RRN response to ITV News report on unacceptable detention of people with learning disabilities and autistic people

This week, ITV News reported the experiences of Josh, a young autistic man who also has a learning disability and has been held in secure hospitals for the past four years after being detained under the Mental Health Act. Josh’s horrendous experiences are shared by his parents, Garry and Sara, who report that while in hospital Josh has been repeatedly subjected to unacceptable, distressing and traumatic experiences including being physically restrained, over-medicated and placed in long term segregation, or solitary confinement.

Josh’s experience of being detained and held without medical justification, simply because appropriate community provision is unavailable is unfortunately all too common. Today, there are more than 2,000 people with learning disabilities and autistic people inappropriately detained within hospitals in England. Consecutive governments have failed to make any meaningful progress in reducing this figure, leaving individuals and families across the country in unconscionable situations.

Worse still, in Josh’s case, is the recent withdrawal of proven, effective and life-changing support of the HOPE(S) programme. HOPE(S) – a human-rights based approach to working to support people in long term segregation out, and into their communities – government funding was discontinued, despite a 70% success rate in getting people out of solitary confinement.

While the RRN would agree with Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s assessment that Josh’s treatment was ‘unwarranted and cruel’, we are deeply concerned that the government’s NHS 10-year health plan, published earlier this month, doesn’t set out any meaningful plan to address this crisis. Equally, the Mental Health Act reforms propose only detaining people with learning disabilities and autistic people for a maximum of 28 days for assessment, unless there is a clear mental health condition. However, this will only be switched on when good community support is in place. There is still no definition of good community support, nor plans to put this in place. At present, government proposals to move to preventative community-based services remain merely a vision with no plan for implementation. In the meantime, thousands of people inappropriately detained, like Josh, and their families, need meaningful action now.

Alexis Quinn, RRN Manager, said:

“Josh’s story is a devastating echo of my own detention in long-term segregation. This is not therapy; it involves the systematic strip away a person’s humanity, leaving them with trauma and damaging survival instincts. In the absence of compassion, people are left broken and the defunding of HOPE(S) programme, a proven and humane lifeline out of this experience, is a shocking betrayal to people like Josh. Families also need meaningful, community-based support now, not the state-sanctioned cruelty they are currently enduring.”

Ben Higgins, RRN CEO, said:

“It is simply unacceptable that as a country, we continue to inappropriately detain autistic people and those with learning disabilities, like Josh, in institutions that are not appropriate to their needs. Despite past commitments, governments have failed to make meaningful change and the defunding of evidence-based, life-changing models such as the HOPE(S) and Senior Intervenors programme without any other plan in place is scandalous.

While proposed reforms to the Mental Health Act provide an opportunity for change, this will only happen when there are timely, trauma-informed and community-based services appropriate for people with learning disabilities and autistic people are in place. RRN works with many families who have fought for years to get their loved ones out of hospital; without meaningful changes to social care and community based support, this will remain an uphill battle. We welcome any opportunity to work with the government to meaningfully address the urgent need.”