Inspections raise care concerns

People with learning disabilities have a one in two chance of receiving substandard care, a report by the care services watchdog has revealed.

Nearly half of the 145 hospitals and care homes inspected nationwide by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) did not meet required standards in terms of care, welfare and whether people were safe from abuse, the report showed.

The unannounced inspections were carried out in the wake of abuse uncovered by the BBC's Panorama programme at Winterbourne View hospital near Bristol, where undercover footage showed staff at the hospital appearing to taunt and abuse the vulnerable adults in their care.

CQC chairman Dame Jo Williams said there were "lessons to be learned" by care providers about the use of restraint and an "urgent need" to reduce the use of restraint. Staff should be trained to use more appropriate ways of restraining patients, the report said.

The inspections focused on examining the general care and welfare of people who used the services as well as whether people were safe from abuse.

Independent services were twice as likely (33% compliant) to fail to meet these standards as NHS providers (68% compliant).

Dame Jo said: "People who use these services need care and support and they and their families need to be treated with care and respect. While our inspections found examples of good care, too often they found that services were not meeting the individual needs of people.

"Although many of the services we inspected were intended to be hospitals or places where people's needs were assessed, we found that some people were in these services for too long, with not enough being done to help them move on to appropriate community-based care.

"All too often, inspection teams found that people using services were at risk of being restrained inappropriately because staff often did not understand what actions count as restraint, and when restraint happened there was inadequate review of these putting people at risk of harm or abuse.

"There is no evidence that points to abuse on the scale which was uncovered at Winterbourne View Hospital. However, every single case of poor care that we have found tells a human story and there is plenty of room for improvement to help a group of people whose circumstances make them particularly vulnerable."

New welfare clampdown could axe housing benefit from under-25s

Hundreds of thousands of young people could be stripped of housing benefit and forced to live with their parents as part of a new welfare crackdown signalled by David Cameron.

The Prime Minister insisted the system was giving the wrong incentives as he urged more action to prevent feckless families relying on state handouts.

The comments, in an interview with the Mail on Sunday, come ahead of a keynote speech on welfare Mr Cameron is due to deliver next week.

The measures said to be under consideration include scrapping most of the £1.8 billion in housing benefits paid to 380,000 under 25s, worth an average £90 a week, forcing them to support themselves or live with mum and dad instead.

It could also mean stopping the £70-a-week dole payment for individuals who do not try hard enough to get work and forcing a hard core of unemployed to do community work after two years - or lose all their benefits.

According to the newspaper, ministers are also looking again at plans to limit child benefit to a couple's first three children - although Mr Cameron will stop short of raising the idea.

Mr Cameron said the existing benefits system was "sending out strange signals on working, housing and families".

He went on: "A couple will say, 'We are engaged, we are both living with our parents, we are trying to save before we get married and have children and be good parents.'

"'But how does it make us feel, Mr Cameron, when we see someone who goes ahead, has the child, gets the council home, gets the help that isn't available to us?' One is trapped in a welfare system that discourages them from working, the other is doing the right thing and getting no help."

Asked if he would take action against large families who were paid large sums in benefits, the premier replied: "This is a difficult area but it is right to pose questions about it. At the moment the system encourages people not to work and have children, but we should help people to work and have children."

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