Case studies

Several stories have featured in the news recently involving safeguarding issues. These are just some of them:

Fiona Pilkington and Francesca

Mother and daughter who burned to death: 'no excuses' says Alan Johnson. There are "no excuses" for the failures in the case of Fiona Pilkington, who was driven to kill herself and her disabled daughter after being terrorised by a gang, Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, has said.

Read about Fiona and Francesca in the Telegraph.

Steven Hoskins

Attacks on disabled people are hate crimes, too.

Steven Hoskin died after being tortured and then plunging from a viaduct - one of several horrific murders of disabled people in the UK. Andy Rickell warns that these high-profile cases are just part of a shocking growth in disablist abuse.

Read about Steven Hoskins in the Guardian.

Sutton and Merton

Coalition of Anti-Abuse Charities Condemns Institutional Abuse That Beggars Belief.

A coalition of learning disabilities charities that campaign against abuse has welcomed today’s report from the Healthcare Commission into institutional abuse of people with learning disabilities at Sutton and Merton Primary Care Trust and condemned the abuse that was discovered.

“The shocking thing is that staff did not report all the incidents of violence, inappropriate use of drugs and inappropriate restraint” says Deborah Kitson, Director of the Ann Craft Trust. “A home manager raised concerns about a care worker he was working with but says that he was told he faced disciplinary action if he continued voicing concerns. This care worker went on to rape a woman with severe learning disabilities.”

Vetting and Barring

The vetting and barring scheme was introduced following the murders of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells, who disappeared from Soham on 7 August 2002.

Charities warned ministers not to go too far when scaling back the vetting and barring scheme for those who work with children and vulnerable adults. The home secretary announced that she was putting on hold the phased introduction of the plan to vet an estimated nine million people so that a review could be carried out to bring it back to "common sense" levels.

Read charities warning about vetting and barring scheme in the Guardian