Winterbourne View report two years on reveals failings in progress

The commitment to remove all people from inappropriate inpatient care to community based settings has been missed, a report into the progress made since the Winterbourne View scandal has revealed.

‘Transforming Care Two Years On’ has been released two years after the first report into the scandal was published. It reveals that although there have been improvements, such as new guidance on minimising restrictive interventions and the Care Act 2015, the Department of Health said the speed of progress has not been quick enough.

It was originally planned that all people currently in inpatient hospital beds would be transferred to more suitable community based settings by 1 June 2014. This deadline has now been missed which was due to the complexity of the process having been underestimated when Transforming Care set the goal in 2012.

The report’s foreward, co-written by Norman Lamb, Minister of State for Care and Support and disability rights advocate Gavin Harding, said: “We are committed to working in coproduction with people with learning disabilities and their family carers to ensure that people are not left in institutions when they can, and should be, living as equal and valued citizens in our communities.”

The report calls for faster and more sustainable progress to be made to ensure people with complex care needs are only in hospital when that is ‘genuinely the best option, and only stay in hospital care for as long as it remains to be the best option.’

The Department of Health acknowledged the growing number of calls from experts, agencies and families arguing that the current statutory framework is not sufficient to make the transformation in care that needs to take place. In response the Government has committed to looking into other options that could create greater change in the future.

A strengthened Transforming Care programme will also be created by the Department of Health in a bid to drive further progress.

The reported concluded: “The views of the people who matter most - individuals, their families and carers - are key and we are committed to working in co-production to ensure meaningful engagement and to support openness and transparency as we take this new single programme forward.”