By Sheila Mckenzie-
There has been a disturbing increase in the proportion of ‘inadequate’ inpatient services for people with autism and learning disabilities in the independent sector, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has found.
An annual report on the state of health and social care found inadequate practices across the board “more poor care” in inpatient wards for people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.
In the report, the CQC pressed the need for immediate and urgent reform of the social care sector, saying the need for this had been “thrown into stark relief” by the pandemic.
“The legacy of Covid-19 must be the recognition that issues around funding, staffing and operational support need to be tackled now – not at some point in the future.
“Alongside this, there needs to be a new deal for the care workforce, which develops clear career progression, secures the right skills for the sector, better recognises and values staff, invests in their training and supports appropriate professionalisation,” the report said.
The social care sector was fragile due to the lack of a long-term funding
solution, and the absence of investment and workforce planning. In primary
medical services, the fact that the overall ratings picture remained broadly
unchanged masked a more volatile picture of deterioration and improvement.
The sector has faced significant challenges around timely access to personal protective equipment (PPE), testing and staffing – and co-ordinated support was less readily available than it was for the NHS, according to the damning report.
The report also found that inadequate conduct rose significantly from 4% between 2018 and 2019 to 13% in 2019-20, from 4% in 2018-19. Inadequacy in independent services rose from 5% to 22%.
The findings come in the wake of longstanding concerns over the treatment of people with learning disabilities or autism in hospital – highlighted recently by the abuse of patients by staff at Cygnet Health Care’s Yew Trees hospital in Essex – and the inappropriateness of such placements for longer-term care.
The report states that a number of sectors did not feel consistently engaged in the coordination of responses to the crisis. The views of sector partners varied as to the effectiveness of joint and supportive working arrangements, particularly between care homes and GP practices.
Strategies to manage staff and resources across sectors and partnerships
were inconsistently navigated, causing varied success of collaboration within
systems, the report states. System-wide leaders expressed concern about capacity to meet the demands of subsequent peaks without this support
Jane Harris, director of external affairs at the National Autistic Society, said the “damning report” shows a worrying increase in the number of hospitals found to be poor quality.
“This simply cannot continue,” she said.
“Autism is not a mental health condition, it’s wrong that hundreds of autistic children and adults are living in mental health hospitals, often inappropriately, many miles away from home and unable to see family and friends.”
Harris added: “But without the right mental health and social care support in the community, too many autistic people really struggle, eventually hitting complete crisis and facing being put in a hospital that doesn’t meet their needs.
“The government must put this right by investing in mental health and social care support for autistic people, and crucially reviewing the Mental Health Act so that autistic people aren’t inappropriately sectioned. Only this will end this vicious cycle.