Children's homes in Liskeard and Par have been included in a damning report into the care of people with learning difficulties in Cornwall. The report into services provided by the Cornwall Partnership NHS Trust resulted from a year-long inquiry carried out by the Healthcare Commission and the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) after concerns were raised by the East Cornwall Mencap Society. It revealed that some patients suffered 'systematic' and 'malicious' abuse in what investigators described as one of the worst cases of abuse of mentally-ill patients ever seen in Britain. While the most serious failings related to adults, the report did find that four centres for children – The Layland in Old Road, Liskeard, Moorland Road in Par and Gwyn Dowr and Roston in Camborne – had areas of concern. These included: • Two staff not being checked by the Criminal Records Bureau to establish whether they could work with children. • Staff not being told the specific individuals responsible for dealing with child protection in Cornwall and not being trained on what to do in the event of an incident. • No evidence that staff could access the council's child protection website for information about at- risk children. • Low staffing levels. • Compulsory training only being provided every three years because of budget restraints. Concerns were also reported to Cornwall Children's Authority, the lead agency for child protection, and the Cornwall Partnership NHS Trust, including: • Baby alarms, locks and stable doors being used to restrict children's movements without adequate explanation. • Boys and girls sharing double bedrooms. • Poorly decorated properties. In other areas of the county, the report found that patients were sexually abused, denied food, locked in their rooms all day, tied to their wheelchairs for up to 16 hours a day, and given cold showers.
