Remember They Are Children

We are shocked and saddened to hear of the "abuse" at Ty Coryton Children’s residential home and school in Cardiff. This story was reported 10 years, almost to the day, after the Winterbourne View abuse came to light, and it is concerning that policy and legislation may have done little to prevent abuse of people entrusted into care. We support the statements and recommendations made by the Challenging Behaviour Foundation, Restraint Reduction Network and Bild. We also support the Children's Commissioner for Wales' long-standing call to remove profit making from care provision.

Systemic failures mean vulnerable children and young people continue to be abused, neglected and traumatised by the very people meant to care for them. PSC Cymru therefore calls for full immediate implementation of the Reducing Restrictive Practices Framework  by Welsh Government.

It is noted that this Framework is “non-statutory” (p.5), and inspectorates will be asked to “consider compliance” with the approach. We call for the Reducing Restrictive Practices framework to be statutory for all childcare, education, health and social care settings, and for compliance with the Framework to be included as a formal point of inspection.

​Having this framework as a recommendation rather than statutory risks providers ignoring or not complying with it, therefore maintaining the status quo with regard to use of restrictive practice and restraint, and unacceptable and the alleged horrific abuses such as those at Ty Coryton will continue to happen. 

Psychologists for Social Change Cymru
​paasouthwales@gmail.com