February 12th 2020
Matt Hancock facing legal challenge over ‘failures’ in autism care
The Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has launched a legal challenge against secretary of state for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock, over the ‘repeated failure’ to move people with learning disabilities and autism into appropriate accommodation.
The EHRC said it has ‘longstanding concerns’ about the rights of more than 2,000 people with learning disabilities and autism being detained in secure hospitals, often far away from home and for many years.
Concerns which increased significantly following the BBC’s exposure of the shocking violation of patients’ human rights at Whorlton Hall, where patients suffered horrific physical and psychological abuse.
The equalities watchdog said it has sent a pre-action letter to Mr Hancock, arguing that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has breached the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) for failing to meet the targets set in the Transforming Care program and Building the Right Support program.
These targets included moving patients from inappropriate inpatient care to community-based settings and reducing the reliance on inpatient care for people with learning disabilities and autism.
Following discussions with the DHSC and NHS England, it is also not satisfied that new deadlines set in the NHS Long Term Plan and Planning Guidance will be met.
Rebecca Hilsenrath, chief executive of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said the department’s inability to meet targets suggest a systemic failure to protect the right to a private and family life, and right to live free from inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
‘We cannot afford to miss more deadlines. We cannot afford any more Winterbourne Views or Whorlton Halls. We cannot afford to risk further abuse being inflicted on even a single more person at the distressing and horrific levels we have seen. We need the DHSC to act now.
‘These are people who deserve our support and compassion, not abuse and brutality. Inhumane and degrading treatment in place of adequate healthcare cannot be the hallmark of our society. One scandal should have been one too many.’
The EHRC said the DHSC has 14 days to respond to its pre-action letter. Alternatively, it has offered to suspend the legal process for three months if DHSC agrees to produce a timetabled action plan detailing how it will address issues such as housing and workforce shortages at both national and regional levels.
It is also calling for the immediate implementation of recommendations made by the Joint Committee on Human Rights and Rightful Lives eight-point plan.
Alongside its discussions with DHSC, the Care Quality Commission and NHS England, EHRC has been calling for an enforceable right to independent living and has developed a legal model to incorporate it into domestic law.
This would protect the right of disabled people to live independently and as part of the community, and it would also strengthen the law that put a presumption in favour of living in the community and the views of individuals at the heart of decision-making.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: ‘We are committed to protecting the rights of everyone with a learning disability or autism, and are determined to continue reducing the number of people with these conditions in mental health hospitals.
‘Abuse of any kind against patients in care is abhorrent and we take any allegations very seriously.
‘We have received the pre-action letter from the ECHR today and will respond in due course.’
Photo Credit – UK Parliament