Winterbourne View - Serious Case Review

In May 2011, the BBC aired an episode of their revered series 'Panorama' which would shock not only the general public, but those who worked daily in care and social services. Winterbourne View Hospital for those with Learning Disabilities became the focus of the media, the law and the world.

Patients were referred from the NHS to the hospital, owned by Castlebeck Care Ltd, under the belief that they would receive appropriate care, assessment and rehabilitation, to allow the service users to return to their normal home life. As the programme documented, a severe amount of abuse was occurring there that was yet to be discovered.

It displayed care workers and nurses at the establishment hitting, slapping and abusing several patients. One carer put a woman into the shower with her clothes still on, and others sat on patients, not allowing them to get up and sometimes even using chairs to perform this act. The serious abuse highlighted the 'appalling standards of care' that were witnessed on the footage.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) reacted quickly to the broadcast, carrying out four inspections of the premises, suspending all admissions to the hospital and pursuing regulatory action against Castlebeck Care, which resulted in the closure of the unit in June 2011. With a Safeguarding Adults Board assembled through the CQC, South Gloucestershire Council and all involved in the hospital, a Serious Case Review was carried out. This was published on August 7th, 2012.

Written by Margaret Flynn, it detailed several missed opportunities for action to be taken and a lack of appropriate training amongst the many criticisms of this case. It reported how complaints had previously been made by patients of the hospital to staff and family members, none of which has been said to have been believed. Former Nurse at the unit, Terry Bryan, explained the situation to the hospital manager in the first instance. When nothing came of this, Terry wrote to the Care Quality Commission to file a Whistleblower report on the abuse that was happening at the establishment. He eventually took this complaint to the BBC, at which point it was handed over to Panorama.

The review states that the owners, Castlebeck Care had in their policies and procedures 'sufficient rules' on how the hospital was to be managed and the services executed. The criticism of this was that staff did not follow the rules and were not enforced to do so. The staff did not receive sufficient training and managers did not fulfil their duty of care. Communication problems were also noted, the most important being that the hospital did not report injuries adequately, often failing to inform the family of the patient, the NHS service from which they were referred and the CQC.

The clear theme throughout the Serious Case Review and Executive Summary was that more questions should have been asked. The organisations involved included the Safeguarding Staff, the Police and the CQC and greater communication would have made more people aware of the problems at Winterbourne View.

The Lessons To Be Learned from the review were comprehensive and a clear indication of how the services need to operate to eradicate the risk of this type of case in the future. It included making better ways to check with hospitals that their patients with Learning Disabilities had ensured safety. It also states that staff need to listen more effectively to patients, especially those with communication problems. Any patients who are taken ill, or have to go to an emergency department whilst admitted to a hospital must be reported to the relevant bodies and communicated to all involved. And lastly that any patients affected by the experience at Winterbourne View must receive any additional help required to recover from their ordeal.

The Winterbourne View case is one that gained a lot of attention from the media and in turn, the general public. Awareness of the abuse in hospitals has been heightened ever since and this will have a positive effect on the reporting of problems in this area, however there is still much to learn from this incident.

Please read the report and leave a comment of reflection of up to 250 words on our CPD social work training and we will send you, once your comment is approved, a certificate for 30 minutes CPD approved to submit to the new HCPC (The Health and Care Professions Council) registration for UK social works or any international social work CPD authority.

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How to Increase Your Online Class Attendance - Using Class Management Solution

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The One stop solution for increasing number of attendees:

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Improving Effectiveness of Teaching in Classrooms

Most of the time, teachers are still clueless as to how they can increase the effectiveness of teaching in classrooms. This is especially a matter of concern for those schools imparting distance education. The major criterion of long distance learning is that the student is reliant on tuition and the required help from teachers without actually ever meeting them in person. Critics of such learning are of the view that since students do not get the opportunity to physically meet with their mentors there is high chance of the students being distracted from a focused route of learning. Too much of convenience (to learn at their own time and place) may ruin their academic career leading to isolation from the study environments.

Supporters of distance learning however argue there is enough scope for potential students to excel in their studies provided that the teachers follow the right path to success. Now, how can the teachers easily create a perfect learning ambiance without taking too much of the headaches?

Create an Online Forum

Professors need to create and manage an online forum or community and offer an active platform to chat, interact, and share useful content with their students. The learners also need a place where they can get in touch with the instructors whenever required. There can be students who need constant guidance from teachers to better their performance and this can be done easily via online private social communities.

Include High-tech Technology Tools

There are a host of highly advanced technology based tools that the class administrators can use to have a student-friendly class environment. For example, there is the web conferencing facility plus introduction of webcams that let the teachers see their students and vice versa. Emailing is a handy tool to have especially for learners to let them send you mails stating their queries and unsolved problems. It is actually a quicker process to open such emails and address individual queries as per convenience, 24/7.

Encourage Students to Maintain Blogs

To provide an enhanced classroom setting, you should encourage your students to create blogs. In such blogs, learners can post learning content, useful website links, and images to share the same with their classmates. They can also post their assignments on the personal blog for the teachers to review the same in real-time. Such constant interactions and engagements with the teacher and their peers will motivate the students to concentrate more on their studies and have a successful educational career ahead.

Online Registration for Admissions in Schools and Colleges

India, a preferred centre for learning and education, has become a place, where numerous educational institutes are mushrooming, these days. In a fast paced life where people hardly find leisure for their families, parents face extreme difficulties in dealing with the admission process in schools and colleges as they have to stand in long queues in various schools for their child's admission.

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How is the software benefitting schools and colleges?

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