Winterbourne View Case Study

Winterbourne View Case Study
The Winterbourne View hospital abuse occurred at Winterbourne View, a private hospital at Hambrook, South Gloucestershire, England, owned and operated by Castlebeck Care Ltd. A Panorama investigation broadcast on television in 2011, exposed the physical and psychological abuse suffered by people with learning disabilities and challenging behavior at the hospital.
Health regulators, local health services and the police had received various warnings but the mistreatment continued. One senior nurse reported his concerns to the management at Winterbourne View and to CQC, but his complaint was not taken up.
The undercover footage showed staff repeatedly assaulting and harshly restraining patients under chairs. Staff gave patients cold punishment showers, left one outside in near zero temperatures, and poured mouthwash into another's eyes. Staff repeatedly taunted and teased residents despite already being reported.
After considering a range of evidence, CQC inspectors found Castlebeck Care had failed to ensure that people living at Winterbourne View were adequately protected from risk, including the risks of unsafe practices by its own staff. The CQC report finds that Castlebeck Care Ltd was not compliant with most of the essential standards required by law including:
The managers or the care staff did not report to the Care Quality Commissions as required, and if they did report it to someone within the company they should have followed the report up for progress as to why nothing had been done.
The Planning and delivery of care did not meet people individual needs
They did have robust systems to assess and monitor the quality of services
They did not recruit staff in the correct way, some staff admitted they did not have to have a DBS check to work there and had never worked in a care setting before
They failed to provide appropriate training and supervision to staff; some staff admitted they don’t know how to deal with challenging behavior and people with learning difficulties.