CQC shares previously unpublished findings of 2015 inspection of Whorlton Hall

Ian Trenholm and Dr Paul Lelliott will be appearing before the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) on Wednesday 12 June to answer questions about CQC’s regulation of Whorlton Hall.

Ahead of this appearance, the Committee have asked for the previously unpublished findings of a 2015 inspection of Whorlton Hall.

We have commissioned David Noble QSO to undertake an independent review into how we dealt with concerns raised by Barry Stanley-Wilkinson, an ex-CQC inspector, in relation to the regulation of Whorlton Hall. This review will focus on concerns raised about the draft report prepared in 2015, and how they were addressed through our internal processes. It will be for the independent reviewer to report on the handling of our draft reports and it is important not to pre-empt their findings. However, we are keen to co-operate with the Committee to the fullest extent and so have today shared the following documents:

• Our covering letter to JCHR.
• All versions of the findings of the 2015 inspection identified to date.
• A table which tracks the key changes between the different versions of the inspection findings.
• The published 2016 report, which includes references to the 2015 inspection.

In the interests of transparency, we are also publishing these documents on our website, along with our letter to the Committee.

We are also commissioning a wider review of our regulation of Whorlton Hall between 2015 and 2019, which will include recommendations for how our regulation of similar services can be improved, in the context of a raised level of risk of abuse and harm.

The full terms of reference for both independent reviews will be published on our website shortly, and the findings of the reviews will be presented at CQC’s public board meetings.