Winterbourne View

Paul Burstow Excerpts

Thursday 8th December 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 note that 10 people employed at Winterbourne View have now been charged with offences of ill-treatment and neglect under the Mental Health Act. They are due to appear in Bristol magistrates court on 15 December. A further three people who have also been arrested on suspicion of causing ill-treatment under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 remain on police bail pending inquiries.

PricewaterhouseCooper’s report on Castlebeck Care services was published on 25 November and Castlebeck has committed to taking forward all the action points from that report. The report can be found at:

www.castlebeck.com/docs/pwc_recommendations_ report.pdf

In October, I advised the House that the Care Quality Commission (CQC) had started its programme of unannounced inspections of services for people with learning disabilities. This review is now well under way—as at 2 December some 76 inspections had been completed. CQC is also carrying out around 1,000 inspections a month which include undertaking inspections where there are concerns that providers may not be meeting the essential safety and quality requirements

The first five reports from the focused learning disability inspections have been published today and can be found at www.cqc.org.uk/ldreview. We will, of course, ensure that the NHS and local authorities are continuing to take action required to address any concerns raised and review their own commissioning, care planning and oversight arrangements to support improvements and service transformation.

The results of the CQC inspections programme will feed into the wider departmental review of Winterbourne View. We are still gathering evidence from the serious case review and the NHS serious untoward incident review, and from other investigations and reports.

The departmental review is actively engaging with people with learning disabilities or autism and challenging behaviour and their families about how services can be improved. Ministers will report findings from the departmental review to Parliament and determine what further action is necessary.

I will continue to update the House as things develop.