Care Home Directors Convicted Over 'Horrific' Learning Disability Regime

Monday, 10th July 2017

Thirteen directors, managers and carers from a group of residential homes in Devon have been convicted over a regime in which adults with learning disabilities were imprisoned in isolation rooms.

Vulnerable residents of the homes were held in the bare seclusion rooms for hours and sometimes overnight, on occasions wetting or soiling themselves because there were no bathroom facilities.

Jan Tregelles, chief executive of Mencap and Vivien Cooper, chief executive of the Challenging Behaviour Foundation, said “horrific” accounts of people with a learning disability being abused by those who were being paid to support them had emerged.

They issued a joint statement saying: “The evidence has been chilling. The group claimed to provide specialist care for people with a learning disability, at a cost of up to £4,000 per week per person.

“Staff were paid to care for people with a learning disability but instead of doing so imprisoned them repeatedly for long periods, often in cold rooms with no sanitation.

“Despite several warning signs, it took far too long for the abusive practices at the care homes to be exposed. Poor commissioning by a number of local authorities and weak inspection allowed an abusive culture to develop and sustain itself with devastating consequences for individuals and their families.

“These trials have brought into sharp focus the unacceptable attitudes and lack of respect for people with a learning disability that exists in society.”

During the trial, Bristol crown court was told that in addition to sending residents to the isolation rooms, they were sometimes allegedly denied food, drink, fun activities and visits. Once allowed out of the isolation rooms they were ordered to carry out tasks in order to “test their compliance”.

Andrew Langdon, the prosecuting QC, claimed residents were sent to the rooms at the Veilstone and Gatooma homes, both isolated former farmhouses, for “trivial reasons. These included, but were not limited to; staring at a staff member, facial twitches, asking questions repeatedly or missing a hair appointment.

A man who can only be identified as AC said of his experiences in the isolation room that “It was a room that was disgusting and cold. At night the door was locked. It had a CCTV camera, a smoke detector and a punctured mattress – it was an airbed but it had a puncture in.

“It was cold, damp. If you wanted to go to the toilet, there was no toilet in there. There was a window but it was locked. No curtains. They made the room as bad as possible and as uncomfortable as possible.

AC, who has epilepsy, added: “It made me feel terrible in a way ... an animal, basically.”

An investigation was launched when AC reported managers to the watchdog, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), in July 2011. The homes were later shut down.

The founder of the group, a well-known figure in mental health who helped formulate national policy on caring for people with learning disabilities in the community, told the court he did not know residents were being locked up. He was convicted of a health and safety offence, fined £12,500 and ordered to pay costs of £105,000.

A group director, was jailed for 28 months for conspiracy to falsely imprison, and perverting the course of justice. Another eleven members of the management team and staff were given suspended jail terms or other non-custodial sentences for various offences.

DCS Sheon Sturland of Devon and Cornwall police said: “This case has been very complex and in many ways is the first of its kind in this country, dealing with not just those workers directly involved with victims, but all the way up to owners, directors and senior managers, who allowed a culture of abuse to exist.”

Huw Rogers of the Crown Prosecution Service said: “The directors and managers at this group of homes created a culture of abuse – unlawfully detaining residents in very poor conditions for long periods of time.

“This case has been groundbreaking in that the directors and managers of the homes and not just the staff that implemented their policies have been held to account.”

Andrea Sutcliffe, chief inspector of adult social care at the Care Quality Commission, admitted it should have acted more quickly when concerns were raised about the homes.

She said: “This group and a large number of their staff utterly failed in their duty to look after the people in their care. No one should be subject to the degrading abuse people experienced and I am glad that the perpetrators have been recognised for the criminals they are.

“When the CQC inspected Veilstone in October 2011, inspectors were so concerned by the treatment they discovered that they quickly extended the inspection to all 15 of the services run by the group. We found serious concerns in most of their care homes, including the routine use of excessive restrictive practices, which is why we took action which led to the closure of all of these services in 2012.

“When these abusive practices were discovered, the CQC took decisive action but we should have responded more quickly to the concerns raised. Since then we have overhauled our regulatory approach.”