On Tuesday 30th October I was granted an Urgent Question in the House of Commons about former Winterbourne View residents’ safety.
A Panorama programme on this issue, which aired on 29th October, revealed that 19 of the patients with learning disabilities who previously suffered terrible abuse at Winterbourne View have been subject to safeguarding alerts since being moved to other institutions following the hospital’s closure. This raises some very serious questions about whether the Government have taken all necessary steps to ensure that these patients do not have to go through the same ordeal again. I pressed the Minister for Care for guarantees that all former Winterbourne View patients are now receiving safe and effective care, and that the Government is acting to reform learning disability services, so horrible cases of abuse like the one at Winterbourne View can never occur again.
If you are interested in this issue you can watch the Panorama programme here. You can read my speech on this issue and the short debate that followed here, or watch a video of it here.
