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CCFTV has for a number of years generally been focussed on the plight of elderly vulnerable people living in Care Homes. That really was a result of the unhappy personal experience our founder had when placing her mother in a local care home. However, we have continued to receive enquiries from families and staff from other healthcare specialisms, asking for advice and seeking assistance to resolve some of their difficulties with care providers of specialist services.

Over the last year, we have witnessed some awful events in mental health hospitals, children’s homes, and facilities for those with learning disabilities. That leads us to believe that calling for independent safety monitoring in those environments is just as important as pushing for its introduction into the long-term care sector. The Edenfield Hospital panorama expose was horrific and the BBC’s recent reporting of the experience of former patients at the Huntercombe hospitals group was equally distressing.

It is therefore our intention in 2023 to widen our vision to include those sectors, as they clearly have abuse issues that affect the vulnerable people they are supposed to care for.

In all of the gloom surrounding these terrible events, it seems that at least one provider is committed to greater transparency and oversight. Just this week we learned that the new Management Team at Active Care (the New Owner of Huntercombe) has already installed independent safety monitoring at their hospital in Maidenhead. CCFTV believes this is a very proactive step and would encourage commissioners of services and NHS England to prioritise those providers who have adopted systems as preferred partners. It is only right that these very expensive taxpayer funded care packages are purchased with companies who can demonstrate daily independent reviews of their services and remain willing to open themselves for robust scruti