Housing association: 'Care home scandal could have been avoided'

Published by 24publishing for 24dash.com in Local Government and also in Communities, Housing

A housing association is insisting that the appalling level of care portrayed in the BBC's undercover probe into Winterbourne View care home could have been avoided with a third-party monitoring the welfare of the residents.

A BBC Panorama team carried out five weeks of undercover filming at Winterbourne View in February and March, which saw patients being pinned down, slapped, doused in cold water and repeatedly taunted and teased.

The Government has ordered a report into how warnings of systematic abuse towards vulnerable adults at the care home were not acted upon by local authorities and England's social care regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

MacIntyre Housing Association has condemned the ‘pile ‘em high, look after ‘em cheap’ method of care shown in the documentary and says organisations like MacIntyre can act as advocates for residents in these and other circumstances.

MacIntyre’s Managing Director Aileen Evans, said: “Smaller more individual settings provide more opportunities for people to receive individual support tailored to their needs rather than the ‘pile ‘em high, look after ‘em cheap’ method allegedly employed at Winterbourne View.

“Whilst the regulator clearly should have stepped in and regulated this situation when they were alerted earlier, it also could have been avoided by having a third party involved in the running of the scheme.

“This means that there is always another pair of eyes monitoring the quality of support and care for residents with the result that issues are highlighted more quickly. Organisations like MacIntyre can act as advocates for residents in these and other circumstances."

She has also called for the CQC to carry out spot checks to ensure that support providers adhere to proper training programmes for their staff adding that with 24 people in a specialist unit of this type challenging behaviour which has to be carefully managed is bound to arise.

Aileen Evans added: “People with a learning disability do not have a voice and get the very worst end of the stick in both healthcare and general care and support as in this case. It is a national scandal and as a country we should hang our heads in shame for letting it happen.”