Cruelty claims at children's unit 'must lead to change'

A BBC documentary on alleged cruelty in a children's psychiatric unit "must and will lead to improvements", a government minister has pledged.

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 was treating the issues raised in the documentary "with the utmost seriousness".

Government ministers will meet leaders of all health boards with child and adolescent mental health units on Wednesday.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) said it was conducting a full internal review of the quality of care at Skye House.

Programme-makers spoke to 28 former patients, some of whom had been detained under the mental health act, 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".

Skye House, which opened in 2009, accepts children aged 12 to 18 who are usually at crisis point.

Most are detained under the Mental Health Act, which means they cannot leave until doctors decide they are fit to be discharged.

The BBC began investigating after one young patient reported her treatment at the unit.

Many other cases soon came to light.

Speaking at Holyrood, Todd said the culture depicted in the documentary was "disturbing" and the conduct of some staff fell far below "basic standards of decency and compassion".

"I treat the issues raised in the documentary with the utmost seriousness," she said.

"It must, and will, result in improvements."

But she said NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde had assured her that issues raised had been dealt with, standards had already improved and internal and external reviews had been commissioned.

She added: "I will carefully scrutinise both of these reviews as soon as they come out and expected Greater Glasgow and Clyde to act immediately on any recommendations for improvement.

"I will also be asking about the governance arrangement in place to make sure that this can never happen again."

Responding to a question from Conservative health spokesman Sandesh Gulhane about who had been held to account for the incidents at Skye House, Todd said improvements had already been made at Skye House.

"What I heard in the programme has shocked me and has put in place a sequence of events that will give myself and others in this chamber assurance that the situation has changed since the time period of the programme," she added.

Tory Meghan Gallacher said individual cases were "critical for shining a light on the lack of action taken by staff, the NHS and the Scottish government.

"The Scottish government didn't find about this through the BBC documentary, they had known for years," she said.

She added that one of her constituents had been contacting the government about the way her daughter was treated since 2023.

"I've no idea how the minister can stand here today and pretend to be shocked because she's known about this for years."

Todd said ministers received a "huge amount of correspondence daily" and letters about medical cases were normally referred to their health board.

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

Following the Holyrood statement, Dr Scott Davidson, NHSGGC medical director, said: "In light of the experiences and of the accounts of patients, a full internal review of the quality of care at Skye House is under way.

"We are also engaging with the Royal College of Psychiatrists on a further independent expert review of the unit.

"We welcome the announcement of the additional review by HIS and MWC of all adolescent inpatient units and will work collaboratively with them throughout this process."