Ed Davey accuses care home trustee of embezzlement amid watchdog inquiry

"It's been revealed that a trustee of William Blake House, a care home for adults with profound disabilities, embezzled £1m. There are very few homes in the country that offer this sort of care and now it faces closure. As a father of a disabled son myself can I tell the prime minister that this situation is one of my worst nightmares, and it's one of the worst nightmares of many parents with disabled adult children."

"Families of residents at the Northamptonshire-based care home raised the alarm with the authorities after discovering that it faced imminent closure after running up a 1.6m unpaid tax bill and paying its chair of trustees 1m in consultancy fees. The home, one of only a handful of specialist providers of its kind in the country, cares for 22 adults with severe learning disabilities."

William Blake House, a Northamptonshire care home serving 22 adults with severe learning disabilities, faces imminent closure following financial mismanagement and potential embezzlement. The charity has accumulated a £1.6m unpaid tax bill and paid its chair of trustees £1m in consultancy fees. The Charity Commission has launched a serious inquiry into financial mismanagement and potential misuse of funds. Families of residents have lost confidence in the board and are attempting to take over operations. The home receives over £3m annually in council and NHS funding and is one of few specialist providers offering round-the-clock care for non-verbal residents. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has called for the Charity Commission to appoint an independent board and for ministers to intervene with HMRC to prevent the charity's winding-up proceedings.

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