Webinar: Learning from the Whorlton Hall Safeguarding Adult Review

Recorded 10 January 2023
View the webinar recording

In May 2019, BBC Panorama exposed concerns of allegations of physical and psychological abuse of people with learning disabilities and autism at Whorlton Hall. The service was closed and a criminal investigation started.

Please join us for this free webinar that looks at the seven system findings identified through the mandatory Safeguarding Adult Review (SAR), which used SCIE’s Learning Together model. Dr Sheila Fish, Fiona Johnson and Fran Pearson, lead reviewers for the SAR on Whorlton Hall, will take you through the findings. There will be the opportunity for questions.

Durham Safeguarding Adults Partnership (DSAP), who commissioned the SAR, want to share the learning from the SAR into Whorlton Hall as soon as possible so that that local, regional and national partners can act on it.

The purpose of a Safeguarding Adult Review is to provide findings of practical value to organisations and professionals for improving the reliability of safeguarding practice within and across agencies (Care Act Guidance Para 14.178), in order to reduce the likelihood of future harm linked to abuse or neglect, including self-neglect.

It’s vital to use the Whorlton Hall example to give us a ‘window on the system’ of provision for people with learning disabilities and / or autistic people more widely. The findings underline the need for urgent action.