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Wirral Council is set to publish a review into a long running care charging scandal, the Liverpool Daily Post reports.

The council overcharged people with learning disabilities for supported living services between 2000 and 2006. It then forced Martin Morton, the social worker who blew the whistle on the abuse, to resign.

However, another independent review into how the council had handled the case of Morton, the whistleblower, which was handed to the council in April, resulted in him being offered his job back. The current council leader said he had been "treated disgracefully".

That review was not published at the time to avoid biasing any disciplinary action against those concerned with the case.

The second review, which is due for publication later this month, is thought to be even more critical of the actions of the council towards Morton.

So, I assume that any disciplinary action has now concluded. What the result of that has been is not clear from the Liverpool Daily Post's report, but rest assured I'm just off to find out.

Where were the deprivation of liberty safeguards at Winterbourne View, the care home currently in the centre of an abuse scandal? That's the question being asked by Fighting Monsters this morning.

As CB, the author at Fighting Monsters, quotes Lucy Series, who is pretty well versed in the operation of those safeguards, is also asking that question.

I don't have an answer, other than I'm fairly confident no amount of training in this subject would have prompted any of the staff in the documentary to pay attention to them.

A wholesale review of the working of the Care Quality Commission must be conducted following revelations of abuse at a learning disability hospital earlier this week, care providers have said.

On Tuesday Panorama exposed a pattern of abuse at the Winterbourne View learning disability hospital in Bristol.

The CQC had been informed of the abuse in December but had not acted, leading many to question the viability of its risk-based approach to regulation.

The CQC is conducting an internal review of what went wrong in the case and care services minister Paul Burstow has ordered an external review of action of both the CQC and the local authority in this case.

But the National Care Association has said this dopes not go far enough and a full-scale review of the operating of the regulator is needed.

"The purpose of the regulator is to regulate services using an assessment process which will protect vulnerable members of society," said Nadra Ahmed, chair of NCA. 

"I am writing to the Minister for Social care to ask him to initiate an Inquiry without delay to ascertain whether or not the Care Quality Commission is both fit to deliver the required service and whether it has the confidence of the sector," she added.

Specialist learning disability hospitals, such as Witnerbourne View which is currently engulfed in an abuse scandal, should be scrapped as a model of care entirely, a charity has argued.

In an open letter to minister for disabled people Maria Miller, the UK Disabled People's Council (UKDPC) said it was outdated and breached the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People.

"The Panorama programme clearly showed that the Convention was being breached on a daily basis at Winterbourne View," it said.

"Article 19 of the CRDP supports the rights of people to live independently in the community, and as you are aware the UK has ratified this without reservation. This does not exclude People with Learning Difficulties. Within the body of the BBC programme, an expert in the field stated there was no reason why the people featured could not live within the community with appropriate support. These locked wards and 'hospitals' have no place in our modern day society," it added.

While the convention has no firm legal standing it does dovetail with the rights accorded to people under the Human Rights Act.

Read the full letter after the jump.

"There is a history of abuse scandals that have been made public, such as those in Sutton and Merton, and Cornwall in 2007" said Mark Goldring, Mencap's chief executive, responding to today's story about abuse uncovered by the BBC at a long stay hospital.

"Institutional care means that quite often people with a learning disability live far away from friends and family who care for them, so there is no one to notice any disturbing behaviour," he added.

However, last April the Department of Health revealed that just this kind of provision was still on the rise. It raised concern then, because the government was pursuing a policy of moving people out NHS campus'.

"What we are doing is exchanging one group of people in an outdated setting for another group of people in an outdated setting," said James Churchill, then chief executive of the Association for Real Change.

That was then, now is worse. Earlier this year the government disbanded its central learning disability leadership team. That's the team which found there was increased use of these facilities, which is against the thrust of government policy.

It's not terribly clear how that will continue. Without knowing what's going on in the sector or with a dedicated team to lead change people are right to be sceptical about what improvements can really be achieved.

I fear this is just the tip of the iceberg.

On Tuesday BBC's Panorama is set to expose poor treatment of people with learning disabilities in secure hospitals.

The programme has led to the British Institute for Learning Disabilities to call for new legislation and greater training for staff.

A statement published on its website says it is clear that:

• The legislative framework is not robust enough to prevent this kind of abuse
• Staff need effective leadership; this requires senior management to understand what makes for good practice, to recognise when problems have become endemic and to take appropriate action to make change happen
• Organisations have not acted to deliver on policies and procedures that enable staff to report abuse and ensure those they are meant to care for have accessible complaints information and access to independent advocacy
• Staff do not have access to appropriate training, or the support to implement what they have learnt in their workplace

"BILD is extremely saddened that yet again, it has taken the media to highlight a problem many work so hard to prevent," it says.

You can join the debate about the issues raised by Panorama in our CareSpace discussion forum.

Never one to miss a beat, SCIE have some new adult safeguarding videos up on the site today, which follows on the heels of the last week's announcement that the government will put adult safeguarding boards on a statutory footing.

It's a moody but moving case study of John, who was exploited by a group of teenage girls, handing over cash on an almost daily basis.

It shows how easily vulnerable people can be targeted by opportunist abusers.

Over sixty percent of the public say that cuts will lead to disabled people being the subject of public anger, a poll by Ipsos MORI for Mencap finds.

What's more, 49% say disabled people will be more vulnerable to hate crime attacks.

As this is a poll of the public, not disabled people, it's difficult to know if this is merely a fear or a statement of intent.

Of course, it takes more than just cuts to draw people's crosshairs of hate towards disabled people. Mark Goldring. chief executive of Mencap, makes the point: "Generally, there has been a disproportionate focus on the very few people who have defrauded the system rather than those who need state support like Disability Living Allowance (DLA) in order to participate in society. The Department of Work and Pensions' own figures show a fraud rate of 0.5 per cent for Disability Living Allowance."

However, I worry the subtleties of this statistical argument may be lost of the baying mob that his pollsters have tracked down.

There's an interesting piece over on the BBC website over the weekend asking, should my hereditary disability stop me having a baby?

It details the tough decision facing Jon Lancaster and his girlfriend as they decide whether they should adopt or run a 50:50 risk of his child having an illness which has caused him to be bullied and need multiple operations.

It's a fascinating dilemma which made me think what i would do faced with the same situation. It makes me feel slightly guilty that would probably take the easy route and adopt.

What about you? Comments below please. 

Sixty percent of the public say government spending cuts have left the county ill prepared to deal with an aging population, a poll finds.

The poll of 2,000 people by Age UK also showed over a third thought that services for older people should be protected from cuts.

Michelle Mitchell, director of Age UK, said: "If responding to demographic change is filed away as 'too difficult' then our current leaders will fail future generations of both young and old as the demographic changes begin to take effect."

"We want to see the government now start to address these issues in an intelligent, holistic way that encourages departments to work together to come up with different and better ways of working that will prepare us better for an ageing society," she added.

The survey also found that 84% of people feel the government is not prepared to meet the needs of an aging population. Plus, 79% said their local council was in the same position.

The poll was commissioned to inform the development of Age UK's Agenda for Later Life report, which calls on the government to meet 12 challenges to deal with the ageing population.

Read Age UK's twelve challenges after the jump...