Winterbourne View Care Home

Margot James Excerpts

Tuesday 7th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Paul Burstow]

I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for his question. We must acknowledge that there will never be a time when there is an inspector in every room of every care home for every minute of every day. We must therefore make sure that the systems in place are robust, and that organisations are recruiting the right people and delivering the right training and supervision. However, the right hon. Gentleman’s point about the involvement of the community is spot-on. That is why we are proposing the establishment of HealthWatch and why we see that as an opportunity for citizens to become involved in the provision and scrutiny of health and social care in their communities.

[Margot James (Stourbridge) (Con)]

Very often a whistleblower is the vital link that people in such vulnerable circumstances have with the outside world, so I am pleased to hear that that will be a big part of the review. I have written to the chairman of the CQC to ask how many such whistleblower complaints were made in the past 12 months but not been followed up. The data are essential. May I have the Minister’s assurance that the review will find out that information?

[Paul Burstow]

My hon. Friend draws attention to an area that we need to look at as part of the various aspects of the work that I described to the House today. Although I do not know the basis on which such data are collected by the CQC, I undertake to look at what data are available.