Last year the subject of young people with autism and/or learning disabilities being detained unnecessarily in Assessment and Treatment Units (ATUs) gained coverage in national press.

These in-patient facilities are intended for the short-term assessment, treatment and stabilisation of people with mental health conditions who display challenging behaviours. Shockingly though, there are young people who have been incarcerated in such institutions, where the use of medication, seclusion and physical restraint are often over-used, for years!

This month, as part of an inquiry into Youth Detention: Solitary Confinement and Restraint, the Government’s Joint Select Committee on Human Rights is calling for people to share their views and experience.

The Committee has already heard evidence on the inappropriate detention of children and young people with learning disabilities and/or autism in mental health hospitals and the threat that such placements pose to their human rights from those with first-hand experiences of ATUs. They also heard from families whose children are, or who have been, in such settings and whose human rights are at risk, as well as from the NHS and the Care Quality Commission.

The committee is particularly interested in whether the Government’s Transforming Care programme, which aims to significantly reduce the number of those detained inappropriately, has been successful and if not, why not, and whether the human rights of children and young people with learning disabilities and/or autism who are detained in mental health hospitals are being breached.

Now is the time to make your views heard. They can be submitted online by Friday 8^th February.

Please also take time to sign two petitions:

• Petition calling for the Government to end the detention of people with autism and/or learning disabilities in ATUs. Sign now!
• Petition calling for the Government to appoint a Minister for Disabled Children and Families. Sign now!