Channel 4 Dispatches: Under Lock and Key broadcast at 10pm Channel 4 Wednesday 1 March.
Jan Tregelles, chief executive at Mencap, and Viv Cooper, chief executive at the Challenging Behaviour Foundation said:
Long-stay institutions that keep people with a learning disability in prison-like settings were meant to have been shut down decades ago. The failure to do this has been brought painfully to light by Channel 4’s Dispatches, exposing the harrowing conditions people with a learning disability face up and down the country, as they remain trapped in inpatient settings with no release date in sight.
The Government
The Government are the people who run the country. The Government decide how much tax
Tax is the money that pays for things like schools, hospitals and the police. There are different types of taxes like income tax
Income tax is the money that is taken out of the money you earn every month. It helps to pay for things we all need like hospitals and schools. , VAT
VAT is also called Value Added Tax. VAT is the extra money you pay when you buy things. The money goes to the government to pay for things like schools and hospitals. and council tax
Council
A council is also called a local authority
A local authority is also called a council. They are a group of people who make decisions about some of the things in the area where you live like schools, social care
Social care means the services that give care and support to people who need it. (support for people), parks and dustbin collection. . They are a group of people who make decisions about some of the things in the area where you live. These include: schools, social care (support for people), parks and dustbin collection. Tax is the money that people pay to the council
A service gives people what they need, like healthcare services that help people when they are ill, and support services that give people support. ( NHS
The NHS is the National Health Service. The NHS gives free healthcare to everyone in the UK and includes things like your GP (doctors) surgery and hospitals. ) should work. and NHS England has taken too long to address this scandal of care that sees people with a learning disability subject to being physical restraint, kept in seclusion and over-medicated with no guarantee when or if they will return home to their communities and families. As it stands the law
Laws are the rules that everyone in the country has to follow. If you don't follow the rules you can get in trouble with the police. is failing people with a learning disability allowing them to remain in units at risk of abuse and neglect- the Government must address this urgently.
NHS England must stop sending people to large institutions where there is a heightened risk of abuse, and focus on driving the development of community based care, where people can live independent lives free from the damaging effects of institutionalised care.
People with a learning disability have the same hopes, desires and dreams as anyone else in society. It is time we stopped denying their basic rights
Rights are the things everyone should be allowed to do like have a say, or go to school. and sending people to places where they remain trapped under lock and key in prison-like settings, with no guarantee of when or if they will return home to their communities.
-ENDS-
For further information or to arrange interviews, please contact the Mencap press office on 020 7696 5414 or media@mencap.org.uk or for out of hours 07770 656 659.
Notes to editors
Mencap and the Challenging Behaviour Foundation were shown a pre-screening of Dispatches: Under Lock and Key.
About Mencap
There are 1.4 million people with a learning disability in the UK. Mencap works to support people with a learning disability, their families and carers by fighting to change laws, improve services and access to
education
Education is when you learn things. When you fill in a form to get a job, education means you write where you went to school, college or university.
,
employment
Employment means having a job.
and
leisure
Leisure is when you have time to do things you enjoy like playing sports or going to the pub.
facilities. Mencap supports thousands of people with a learning disability to live their lives the way they want.
Visit www.mencap.org.uk.
For advice and information about learning disability and Mencap services in your area, contact Mencap Direct on 0808 808 1111 (9am-5pm, Monday-Friday) or email help@mencap.org.uk
What is a learning disability?
A learning disability is a reduced intellectual ability which can cause problems with everyday tasks – for example shopping and cooking, or travelling to new places – which affects someone for their whole life.
People with a learning disability can take longer to learn new things and may need support to develop new skills, understand difficult information and engage with other people. The level of support someone needs is different with every individual. For example, someone with a severe learning disability might need much more support with daily tasks than someone with a mild learning disability.
Learning disability is not a mental illness or a learning difficulty. Very often the term ‘learning difficulty’ is wrongly used interchangeably with ‘learning disability’.