This opinion piece, written by FCHA's Senior Public Affairs Manager Hywel Thomas, was published in Saturday's Western Mail. It calls on the Welsh Government to end the draconian practice of detaining adults with learning disabilities in hospital settings. Currently an estimated 125 adults with learning disabilities are being detained in hospitals, often hundreds of miles away from their communities and families.
An estimated 125 adults with learning disabilities in Wales are currently being detained in secure hospital settings
First Choice Housing Association is calling on the Welsh Government to introduce a national strategy to end the unnecessary detention of adults with learning disabilities in hospital settings. Hywel Thomas explains why…
An estimated 125 adults with learning disabilities in Wales are currently being detained in secure hospital settings, hundreds of miles away from their families and communities with little or no plan for what will happen to them.
The trajectory of the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in society is being profoundly altered, often with devastating consequences, by the failure of health boards and councils to integrate their services.
Despite the establishment of Regional Partnership Boards over a decade ago, adults with learning disabilities are caught in the middle of two institutions with conflicting interests and mandates – NHS health boards on the one side and council Social Services on the other. With both organisations operating under separate legislative frameworks and under different directorships, the pathway for the care and housing of adults with learning disabilities is disjointed and inconsistent. These vulnerable people can experience delays and uncertainty as health boards and councils work through complex funding, governance and commissioning arrangements.
I take no pleasure in painting such a depressing picture of the care of some of the most vulnerable people in our society. But the reality is, the current system is broken and fundamentally flawed. Sadder still, there seems to be an acceptance, that because councils and health boards have historically struggled to work together, that changing that culture is wishful thinking.
Sometimes, when we’re so accustomed to a way of working, it’s difficult to imagine doing things differently. But that’s exactly what we need to do, because the status quo is no longer an option.
The dedication and commitment of staff working under immense pressure at our health boards and councils cannot be questioned. The absence however, of sufficiently robust integrated governance structures makes it difficult for these organisations to plan and commission services for adults with learning disabilities.
Wales may be a small nation, but that should make us more agile and adaptable to change. It cannot be beyond us to put effective governance structures in place for the provision of care and housing for adults with learning disabilities.
For any new governance structures to be effective, the infrastructure must be there to support it. To my understanding, there has never been a pan-Wales assessment, per local authority, of the housing needs for adults with learning disabilities in Wales. The absence of this critical data is contributing to a failure in the integration of care and housing for adults with learning disabilities and is likely to result in further detentions. If we don’t understand the need, how can we possibly expect to meet the demand? A simple request by the Welsh Government to the Welsh Local Government Association to undertake such an assessment would provide us with this essential data.
In October 2025, the Stolen Lives Wales, Homes not Hospitals Task & Finish Group submitted its findings to the Welsh Government. It made several recommendations to end the draconian practice of detaining adults with learning disabilities in hospitals. The former Labour Welsh Government Minister for Mental Health & Wellbeing seemed supportive in her response earlier this year but said that most of the recommendations would take significant preparatory work, resources, and investment. Unfortunately, time is a luxury that those currently detained in secure hospital settings, and their families, do not have.
May’s Senedd elections called time on Labour’s Welsh Government, and those decisions will now fall to a newly-elected Plaid Cymru government – a party that was supportive in opposition of the Homes not Hospitals campaign. In fact, their election manifesto promised to act on the recommendations of the Stolen Lives Wales Task & Finish Group. They also promised in their first 100 days, to draft legislation to place Regional
Partnership Boards on a statutory footing to foster greater collaboration and resource sharing between health boards and councils.
Plaid Cymru also pledged to build 20,000 new social homes by 2030. They also promised to deliver a new Human Rights Act for Wales which if enacted could help families challenge the use of Restrictive Practice – the detention of their loved ones in hospital settings.
The manifesto pledges, upon which parties are elected, offer hope to people and therefore need to be meaningful. If we accept, at face value, Plaid Cymru’s commitment to the Homes not Hospitals campaign, this could be a once in a generation opportunity to deliver a fully integrated Health and Social Care service for adults with learning disabilities in Wales. Only time will tell.
First Choice Housing Association is calling on the Welsh Government to introduce a national strategy, under a national lead, to end the unnecessary detention of adults with learning disabilities in hospital settings. We are also calling for merged ring-fenced council and health board funding for adults with learning disabilities. This will remove considerations that currently impede objective decision-making. We are also asking the government to carry out a pan-Wales assessment of housing needs for adults with learning disabilities and to deliver that need from the 20,000 social homes promised by 2030.
Finally, we are seeking a commitment from the Welsh Government to strengthen the rights of families to challenge the use of Restrictive Practice.
We believe that a just society with a social conscience should never seek to remove any of its citizens from their community.
