Almost half of residential care homes for people with learning disabilities failed to meet care and welfare standards, the health and social care watchdog has found.
The Care Quality Commission said 48% of the 150 locations it inspected were non-compliant in terms of whether patients “experienced safe and appropriate care, treatment and support and whether they [were] protected from abuse”.
The unannounced inspections were launched after BBC’s Panorama revealed that people with learning difficulties were being abused at Winterbourne View, a private assessment and treatment centre in Bristol, last year. The hospital, which could handle 24 patients, charged the state about £3,500 a week.
The CQC found that NHS locations were twice as likely to be compliant as private hospitals, with 33% of independent providers meeting the standards compared with 68% of those run by the state.
The watchdog also raised concerns over the lengths of stays in such facilities, which are meant to help people live independent lives rather than be “warehoused” for years.
Bernadette Hanney, the CQC’s project lead, said that in one case an adult had been kept in a location for 17 years. “That’s unacceptable and we found in two-thirds of cases people had been there for three or more years.”
The inspectors reported concerns over the use of restraint in a quarter of all homes. There were “many examples where restraint was not being effectively monitored”.
At 27 locations – almost one in five of those inspected – the safeguarding concerns were such that the inspectors informed the local authority. In one instance, the report notes, an adult with learning difficulties was bullied for six months by other patients, with no action taken.
The report considered local authority-run centres, privately owned ones and those run by the NHS. It differentiated between assessment and treatment centres and secure units meant for longer stays.
An analysis of the inspections of assessment and treatment centres – of the kind operated by the private company Castlebeck at Winterbourne View – revealed a stark divide between state-owned and commercial hospitals.
The national specialist public health observatory for England said assessment and treatment units operated by NHS trusts were more than three times more likely to be compliant with both of the inspected outcomes than units operated by independent healthcare providers.
Same Difference 