Section 7 — Case studies

Twelve case studies in six paired sets | Approximately ninety minutes | Followed by the Final quiz

What this section is about

Each pair takes one theme and shows it twice: once as it went wrong, drawn where possible from a published inquiry, and once as it should have been handled. The paired structure is the point. A course that only shows failure teaches ministers what to fear; a course that shows failure beside its remedy teaches them what to do.

You read the situation, answer eight fixed questions before continuing, and then reveal a model response written to the standard this course teaches. Nothing is submitted, stored, or marked. The eight questions are the same every time, so that they become a habit of mind rather than an exercise.

What is real and what is not

Cases marked Documented are drawn from published inquiries and investigations. They describe real harm to real people, told factually from the published findings in the Institute's own words. Institutions are named because the material is a matter of public record, and where an institution has since reformed, that is stated. Cases marked Constructed are written for this course and are labelled as constructed every time. Nothing here is presented as real that is not real.

A word before you begin

Some of this is hard to read. If you have your own experience of harm, take the cases one at a time and stop when you need to. No case depends on having read the one before it, apart from its own pair.

Assessment

The Final quiz draws twenty questions at random from a bank of sixty, covering the whole course and these case studies. Twenty-five minutes, eighty per cent to pass, two attempts, highest grade. All twelve cases must be opened before it becomes available.

Before you finish

• All twelve case studies marked as done.
• The eight questions genuinely worked before revealing each model response.
• The Final quiz passed.