Government accused of breaching human rights of patients with learning disabilities and autism

The UK government has been accused of breaching the human rights of more than 2,000 patients with learning disabilities and autism who remain detained in hospitals.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has launched a legal challenge against health secretary Matt Hancock over the government’s “repeated failure” to move hundreds of people out of institutional care.

The EHRC has said it was bringing a challenge because of “longstanding concerns” about the care of more than 2,200 patients, including children, who are detained in secure hospitals often far from home for many years.

In October a report by the UK Committee on Human Rights found hundreds of detained patients were enduring “terrible suffering” with some being physically abused while others were being kept in solitary confinement for years.

There have been a number of high profile care scandals involving privately run hospitals including Whorlton Hall and Winterbourne View, where patients were abused and neglected.

The EHRC has sent a letter to the health secretary arguing that the Department of Health and Social Care has breached the European Convention of Human Rights for failing to meet its targets for moving patients into community care.

It has also said it is not satisfied that targets set by NHS England in its NHS long term plan to reduce the number of patients by 2023-24 will be met. In a statement it said: “This suggests a systemic failure to protect the right to a private and family life, and right to live free from inhuman, degrading treatment or punishment.”

Rebecca Hilsenrath, chief executive of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said: “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 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 government and NHS have set repeated targets to move patients out of institutional care starting in 2012 after a scandal at the Winterbourne View care home which had aimed to have all patients in a community setting by 2014.

In January 2019, the NHS long-term plan set new targets for inpatient numbers to be reduced by 2023-24.

The Department of Health and Social Care has been given 14 days to respond.

The EHRC 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.

Dan Scorer, head of policy and public affairs at the learning disability charity Mencap, said: “This domestic human rights scandal has been allowed to continue for far too long. The repeated failure of government and NHS England to get people out of these units and address the huge regional variations in access to the right community support is simply unacceptable.”

In November, the government appointed Baroness Sheila Hollins to lead a panel to review all the cases of patients who have been detained with all patients reviewed within the next 12 months.