Following the publication of the Care Quality Commission’s “Thematic Review of Restrictive Practices, Seclusion and Segregation”, Minister Caroline Dinenage has now issued a written statement on behalf of Department of Health and Social Care.

She begins with the following statements:

“The Government has made improving the care and treatment of autistic people and people with a learning disability a priority. Society is rightly judged on the way it treats its most vulnerable citizens.

In November 2018, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care made a statement to the House of Commons following the reporting of the case of Bethany, a young autistic woman who was held in seclusion in hospital for too long.

Like everyone across the House, I have been moved by these individual cases and personal stories. I do not believe this is just about a few individual cases where things went wrong; this is about a system. A system across health, education, social care and criminal justice that needs to change.

The minister goes on to make  commitments to improvement in care and provision, which is why the statement should be read in full.

(For a coherent but furious critique of the current situation, see Ian Birrell’s article in the ‘i’. Ian has been a frequent commentator on the topic.)

For information, the same minister on the same day issued a statement on the third annual report of the Learning Disabilities Mortality Review Programme (LeDeR), which “finds that the quality of care offered to people with a learning disability sometimes falls short of the standards we expect”, and in which she makes similar commitments to improvements…