Let's protect children with mental illness

Like many other people who watched the news on Wednesday 5th November, I was shocked by the article on children and young adults with autism locked away by councils in institutions across the country, far away from their families, where they were bullied and mocked by staff and in one case attacked by a fellow inpatient with a history of committing murder.

As a nation we should protect these doubly vulnerable young people: under age and with mental health issues. We need to increase spending in this area so that preventative care can be given in the community; so that care homes are radically improved, and made available locally where needed; so that the people working in them can be properly vetted (salaries in the care industry generally need to increase hugely - not just those of managers, but workers on the ground) and finally so that there are sufficient facilities that children can be housed according to their needs, e.g. children with records of violence (especially of murder) housed separately to those without histories of violence.

If bullying does take place the staff involved should be sacked, not simply 'retrained', but this can only happen if staff are paid a higher wage, their working conditions improved and there isn't such a dearth of people in the sector.

On a separate but related note: the law which prevents parents from visiting their own children in these institutions should be reconsidered.