Inspectors discover poor standards at 28 mental health units

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I wish I was surprised.

Private Eye have been covering similar stories really well over the last few years - in particular, the lack of teeth of the Care Quality Commission (CQC - responsible for rating homes and ensuring that standards are met), and the loopholes which allow care home owners to get away with avoiding punishment.

Just this week there was a report about the investigations into Sussex Health Care (SHC), nine of who's homes were raided by police a couple of years ago, about which the Crown Prosecution Service is now looking into legal action. Ten of their remaining eighteen homes are still rated as "inadequate" nearly two years later. The owners' response was to register a new shell company, quite clearly controlled by the same administration, re-register the homes with CQC as being under "new ownership" and, hey presto!, their record is wiped clean until the next round of inspections. Private Eye have reported multiple other providers using the same scam to avoid censure. Even when the CQC does take action, it is often simply to require more detailed and regular reporting of incidents of poor care - effectively allowing the providers to mark their own homework.

Of course, this suits local authorities very well - they often don't have the resources to provide any alternative for the residents of these homes, so they just keep their heads down and hope that they avoid any flak for placing residents in these abhorrent places.