"The accident is a tragedy and our thoughts are with the boy, his parents and relatives. We take the incident and criticism very seriously," says Ulrik Bonnevier, Regional Manager at Humana.
Humana and all of its operations should always focus on providing children with a safe environment in our care. We must never compromise on quality or safety. Humana has competence, procedures and facilities adapted to provide children and young people with safe and secure care. So what happened should indeed never have happened, and yet it tragically did.
"Since the accident occurred, extensive work is underway to investigate the incident. We have initiated our own Lex Sarah investigation. The Health and Social Care Inspectorate (IVO) is also investigating the operations and we are cooperating fully. In addition, prosecutors have opened a preliminary investigation into involuntary manslaughter. The Lex Sarah investigation and the preliminary investigation are very important in order to clarify events, responsibility and how similar occurrences will be prevented in the future," says Ulrik Bonnevier.
Within Humana's HVB operations, we work with children and young people with very challenging life situations, who act out, are self-harming or have other problems and who need special treatment and care. We offer municipalities support through accommodation with high staff density, specialist expertise and often operations in specially adapted premises. Our focus is always to provide the children and young people who are placed with us, a safe and secure environment. We will always put the children and quality first in our operations.
Swedish media has also criticised the fact that individual municipalities have been billed as much as SEK 22,000 per day. Our operations require high staffing because we take care of children who come from challenging life situations, are who act out, are self-harming and in need of special support. Such a high remuneration is exceptional and is most likely due to the fact that we have not been able to accommodate more than one child in the care home at the same time. The average price is therefore high, but it is significantly lower than this amount. Of course, staffing and routines should always be based on contracts and the needs of the individual children, and if anything shows the opposite, it is unacceptable.
"When it comes to Platea’s operations in Hagfors, the focus since the accident has been on securing the well-being and care of the other children placed in the unit. A crisis organisation is established to support the operations and the children. IVO has decided to temporarily close the unit at Platea and also an adjacent unit during the time that IVO investigates the operations. Since then, all our focus has been on supporting municipalities in finding safe relocations for the children in a very short period of time," says Ulrik Bonnevier.
For more information, please contact
Patrik Silverudd
Press Manager
+46 766 112 111
patrik.silverudd@humana.se