Matt Hancock orders review after watchdog finds children with autism being held in segregation for up to two and a half years Health Secretary ‘shocked and appalled’ at Care Quality Commission findings that children as young as 11 held in isolation.

Children with a learning disability or autism are being held in segregation for up to two and a half years, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has discovered.

The watchdog was told by mental health providers that 62 people were being held in segregation – 42 adults and 20 children and young people, some as young as 11 years old. Some 16 people had been in segregation for a year or more and one person had spent almost a decade in segregation. The longest period spent in segregation by a child or young person was 2.4 years.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has backed the CQC’s call for an independent review of every person who is being held in segregation in mental health wards for children and young people, and wards for people with a learning disability or autism. These reviews should examine the quality of care, the safeguards to protect the person and the plans for discharge, the watchdog said.

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The CQC makes the recommendation in the interim report published on Tuesday in which it shares early findings from its review of restraint, prolonged seclusion and segregation for people with a mental health problem, a learning disability or autism.

It comes just 24 hours after the Children’s Commissioner disclosed the number of youngsters being locked up is surging. The head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission called the situation “cruel and unnecessary”.

The review, which was commissioned by the Mr Hancock, also highlights the need for a better system of care for people with a learning disability or autism who are, or are at risk of, being hospitalised and segregated.

‘Hideous asylums’

The issue was thrust into the spotlight by i columnist Ian Birrell, who said the stories “sound like something from a cruel military dictatorship or those hideous asylums we assumed had been banished to the distant past”.

The CQC said it has so far visited and assessed the care of 39 people in segregation, most of whom had an autism diagnosis. Inspectors said the reasons for prolonged time in segregation included delayed discharge from hospital due to there being no suitable package of care available in a non-hospital setting.

The safety of other patients or staff and inability to tolerate living alongside others were the most common reasons providers gave for why people were in segregation. In some cases, staff believed that the person’s quality of life was better in segregation than in the less predictable environment of the open ward.

Dr Paul Lelliott, deputy chief inspector of hospitals at the CQC, said: “The 39 people we have visited who are cared for in segregation are in a very vulnerable situation… We are calling for urgent action to strengthen the safeguards that protect the safety, welfare and human rights of people held in segregation.”

The CQC will publish its final report in spring 2020. In response to the interim findings, Mr Hancock said he will order a review of every long-term segregation case.

“At its best, the health and care system provides excellent support to people, backed by a dedicated workforce. But a small proportion of some of the most vulnerable in society are being failed by a broken system that doesn’t work for them,” he said. “I will not let these people down – they deserve better.”