside of the Care system.

Yes Philip my brother was put there as a boarder by the education authorites where he stayed there all week and came home on weekends but my mam was told either to co-operate with the educational authorites or they would take him into care and place him there anyway.
And another thing that had me baffled was why did he have to reside there when we lived locally?
But them phychologists probably wanted to use them as guinea pigs for medication as why else did they have 2 files on all the children 1 that could be shown to parents etc and 2nd confidential for there use only.
The headmaster was a alcoholic and then the residential social workers who abused the children 2 got convicted and 1 committed suicide who was employing these staff members? and then theres the issues of the physical restraints and mental abuse?
In my opinion a lot of things have been swept under the carpet there is a lot of unanswered questions that no-one wants to answer I wonder why?????????

This response from Newcastle City Council is an insult to those who suffered abuse at Feversham Schools and their loved ones. Social Services and Education both sit as full members of the Safeguarding Board and both had major roles in placing children at Feversham School. It may well be that certain staff who worked at Feversham are still active in social work and the potential issues remain very much alive still.

I hope that honesty, decency and ethics will prevail and pressure will be exerted to provide Mr Merry with the Minutes he seeks.

Another utterly disgraceful response - what has the Safeguarding Board got to hide? How can the public have any confidence in this Public Body which is not open to public scrutiny and operates as a 'secret society'? With the national Inquiry into historical Child Abuse now underway I hope that it will address the basic structures under which such Safeguarding Boards operate and press for a change in the law to make them operate openly and be accountable to the communities that they are supposed to both represent and protect.
This really exposes them for what they are, secretive, not open to public scrutiny and challenge and, above all, unwilling to justify their actions.