People with a learning disability or autism are still waiting for meaningful change in the provision of care

At Shared Lives Plus, we recognise the importance of holding individuals to account for their actions through law. We also believe that the government must act to change the system of care which enabled people to cause harm.  Long-stay institutions such as Whorlton Hall which separate people with learning disabilities, autism and mental ill health from their community should be a relic of the past, not a modern-day service.

At best, such institutions do not offer people with learning disabilities and or/autism an opportunity to live an ordinary life. At worst, they increase the risk of abuse and weaken external networks, providing fewer opportunities for friends and family to spot problems. We also know that people who are restricted and restrained often fall into a cycle of distress and ‘challenging behaviour,’ which is then used to justify ongoing restrictions.

The problems with institutions such as Whorlton Hall have long been known, as pointed out in a safeguarding review conducted by Durham Safeguarding Adults Partnership (DSAP). The DSAP highlighted that the government established the Transforming Care Programme over ten years ago, which pledged to stop people with learning disabilities and/or autism from being inappropriately ‘placed’ in mental health institutions.

The Transforming Care Programme was itself created in direct response to a 2011 Serious Case Review into the abuse of people with learning disabilities and autism at Winterbourne View Hospital in South Gloucestershire.

A decade on from Winterbourne, the ongoing commissioning of secure inpatient provision continues to create environments which put vulnerable people at risk. Despite innumerable discussions and pledges such as Transforming Care, this week’s convictions of former staff at Whorlton Hall shows there has not been enough meaningful change.

And this is not an isolated example. As the DSAP review pointed out, after the closure of Whorlton Hall “reports of abuse and neglect, elsewhere, have continued.”

We call on government and commissioners to invest in under-utilised community providers. In 2021, the Future of Adult Social Care report from Newton Europe found that:

“27,000 working age adults with learning disabilities are living in residential homes. Up to 43% of these people could be living in a more independent setting, such as supported living or with a Shared Lives carer. “

At Shared Lives Plus, we believe that people with care and support needs deserve to live a safe and fulfilling life within the community. As a person-centred and strengths-based approach, Shared Lives repeatedly outperforms all other forms of social care.

We know that Shared Lives offers people who are labelled with ‘challenging behaviour’ the life-changing chance to form stable, long-term relationships with people they choose and enjoy being with. In the words of Mollie Draper, an autistic person supported by Shared Lives, this model allows people to decide “what they do with their lives and how they choose to live it.”