Hospitals are not homes

Better care for

people with learning disabilities
and autism in England
after Winterbourne View
Short booklet

A booklet to help you check

what is happening in your area
to make things better
Logos

What is in this booklet

About this booklet
Who we are
Why we made this booklet

Page
Page
Page

What should be happening

in your local area

What you can do

A letter to send to your

Health and Wellbeing Board

A checklist to help you check

the main things are happening

About this booklet

Who we are
We are called the:
National Forum of
People with Learning Disabilities
and the National Valuing Families Forum

We are a group of
people with learning disabilities
and a group of families and carers.

We speak up for
people with learning disabilities
to the government and others.

Why we made this booklet

Some people with learning disabilities
and autism live or stay in hospitals.

These hospitals are not like other hospitals.

They are for people who need

more support with their behaviour
or mental health.

One name for them is specialist hospitals.

One of these hospitals was called

Winterbourne View.

A TV programme showed staff

treating people very badly there.

Many people were upset and angry

about this.
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Winterbourne View closed down.

But there are still many people

in hospitals like Winterbourne View.

The government looked into what happened

at Winterbourne View.

In 2012 and 2015 they wrote some

reports called:
Transforming Care
Transforming Care for People with
Learning Disabilities Next Steps

The reports talk about making sure:

people only go to these hospitals
if they really need to
people get better care near where they live

We want to make sure this happens.

You can help with this.

This booklet will help you check

how this work is going in your local area.

We hope you find it useful.

Thank you!

Karen, Craig and Kerry

from the National Forum of
People with Learning Disabilities
Vicki from the National Valuing Families Forum

What should be happening

in your local area?
Some work called Transforming Care
should be happening in your area.

It is about better care for

people with learning disabilities and autism
who need support with their behaviour.

A report called Transforming Care

Next Steps tells you more about this.

It is on this website in easy read:

www.england.nhs.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2015/01/transform-careeasy-read.pdf

Now you can find out the main things

that should be happening.

What should be happening

1. Different local groups should

work together to give people good care
For example, people from the NHS,
local councils, and housing people.

2. There should be a plan about

good health, care and homes
for people who need support
with their behaviour.

3. Children and adults should have

good plans about their care.

4. People should only go to hospitals like

Winterbourne View if they really need to
They should get good care in their local area
instead.
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What should be happening

5. There should be checks to see what
other care people can get.

These checks are called

Care and Treatment Reviews.

The checks look at:

what care does someone need?
do they really need to be in hospital?
can they get care in their local area
instead?

The checks should help people get care

in their local area instead of hospital.

People in hospitals can ask for this check

if they are worried about their care.

What should be happening

6. People should not stay in these
hospitals for long

People should only stay in these hospitals

for a short time if they need to be there.

There should be:

a plan about how soon they can leave
a date when they should leave
someone called a care coordinator
to help them get the right care

7. People and their families should have

a big say in what happens

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What you can do

1. Write or speak to your

Health and Wellbeing Board
There is a group called a
Health and Wellbeing Board in every area.

They look at how to give people

better health and care.

Some people in this group will know about

the work in this booklet.

We have made a letter you can use

to write to the Health and Wellbeing Board
if you like. It is on page.

It has the main questions to ask them.

Or you can ask to speak to them.

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2. Work with other people

There may be other people in your area
who want to make life better for
people with learning disabilities and autism.

For example, there may be a group called

a Learning Disability Partnership Board.

They work to make life better

for people with learning disabilities.

You could find out what they are doing

and see how you can work together.

You could share ideas and stories.

You could help people share their stories

with health and care people.

Your Health and Wellbeing Board

may be able to help you with this.
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3. Talk to your local Healthwatch

Healthwatch help people speak up about
their health and care.

You can ask them if they can help

find out what is happening in your area
to change things.

How to find these people

1. Your local Health and Wellbeing Board
Look at the map on this website
www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/health-andwellbeing-boards/hwb-map

Click on the coloured dot near to

where you live.
This will bring up information about the
website for the Health and Wellbeing Board.

2. Learning Disability Partnership Boards

To see if there is a group like this in your area
go to the website for your local council.
Search for
learning disability partnership board
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3. Your local Healthwatch

To find your local Healthwatch group
Look at the map on this website:
www.healthwatch.co.uk/find-localhealthwatch

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The Letter

Date.

Dear (name of the

Health and Wellbeing Board)

I am writing to you about the

Transforming Care work you are doing.

This is about better care

for people with learning disabilities
and autism who need support
with their behaviour or mental health.

It is to give people better care

in their area so they dont have to go
to hospitals like Winterbourne View.

Please can you tell us what you are doing

for this.

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We would like to know:

1. Is there a plan to get good health, care and

homes for people who need support
with their behaviour?
It is called a commissioning plan.
If there is, can we see it?

2. How many adults and children

are in specialist hospitals in the area
and in other areas?

3. Are you checking what happens to them?

4. How are you making sure people only go

to these hospitals if they really need to?

5. Do people have checks called

Care and Treatment Reviews
to see what other care they can get?

Are these checks helping people get

care in their local area instead of hospital?
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6. Do people in the hospitals have:

a plan about leaving (a discharge plan)
a date for leaving (a transfer date)
someone to help with this
(a care coordinator)

7. How are you working together

to make sure people get good care now
and in the future?

8. How are you making sure people

and their families are part of this work?

Please give us this information in easy read

or in an easy to understand way.
Thank you for your help.
We look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you
(your name or group)

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Checklist
You can use this to check that
the main things are happening

There is a local plan about good

health, care and homes for people

People are getting checks called

Care and Treatment Reviews

There are good ways to stop people

going to these hospitals unless
they need to

People in these hospitals

have a leaving plan and date

People and their families

have a say in what happens

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Thank you to everyone who helped write

this booklet and people who shared
their stories with us.

Pictures by Photosymbols and

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