Warning over care home standards

Winterbourne View care home in south Gloucestershire was closed after allegations of abuse
12 April 2012

Health centres and care homes serving people with learning disabilities may be unsafe because they lack strong governance, the health and social care watchdog has found.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) published the first of five reports from a programme of 150 unannounced inspections of hospitals and care homes that look after people with learning disabilities.

Prompted by abuses exposed earlier this year at the Winterbourne View care home in Hambrook, south Gloucestershire, the five "pilot" inspections into hospitals providing assessment services for people with learning disabilities found the centres lacked understanding about "safe, person-centred" care.

Inspectors, aided by experts with first-hand experience of care, looked for evidence at the centres that those with learning disabilities get safe and appropriate treatment and support, and are protected from abuse.

Only one of the five services inspected fully complied with the Government's essential standards of quality and safety required by law.

Dame Jo Williams, chair of the CQC, said: "These inspections are the first of many, but already we can see the effects of a lack of strong leadership and governance. Where we have found problems, they can often be traced back to poor procedures or poor understanding of procedures."

Services found wanting will be forced to tell the CQC how and when they will improve, and could face enforcement action by the regulator.

Terry Bryan, the nurse who drew attention to the abuse at Winterbourne View and one of the professional experts working with CQC's inspection teams, said: "After Winterbourne View, there was a consensus that the inspection processes at the time did not always stand up to close scrutiny.

"The current unannounced inspection programme has been slimmed down sufficiently to obtain honest 'snapshots' of daily life for people who live in services, together with 'gut feelings' about the services themselves."

Care services minister Paul Burstow said: "These findings should serve as a wake-up call to both the NHS and local authorities. Bad care is not just the fault of providers - it is a failure by commissioners to design and buy the right services in the first place."

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