Recommendation 34

It is vitally important to be able to monitor the experiences of children and young people in inpatient care, particularly how often restraint is used in each setting and whether there is appropriate access to advocacy. This is key to ensuring individuals in inpatient care are receiving quality support and treatment, and to avoid the lowering of the standard of care. It is therefore highly concerning that the data currently available on the use of restraint in inpatient settings is incomplete and of very poor quality, while there is no publicly available data at all on how many children and young people have a legal right to an advocate. Failure to understand the current experiences of children and young people in inpatient units only provides a further hindrance to the Government’s and NHS England and Improvement’s plans to improve the care provided in these settings. Higher national standards in data collection should be set by NHS England and Improvement and services that consistently fail to meet these standards should face greater accountability.