The chief executive of Healthwatch England, has written to the Department of Health, demanding action to close loopholes that mean that some of the most vulnerable people in society are living in appalling conditions and receiving poor care, which is not subject to any regulatory scrutiny.
The health and social care consumer watchdog was alerted to the problem after Pearl Baker got in contact to raise concerns about the state of her son Nicholas’ accommodation and that of his neighbour, Christine Jones .
Both have schizophrenia and were placed into supported living accommodation in Newbury, by West Berkshire council. Housing association London and Quadrant owns the property and has contracted out its management to a not for profit agency, Creative Support which also provides the care service, on behalf of the council, to help tenants with severe mental health conditions live independently. These include taking residents to do their weekly shop and to the GP, as well as twice weekly contact with support workers.
Nicholas, 49, was keen to try to be independent and did not want his mother to visit him in his flat, so although she phoned him every day and did his shopping, it was not until he moved back to his mother’s home temporarily in December, when his flat was due to be refurbished, that she realised what squalor he had been living in.
“I have never seen such filthy, disgusting, unhygienic conditions in my entire life,” Baker says. “The bathroom was indescribable: black mould everywhere. The only thing that happened was the walls in the bedroom and sitting room were painted, carpet was laid to the sitting room and bedroom and new flooring in the kitchen.”
But when Baker wrote to the Care Quality Commission (CQC), she was informed that the regulator could not investigate because supported living accommodation is an unregulated service. Exasperated, Baker started an online campaign to improve mental health services and gathered over 700 signatures to a petition at her local station, which she presented to Downing Street last month.
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