Key points:

• CQC has found that people with a learning disability and autistic people are still not being given the quality of care and treatment they have a right to expect when they go to hospital.

• Specific challenges include hospitals lacking effective systems for identifying people, particularly autistic people who do not have a learning disability, which means that hospitals are not always aware of an individual’s needs, and so are unable to put in place the reasonable adjustments people have a right to expect.

• The regulator also highlighted the negative impact of hospital environments, and staff lacking the skills, knowledge and understanding to make sure they can provide people with the individualised care and treatment they need.

• The regulator did see “pockets of excellence and of great people doing great things” and the report sets out a range of examples of good practice from the eight hospitals it visited to inform this report for other trusts to learn from.

• CQC stress it is not just about improving the skills and knowledge of individual members of staff, and that a joined-up and strategic approach to making sure that people’s needs are met, both at a hospital and system-wide level, is needed. While leadership or oversight was not a focus of this report, the regulator concludes that the lack of a strategic approach to care may indicate that this is an issue that needs to be explored further.