Winterbourne View – Time for Change

In the summer of 2014 Simon Stevens, CEO of NHS England, asked Sir Stephen Bubb to lead a review exploring how a new national framework of support might be delivered locally, in order to allow the growth of community provision required to move people out of inappropriate institutional care. This is the report.

In his report Sir Stephen sets out a roadmap for action. The top-line recommendations are:

• To urgently close inappropriate in-patient care institutions;
• A Charter of Rights for people with learning disabilities and/or autism and their families;
• To give people with learning disabilities and their families a ‘right to challenge’ decisions and the right to request a personal budget;
• A requirement for local decision-makers to follow a mandatory framework that sets out who is responsible, for which services and how they will be held to account, including improved data collection and publication; Improved training and education for NHS, local government and provider staff;
• To start a social investment fund to build capacity in community-based services, to enable them to provide alternative support and empowering people with learning disabilities by giving them the rights they deserve in determining their care.