CQC inspections and regulation of Whorlton Hall: second independent report (15 December 2020)

Summary

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published the second report of Professor Glynis Murphy’s independent review of its regulation of Whorlton Hall between 2015 and 2019.

CQC commissioned Professor Murphy to conduct an independent review to look at whether the abuse of patients at Whorlton Hall could have been recognised earlier by the regulatory process and to make recommendations for how CQC can improve its regulation of similar services in the future.

In addition, CQC asked Professor Murphy to conduct a review of international research evidence to look at how abuse is detected within services for adults with a learning disability and autistic people and how such detection can be improved.

The first report of Professor Murphy’s review made a number of recommendations for CQC to strengthen its inspection and regulatory approach for mental health, learning disability and/or autism services. This second report outlines the progress that CQC has made to implement the recommendations. This includes publication of the final report of its review of restraint, seclusion and segregation; work on closed cultures and the development of a tool for rating support plans.