Results Of The Winterbourne View Serious Case Review

As promised.

Fundamental changes should be made to how care for vulnerable adults is commissioned and monitored, a report into abuse at a private hospital said.

The serious case review into events at Winterbourne View near Bristol comes after 11 former staff members admitted offences against patients.

Owners Castlebeck “benefited substantially” from the hospital, which relied on public funding, it said.

South Gloucestershire Council said it “fully accepted” the findings.

The report also revealed concerns were raised before the Panorama report which uncovered abuse at Winterbourne View.

The safety of dozens of patients was raised but the NHS was only told about a handful.

‘Untrained staff’

From the opening of the hospital in 2006 until 2011, there were 38 safeguarding alerts raised about 20 patients from the unit. Only one in five of those was reported to the NHS.

Three alerts the NHS did not appear to have been notified of in any way include an allegation of abuse by staff, concerns about the attitude of some staff, and an allegation of assault by a member of staff.

Peter Murphy, the head of South Gloucestershire Safeguarding Adults Board, said he wanted to convey his “deep regret” for what had happened at the hospital.

Margaret Flynn, the report’s author, said Castlebeck had “promoted an unworkable management structure” and relied on “poorly paid and untrained staff”.

She added the firm did not “act on the concerns complaints of Winterbourne View visitors or patients”.

But she also criticised South Gloucestershire Council for “out of sight, out of mind” commissioning when placing patients in Winterbourne View.

She said the staff were “chronically bored” in their roles at the hospital, which was “poorly managed”.

Eleven former workers at the private hospital have pleaded guilty to almost 40 charges of abuse and are due to be sentenced later at Bristol Crown Court.