Source: CQC
Since the BBC Panorama programme in 2011, which exposed the abuse of people at Winterbourne View hospital, there has been increased scrutiny of how the health and social care needs of people with a learning disability are being met. Numerous strategies, reports and recommendations were made as a result. What emerged was a firm commitment to taking action to transform the provision of health and social care for people with a learning disability and/or autism.
Valuing People: A New Strategy for Learning Disability for the 21st Century, and the Mansell reports, which have long recognised that long-term institutional care is not a successful approach to supporting people with a learning disability, described what good quality care looks like for people with a learning disability. The Transforming Care programme has also shown that care in institutional settings that is rarely person-centred can lead to abusive practices, and hospital placements may be far from people’s families, friends and communities.
In October 2015, NHS England, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), and the Local Government Association (LGA) published Building the Right Support, which is a national plan to develop community services and close inpatient facilities for people with a learning disability and/or autism who display behaviour that challenges, including those with a mental health condition. They also published an accompanying service model for commissioners of health and care services. A year later, a new housing guidance document, Building the Right Home, was published. It was intended to be supplementary to Building the Right Support and the accompanying service model.
Last year, the CQC produced a guidance document on Registering the Right Support which explains how their registration decisions are made. They state that providers who demonstrate that their model of care follows best practice (such as Building the Right Support) are more likely to be able to evidence compliance with the legal requirements of registration. You can access the CQC document here to read their policy on registration and variations to registration.
Read the ‘Registering the Right Support’ policy from CQC