Easy News: Winterbourne View scandal 10 years on

1. 

   31st May is the 10 year anniversary of the Winterbourne View Scandal.

2. 

   Winterbourne View was a private hospital which was meant to care for people with learning disabilities and autism.

3. 

   Most of the patients at Winterbourne View were there for a long time and some had no idea when they would be able to leave. It was thought that they could not care for themselves.

4. 

   Some of the staff at the hospital abused the patients. They were violent and also insulted them.

5. 

   The abuse was reported to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) but they did not investigate it. The CQC is supposed to make sure that hospitals and other health and social care services are safe and run properly for patients.

6. 

   A BBC journalist secretly filmed the abuse at the hospital. The BBC made an episode of the programme Panorama about what was happening.

7. 

   The episode of Panorama upset lots of people when it was shown. They wanted changes made at Winterbourne View, and changes made so similar things could not happen in other care settings.

8. 

   Winterbourne View closed the month after the Panorama episode. Other services run by the same company also were closed soon after. The company went out of business less than 2 years after the episode.

9. 

   11 of the staff admitted to cruelty and neglect in court. 6 of them went to prison and the rest received suspended prison sentences. This meant that they would not go to jail, but they still could do if they committed another crime during a specific time period.

10. 

    The CQC admitted they were wrong to not investigate what was happening and said they would do better to make sure hospitals and care homes are safe.

11. 

    After the scandal, the Government revealed a plan called Transforming Care. The plan said that the health service should not keep so many people in private hospitals, but try harder to support them to live independently.

12. 

    Transforming Care has not worked well or as the Government had said it would. 10 years ago, there were around 3,500 people kept in private hospitals. Today there are still around 2,000 people.

13. 

    Helping people to live independent lives in their local communities closer to their friends and family is widely considered to be better in every way.

14. 

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