Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve (a) community and (b) inpatient care for people with learning disabilities and autism in response to the Winterbourne View scandal.

‘Building the right support’, published in October 2015, is the national plan to improve care, reduce avoidable admissions and provide support in the community for people with a learning disability and autistic people. The ‘Building the right support’ Delivery Board has been established to drive and monitor progress and can commission any work considered necessary to ensure the target is met.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is leading a new programme of work to transform the way they regulate services for people with a learning disability and autistic people. The CQC set out their expectations for providers in ‘Right support, right care, right culture’, as well as in their updated guidance, which gives inspectors further support to identify warning signs of a closed culture in services. This supports improvements in the quality of care provided to people with a learning disability and autistic people.