Last Updated on February 22, 2016
Sir Stephen Bubb, Chief Executive of ACEVO, has today called for a learning disabilities commissioner to be appointed by the Government as he finds that the challenges of reforming learning disability support are larger than first thought.
As we head towards five years since the BBC One Panorama programme exposed abuse and neglect at Winterbourne View Hospital, Sir Stephen Bubb has published a further report into transforming services for people with learning disabilities and/or autism.
Sir Stephen Bubb’s original report, Winterbourne View – Time for Change followed a lack of progress by the Government to move all people with learning disabilities and/or autism inappropriately placed in such institutions into community care by June 2014. Published in November 2014, he set out a roadmap for action and recommendations suggested radical changes to the way the nation treats people with learning disabilities.
He then followed up with a six month review of the progress being made in the Government’s Transforming Care programme, which was set up to act on the recommendations of Time for Change. Winterbourne View – Time is Running Out was published in July 2015. In it Sir Stephen commended the work undertaken so far by NHS England, but said that there was ‘an alarming absence of any tangible progress on the ground.’
Today, Sir Stephen Bubb has published Time for Change: The Challenge Ahead. He reports that subsequent proposals published by the Government in October 2015 to keep the Transforming Care Programme moving forward are based on over-optimistic assumptions.
Sir Stephen strongly welcomed the NHS England’s October announcement, and subsequent commitments, as step changes in progress. He has since undertaken an extensive consultation with those affected, canvassing the opinions of people with learning disabilities, their relatives and service providers.
Time for Change – The Challenge Ahead details the findings of this consultation. His main recommendation calls on the Government to appoint a Learning Disabilities Commissioner. It also says that the underestimation of the challenge ahead is illustrated by the fact that, in October, the NHS England proposals were based on there being 2,600 people in institutional units. Research since shows that figure could be as much as 33% higher at nearly 3,500.
Time for Change – The Challenge Ahead suggests that 10,000 extra members of staff will be needed to support people in their own community and that these staff need to be trained and equipped for the task.
Further, with at least 1,300 people expected to move out of hospital care by 2019, the report also details the critical need to deliver housing for the vulnerable. It says that housing for people with learning disabilities should be exempt from proposed Housing Benefit caps. The report details how additional housing provision might be delivered.
Sir Stephen also draws attention to the hundreds of thousands of children with learning disabilities and the challenges this could present to a sustainable future. Sir Stephen calls for a ‘prevention revolution’. This would see coherent and targeted early intervention preventing the need for future costly acute responses and resources.
Given the size of these challenges, and the failure to introduce a Charter of Rights, Sir Stephen says that nothing less than a Learning Disabilities Commissioner is required. The role would place a statutory duty on the holder to promote, enhance and protect the rights of people with learning disabilities and their families in England and ensure the delivery of the reforms pledged by NHS England.
Commenting, Sir Stephen Bubb said, ‘I am calling for an office of a Learning Disabilities Commissioner to be established. Just as a Children’s Commissioner was established following the Victoria Climbie Inquiry, there is a firm argument for establishing this post. It would have a statutory duty to promote and protect the rights of all people with learning disabilities and their families.
‘I have spoken directly to people whose experience of these services goes back far beyond 2011 and Winterbourne View. So this report expresses the views and experiences of the people most affected by change. I am still shocked by the way we, as a society, have condoned poor or abusive treatment of some of the most vulnerable people in our society. That's why I want a Commissioner.
‘As recent revelations from Southern Health Trust have shown, there’s still a long way to go before the system can be trusted, and we still have a long way to go in convincing people with learning disabilities that change will happen. I'm confident the base for change is now there. My further report makes proposals to ensure such change happens.’
Time for Change – The Challenge Ahead on reforming learning disability support is available on the ACEVO website here.
Learning disability providers wanting to know more about the report, the challenges it’ll bring for the future and the role of providers in reforming learning disability support, can hear Sir Stephen’s colleague Kate Brittain at CMM Insight, this Thursday 25th February. The full agenda, including more detail on current developments and future opportunities for the sector, plus online booking is available here.