Winterbourne View Report To Be Published

A report into the Winterbourne View scandal is to be published by the Department of Health (DH) just over a month after the Government promised to “deliver real change” in the provision of care for disabled people.

In October six members of staff – four support workers and two nurses – were jailed for between six months and two years for their roles in the abuse at the private hospital in Hambrook, South Gloucestershire.

Five others were given suspended prison sentences by a judge at Bristol Crown Court, who condemned the “culture of ill-treatment” and said it had “corrupted and debased”.

On Monday, Norman Lamb, minister of state for care services, publishes his department’s review of the scandal.

The BBC’s Panorama exposed the scandal in June last year when it broadcast undercover journalist Joseph Casey’s secret footage, recorded when he was employed at Winterbourne View as a care worker.

Support workers Wayne Rogers, Alison Dove, Graham Doyle, Gardiner, Michael Ezenagu, Danny Brake, Charlotte Cotterell, Holly Draper and Neil Ferguson were caught out in the sting. Nurses Sookalingum Appoo and Kelvin Fore were filmed condoning the abuse by failing to stop it.

The journalist Mr Casey had got a job at Winterbourne View after whistleblower Terry Bryan, a former nurse at the home, went to the BBC after his complaints to care home owners Castlebeck and care watchdogs were ignored.

His shocking footage showed residents being slapped, soaked in water, trapped under chairs, taunted, sworn at and having their hair pulled, eyes poked and being illegally restrained. On one occasion three support workers forcibly held down a resident while a nurse forced paracetamol into her mouth.

Barristers representing the 11 defendants apologised on behalf of their clients but blamed the culture of Castlebeck – calling it a “disease”, a “cancer” and a “fog” that had engulfed Winterbourne View.

A serious case review published in August criticised the firm for putting profits before humanity. The 26-bed hospital opened in 2006 and by 2010 had a turnover of £3.7 million. The average weekly fee for a patient was £3,500.