Health service under scrutiny over learning disability care
The state of NHS-commissioned learning disability care will be revealed next month in a move that could trigger a transfer of funding responsibility for these services.
The state of NHS-commissioned learning disability care will be revealed next month in a move that could trigger a transfer of funding responsibility for these services.
The Health care Commission is set to reveal findings of a national audit in November. The exercise was sparked by the Cornwall scandal, in which people with learning disabilities were found to have suffered years of institutional
abuse.
The HCC declined to comment on the findings in advance, but it is understood the commission has quizzed NHS trusts, staff and service users on whether commissioners have visited the service in the past year, and what kind of practice and policy is in place on adult protection, advocacy, restraint, medication, patient activities and staff competence.
Health ministers are currently considering whether to transfer funding for learning disability services from health to social services, a Department of Health spokesperson confirmed. “However, it is important that appropriate consideration is given to any decisions on roles and responsibilities, and the department will advise of the process for this in due course.
” Consultation on a revamp of the Valuing People strategy will be launched in the autumn, the DH spokesperson added.
Mencap’s head of campaigns and policy, David Congdon, said his charity backed the proposed transfer to councils. “The critical thing, if that occurs, is making sure the right sum of money is transferred from the NHS.”
He said councils were becoming less reliant on residential institutions for these service users. But he believed their biggest weakness was failing to plan ahead for the transition of young people into adult services.
The Commission for Social Care Inspection’s learning disabilities lead, John Fraser, said “significant” improvements were needed to commissioning of learning disability services.
There appeared to be a lack of ambition for the lives of people with high support needs and too many out-of-area, high-cost placements that were not scrutinised by the placing council, he said. Many commissioners were also failing to work in partnership with private sector providers “on purist grounds”.
“You can throw money at a poor service and ‘warehouse’ someone for years, but if you put a bit more money and thought into a good intervention, you’ve got a good chance of lowering your costs over the longer term and significantly improving people’s lives. “The principle of starting with individuals and building a response around them has to be the driving force in commissioning,” added Mr. Fraser. Turn to page 8-9 to find out how commissioners in Cornwall are rebuilding services.
