Child psychiatric units to get extra inspections

Extra inspections are to be carried out at children's psychiatric units following allegations about cruelty made in a BBC documentary, a government minister has revealed.

Patients who were teenagers when they were admitted to Skye House, a specialist NHS unit in Glasgow, told BBC Disclosure about a culture of cruelty among nursing staff.

Maree Todd, minister for mental wellbeing, told the Scottish Parliament she had requested visits and recommendations for improvements in response to the programme.

"The care and treatment of young people as described in the programme are completely and wholly unacceptable," she said.

Programme-makers spoke to 28 former patients while making BBC Disclosure's Kids on The Psychiatric Ward documentary.

One said the 24-bed psychiatric hospital, which sits in the grounds of Glasgow's Stobhill hospital, was like "hell".

On Wednesday, Meghan Gallacher, Conservative MSP for Central Scotland, asked in the Scottish Parliament how the Scottish government was responding to the programme.

She said she had been supporting a family whose daughter was "illegally sectioned and brought to Skye house" where she was "subjected to abuse and neglectful care" in 2022.

"The abuse and cruelty that were shown in the documentary lay bare the institutional crisis at Skye house," Ms Gallacher said.

"Those young women were children - children who needed our care and support."

Ms Todd said the programme was a "difficult watch" and thanked the young people and their families for "having the courage to come forward".

"The cabinet secretary and I will meet NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde as soon as possible to seek direct assurance," she said.

"We will also meet NHS Lothian and NHS Tayside, which host the other two adolescent units in Scotland."

She said she had asked Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland to carry out a series of joint visits to all adolescent in-patient units in Scotland and the national child in-patient unit.

"HIS and the commission will use those visits to make recommendations on what is required to ensure the quality and safety of our child and adolescent mental health services in-patient units, both now and into the future," Ms Todd added.

"I will be focused on ensuring that the improvements in child and adolescent mental health services, which are clearly needed, happen as a result of our interventions."

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde previously said a review of medication was carried out in 2023 and this changed the way medication was administered.