Winterbourne View is "Rubbish"

Some times I really like journalists, some times they do things that really matter to the society in which we live. Panorama did that in their investigation into the Castlebeck run care home in Bristol; and their team, especially Joe Casey, deserves a huge amount of credit for the work they have done in uncovering the systemic abuse of learning disabled people at Winterbourne View.

The programme itself was appallingly and shockingly brilliant, if there can be such a thing. There really isn't much that you can say about the home, the staff who worked there and the organisation that allowed it to take place that isn't self evident, or that hasn't been reflected in the myriad number of comments that have expressed horror at what was made public by Panorama. But once you move beyond the images of abuse, what this programme made clear was that the protection provided by the Care Quality Commission was non existent. It failed to respond to the specific allegations made by former charge nurse Terry Bryan and as Paul Kenyon pointed out, that failure meant that Simon, Simone and the other residents of Winterbourne View had to endure additional months of the most appalling physical and psychological abuse.

But even beyond this failure, the stark and frightening reality for people with learning difficulties is that the system of governance that is in place to regulate their care is totally ineffective in ensuring their well-being. As the regional director of the CQC pointed out, if people are committed to covering up this kind of abuse then it is really difficult for the regulator to identify. The slickness with which Wayne dictated the write up in the incident book illustrated the ease with which the requirements of the regulatory system could be side-stepped by an experienced practitioner.

But it doesn't have to be that way and the solutions really aren't that complex. The people being abused at Winterbourne had the ability to express their views and opinions about the care that they were receiving. But the power that has been vested in the provider and the commissioners who place people in this form of setting, self evidently does not allow people with learning difficulties to have a voice. Even though providers and commissioners are required to do so, by a whole tranche of legislation introduced under the last government. Indeed as a young person of 18, the local authority that placed Simone in that setting had a statutory responsibility to involve her in decisions about her care and of course to protect her from harm. But in practice the reality is that nobody listens and it is the failure of people to listen that more than anything else that puts people with learning difficulties at risk.

Much of the abuse that exists at Winterbourne and across the care system can be prevented by listening to the voice and opinions of the people who are being cared for in a way that is independent of the organisations in which they are placed.  As Peter Kenyon illustrated simply and straight forwardly, when he asked Simon what he thought of Winterbourne View, Simon gave it an unequivocal thumbs down and said it was "rubblish" and if the residents of Winterbourne View had been asked that a lot sooner, none of this would have happened in the first place.