It’s been nearly five years since the horrific abuse at Winterbourne View was uncovered by the BBC’s Panorama. Since then, the Government and NHS England have outlined new plans to reduce the number of people on the autism spectrum and with learning disabilities who are in inappropriate inpatient units in England, but progress has been frustratingly slow. A new independent report released today says the scale of the challenge may be greater than first thought and calls on the Government to appoint a Learning Disability Commissioner to secure the rights of some of the most vulnerable people in society.
Two major UK charities have announced £100m of new partnership funding for the UK’s first Dementia Research Institute – one of the single biggest financial commitments to dementia research in the history of both charities. Alzheimer’s Society and Alzheimer’s Research UK have pledged £50m each towards the work of the Institute, led by the Medical Research Council, making the total commitment over a quarter of a billion pounds.
Wirral Community NHS Trust and Mersey Care NHS Trust in the North West have been authorised as foundation trusts by new regulator NHS Improvement, effective from 1 May.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said:
“It’s great to see two more trusts being given foundation trust status particularly in community healthcare and secure services. Mersey Care is the second provider of high secure services to become a foundation trust. This follows the recent confirmations of Birmingham Community Healthcare and Sussex Community as foundation trusts showing that foundation trust status remains a legitimate and sensible aspiration for NHS trusts.