Winterbourne View Private Hospital

Tuesday 21st June 2011 Written Statements

[The Minister of State, Department of Health (Paul Burstow)]

I promised to update the House about ongoing activity in relation to Winterbourne View private hospital.

The House will wish to be aware that steps to assure the welfare of patients at Winterbourne View are progressing well. Commissioners are arranging alternative placements. Most patients have now been moved and the remainder will leave Winterboume View shortly following a full review of each individual’s needs. There will be no new admissions to this hospital and enforcement action is being taken by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The multi-agency safeguarding process led by South Gloucestershire council is well under way. There is a range of advocacy arrangements in place and Castlebeck Care report that it has commissioned advocacy services for all patients in its care. Support is being considered on an individual basis at Winterbourne View through a multi-agency care planning process and independent advocacy.

The House will know that Castlebeck Care, South Gloucestershire council, the NHS and CQC have initiated investigations into their procedures and actions. The Department of Health will review the results of these and I will report back to Parliament at the completion of that review.

CQC expects to complete its investigation of all Castlebeck Care’s registered services by 1 July. Additionally CQC has started an internal audit and a human resources investigation, which will be finalised shortly. CQC will inspect rigorously a sample of hospitals for people with learning disabilities.

Following these inspections CQC is also exploring how it might do a wider review of the different models of learning disability provision. CQC is being advised on this work by a stakeholder group and will share the proposals on its planning and methodology with the Department of Health and Ministers as soon as possible.

CQC will also conduct an organisational review of actions which will look at the implications of events at Winterbourne View for the way in which CQC operates.

The South West strategic health authority is consulting the Department of Health on proposed terms of reference for its work to co-ordinate serious untoward incident investigations for all the English patients in Winterbourne View. This will investigate the NHS processes that operated in relation to the organisation of the care of patients treated in Winterbourne View.

Castlebeck Care has commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers to undertake an independent review of all its provision, and Debra Moore Associates to undertake a clinical review of its services.

South Gloucestershire council has appointed Margaret Flynn, chair of the Lancashire safeguarding adults board, to chair the serious case review, which will take evidence from all the agencies involved. The indicative time scale is four to six months.

I have today placed in the Library the terms of reference for the Department of Health’s review. The review will receive independent advice from a range of experts in the field.