Fit CCTV in care homes, MPS urge
CARE homes should install CCTV in communal areas to protect residents from being mistreated by staff, MPS have said, after a study found abuse or neglect happening in 99 per cent of premises.
Reports of serious injuries in care homes have jumped by more than 40 per cent over the course of four years, but the trend has been reversed in homes that have installed cameras to monitor their staff. Caroline Dinenage, the health minister, said she backed the idea of CCTV in care homes but resisted calls to make them a legal requirement until more research is carried out.
Earlier this year an academic survey found abuse or neglect was happening in nearly every care home. University College London’s department of old age psychiatry spoke to 1,544 staff working in 92 care homes and found evidence of mistreatment in 91 out of 92 homes.
Half of the staff said they had seen potentially abusive or neglectful behaviour at least sometime in the previous three months.
Making a resident wait for care was reported in 26 per cent of the homes, while in others residents were not given enough time to eat their meals. Physical and verbal abuse was reported in 54 per cent of homes in the study.
MPS heard last week how treatment of residents had improved after one care home chain installed cameras in common areas and bedrooms.
Zest Care Homes, which runs four homes in the West Midlands and Northern Ireland, reported “very material culture changes such as how staff now position themselves when talking to residents, the practice of using mobile phones when talking to residents, the presentation of food” after cameras were installed. In 2016, the latest year for which figures have been published, there were 38,676 reports of serious injuries in care homes.
Dominic Grieve, a former attorney general, told MPS that he backed installing CCTV cameras. He said: “It will provide a powerful tool for helping prevent abuse and improve standards.”
Mr Grieve added: “The evidence I’ve seen suggests that it should probably should be mandatory. It’s quite clear that the best care homes are already doing it.” The cameras could also “act as a deterrent to people who might enter the care home for an unlawful and unauthorised purpose”. Ms Dinenage said she had been encouraged about the “tangible benefits” of CCTV cameras.
She said: “I encourage other providers to look at those kinds of examples if they are contemplating installing CCTV, and would certainly support them if they wished to do so.”
Sir Stephen Bubb, who led an investigation into the abuse of patients at Winterbourne View near Bristol, backed the idea. He said: “Protection from harm for the vulnerable has to trump privacy these days. But we also need an industry wide code of practice for its use.”