Listened this morning (15th July) to report by Zoe Conway on Radio 4’s Today program, on the failure to implement the recommendations of the Winterbourne View inquiry. Contrary to expectations, the number of persons with learning disabilities being held in NHS assessment units/centres is rising and is still well over 3000.
The programme can be heard at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0496c01 – start at elapsed time 2:37:44.
Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, is heard to admit that the situation is not just a scandal but ‘an ongoing scandal’. This afternoon, Hunt will be ‘grilled’ by the Commons Health Committee on ‘Children’s and adolescent mental health and CAMHS’ where the issue of prolonged and/or inappropriate placements in assessment units is sure to be raised.
Zoe Conway’s report also questioned the quality of care and of the carers in assessment units, and included interviews with the worried parents of adolescents currently in such units. She also interviewed Sara Ryan, mother of Connor Sparrowhawk who died in the bath at Slade House in Headington, Oxforshire. The profoundly depressing story of the failures at Slade House and within the Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust may be found in this BBC news report: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-26334445 .
16th July: A recording of the evidence session is now available on Parliament TV. A transcript of the session will appear on the Committee’s homepage in due course.