Hi all, There have been some important developments this week that we wanted to update you on. Yesterday, a report written by Sir Stephen Bubb and funded by NHS England was published, looking at what needs to change at both a national and local level to move people out of assessment and treatment units, like Winterbourne View, and back to their local communities. You can read the report here: http://www.england.nhs.uk/2014/11/26/learning-disabilities-action/ The key recommendations of the report include: • A programme of closures of units providing inappropriate care. • A Charter of Rights for people with a learning disability and their families • A £30million investment programme to build community- based services and housing options for people with a learning disability • A new initiative to make sure the workforce have the right skills to support people whose behaviour is described as challenging We welcome the report but insist there needs to be a robust action plan and urgent change on the ground to see it deliver on its recommendations. People with a learning disability and their families have been repeatedly let down by the failure to achieve real change in moving people back to their local communities The latest data from NHS England published earlier this month showed that still more people with a learning disability are going into assessment and treatment units than are coming out. These are places where people are at significant risk of abuse and neglect. Last year, in the space of just one month, we know that two young people with a learning disability died in different assessment and treatment units. People with a learning disability should not be living in these places – that they are dying in them is a tragedy and beyond belief. It has been 3 and a half years since Winterbourne View, and in that time there have been countless meetings, many reports and strategies, but as the numbers show, nothing has actually improved and families are still fighting to get their loved ones back into their local communities where they belong. Prime Minister David Cameron – at Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons yesterday – reaffirmed the Government’s aim to move people out of assessment and treatment units and into the community but wouldn’t set out a timetable. We will be following up with him on this and making sure he is true to his word. A system that allows our most vulnerable citizens to experience such basic failures in care is fundamentally flawed. There has been enough talk. What we need now is real action. Please help us keep pressure on the Government, NHS England and local services by tweeting at them to make sure they enact these recommendations as a matter of urgency (you could copy this tweet if you want: https://twitter.com/mencap_charity/status/538006803104423936). Anything less and they will have grossly failed the most vulnerable people in our society. Thank you for your ongoing support.