The work has been led by Sir Stephen Bubb (ACEVO), working with key stakeholders on the TCCG, including Mencap, The
Challenging Behaviour
Challenging behaviour can be when someone hurts themselves, hits or pinches someone else, or breaks something. Some people might behave like this because they are upset or because people do not understand them.
Foundation (CBF), the National Forum for People with Learning Disabilities, the National Valuing Families Forum and others.
The report was commissioned by
NHS
The NHS is the National Health
Service
A service gives people what they need, like healthcare services that help people when they are ill, and support services that give people support.
. The NHS gives free healthcare to everyone in the UK and includes things like your GP (doctors) surgery and hospitals.
England to support and enhance existing activity, to ensure thousands of people with a
learning disability
A learning disability is to do with the way someone's brain works. It makes it harder for someone to learn, understand or do things.
who are still stuck in
Assessment
An assessment is a way of finding out what help a person needs. When you have an assessment, you might have to go to a meeting or fill in a form.
and Treatment Units are supported to move back to their local
community
A community is the people and places in an area.
.
The key recommendations of the report include the following:
- A programme of closures of in- patient institutions providing inappropriate care.
- A
Charter
A charter is a piece of paper that says how things should be done.
of
Rights
Rights are the things everyone should be allowed to do like have a say, or go to school.
for people with a learning disability and their families - A £30million investment programme to build community- based services and housing options for people with a learning disability
- A new initiative to make sure the workforce have the right skills to support people whose behaviour is described as challenging
Mencap and The Challenging Behaviour Foundation, who have campaigned jointly on action needed after Winterbourne View, welcome the report, but insist there needs to be a robust action plan and urgent change on the ground to see it deliver on its recommendations.
Jan Tregelles, Chief Executive at Mencap, and Viv Cooper, Chief Executive at the Challenging Behaviour Foundation said:
We welcome much of what is included in Sir Stephen Bubb’s report, but it must now lead to a clear plan and urgent action. Change to commissioning practices and development of local services is needed to support people to move out of Assessment and Treatment Units and back into the community. NHS England and 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
People with a learning disability and their families have been repeatedly let down by the failure to achieve the change we all want to see. The quarterly data that NHS England published earlier this month showed that for a fourth quarter* more people with a learning disability are continuing to be admitted to inpatient care than are coming out. Although more people now have a discharge plan the data shows large numbers of people having to wait years to return to their local community, which is not acceptable.
Following the scandal at Winterbourne View, which uncovered systematic abuse
Abuse is when someone bullies you and does or says something to you that makes you feel hurt, upset or scared. and neglect
Neglect is when you are not being cared for or supported. of people with a learning disability, there was a clear commitment from government, the NHS and local authorities to ensure that people with a learning disability get the right support and services in their local community.
This was meant to have been achieved by June 2014, but the deadline was missed. Earlier this week, we heard the coroner’s judgement on the death of Stephanie Bincliffe, who tragically died in an Assessment and Treatment Unit in 2013. She was a young woman with her whole life in front of her and her family have been devastated by her loss. But they are not alone; other families have lost loved ones in in-patient settings. We also know these are places where people at are significant risk of abuse and neglect. It has been almost four years since Winterbourne View, and in that time there have been countless meetings, many reports and strategies, but little has improved and families are still fighting to get their loved ones back into the community. NHS England, working with their partners in government and local authorities, must now lead on enacting these recommendations as a matter of urgency. Anything less and they will have grossly failed the most vulnerable
Being vulnerable means being at risk of harm, or that you need special care because of your age or disability. people in our society.
Chris, 22, has
Autism
Autism is a disability. Autistic people find it difficult to understand what other people think and feel. They also find it difficult to tell people what they think and feel. Everyone with autism is different.
and Severe Learning Difficulties. For more than 3years he has been detained in an Assessment and Treatment Unit run byCalderstones NHS Trust. His mother wants him to be moved out to somewherethat is near his loving family. She is extremely concerned for his safety. A
safeguarding
Keeping people safe from being hurt, abused, or neglected is called Safeguarding.
investigation concluded that Chris had suffered 'institutional abuse' and he had been hit by staff. Further claims by a whistleblower stated that they had witnessed Chris being spat at, kicked at, hit inthe chest and had sanitiser sprayed into his eyes.
Lynne McCarrick, Chris's mother, said:
Chris was sent to a hospital as the Local Authority and NHS said there wasnowhere else for him to go. He is now trapped in this unit and can't get out.
My beautiful son has many amazing attributes. He is funny, lively and hasgreat potential yet there he is, isolated in a flat in a hospital with onlypaid carers around him. He has been denied 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. and has no peers. Behind closed doors Chris has suffered terrible physical and psychological abuse and on a day to day basis he is starved of stimulation and given high levels of medication andphysical restraint. He has no life, he simply exists and yet his service is bewilderingly expensive. My son continues to languish in what is effectively a 'holding' bay'. Chris has no voice so we make our concerns known but we are ignored and shutout. I want him to be near his home and family, so we can make sure he is safe and is given the opportunity to live a life.
* NHS England Quarterly data can be found here: www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/qual-clin-lead/wint-view-impr-prog/#sept
-ENDS-
For further information or to arrange interviews, please contact the Mencap press office on 020 7696 5414 or media@mencap.org.uk
Notes to editors
About The Challenging Behaviour Foundation
The Challenging Behaviour Foundation (CBF) is an independent charity providing information, support and workshops around challenging behaviour associated with severe learning disabilities to families and professionals. The CBF leads the ‘Challenging Behaviour National
Strategy
A strategy is a plan to show what an
organisation
An organisation are a group of people who work together.
, or a person, wants to do and how they are going to do it.
Group’ which seeks to influence policy and practice nationally and has developed the Challenging Behaviour Charter.
The Challenging Behaviour Foundation was founded in 1997 by Vivien Cooper, parent of a son with severe learning disabilities who displays behaviour described as challenging. Today the Challenging Behaviour Foundation is in regular contact with over 5000 families and professionals across the UK. There are an estimated 30,000 individuals in England with severe learning disabilities and behaviour described as challenging.
About Royal Mencap Society
There are 1.5 million people with a learning disability in the UK. Independent charity Mencap works to support people with a learning disability, their families and carers by fighting to change laws, improve services and access to education,
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.