‘Out of sight – who cares?’
Advocacy is a crucial ingredient to protect people’s rights and to support them to leave hospital and live fulfilling lives in the community. Through a nationally commissioned, specialist model we propose, people would be better supported.
Today, the Care Quality Commission published their latest progress report into the experiences of people with a learning disability and autistic people in mental health in-patient services who are in restraint, segregation and seclusion, under their ‘Out of sight - who cares?’ review. In response, VoiceAbility outlines how nationally commissioned specialist advocacy would go some way towards improving the lives of people in these circumstances who remain stuck in a failing system.
More than 2,000 people with a learning disability or who are autistic continue to be held in mental health facilities despite the heightened risks of abuse and neglect and lack of therapeutic benefit. Some people can be held for decades facing a system that is unable to support them.
Statutory independent advocacy services are an important resource for people with a learning disability and autistic people. As the CQC notes “[m]ore high-quality advocacy needs to be made available to everyone who needs it.”
The CQC later highlights the need for investment and specialist advocacy, stating that “in our Out of sight report, we said that an investment and an action plan should be developed to ensure that all autistic people, people with a learning disability or people with mental ill health have access to an independent advocate. This would need adequate resourcing and specialist training for advocates.”
In light of the CQC’s report, Stephen Hinchley, Senior Policy and Public Affairs Officer at VoiceAbility, said:
Advocacy is a crucial ingredient to protect people’s rights and to support them to leave hospital and live fulfilling lives in the community. Advocacy also helps to enable more person-centred, co-produced care, to challenge overly restrictive practices, and uses safeguarding processes to protect individuals where there are serious concerns.
As the CQC has reported, the quality of support is too variable and sometimes advocacy is absent altogether. Through the nationally commissioned, specialist model we propose, people would be better supported, and as long as the right community support is place, they would leave hospital sooner. This means investment in community services must also be prioritised.
A nationally commissioned, specialist advocacy service would provide more effective and consistent support for people with a learning disability and autistic people in mental health in-patient services. Given the urgency and complexity of the support people need, DHSC must be responsible and accountable for commissioning such a specialist advocacy service.
VoiceAbility will continue to call for improvements to the quality and commissioning of advocacy and for the investment and prioritisation of the community services and support that is so urgently needed to allow people to live their lives to the full.