ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the findings of the Mid Staffordshire independent report and Mid Staffordshire public enquiry, the Jay report, the Casey Inspection and the Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation report. Both the Jay report and the Mid Staffordshire report, and subsequent public inquiry, highlighted the failures associated with the regulatory environment and the damage caused by performance management targets. The chapter considers each of the five themes: professional indoctrination, regulatory compromise, acts of violence, human fragility and sensory deprivation, and signposts further action that would help mitigate the worse aspects of the iron cage in the modern era. It is interesting to note that in the USA, citizen's right to violence, the right to bear arms, is enshrined in their constitution. The human fragility theme identifies the vulnerability associated with humanity when faced with increasingly complex bureaucratic systems and the drive towards greater efficiency, or rationalisation, motivated by profit.
