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The murder in 2006 of a learning disabled man proved a defining moment for adult safeguarding. Five years after the body of Steven Hoskin was found below a railway viaduct [...]

The Criminal Procedure (Insanity and Unfitness to Plead) Act 1991 changes the options available to courts when an offender is considered unfit to plead, and the case will now always be heard by a jury. This provides a degree of protection and people will no longer be detained without trial. Afer guilty verdicts the court can now impose a supervision and treatment order but now the subject is not consulted. In addition he does not have the Mental Health Review Tribunal as a safeguard.

Recommendations from mental health inquiry reports have been the same for the last 25 years in England and Wales. However, they have still not been implemented. According to the report, Learning the Lessons, by the Zito Trust, greater contact and better communications are urged between social worker and patient. Social workers should also liaise more with other professionals.

The UK government is expected to introduce new procedures to protect adults with learning difficulties who are sexually abused while in care. The changes would allow them to disclose incidents of abuse on pre-recorded videotape just as abused children can. New national guidelines, recommended by pressure group VOICE, on the sexual abuse of adults with learning difficulties in residential care are also expected.