Purpose -This paper concerns the fall-out from a TV programme which exposed the arbitrariness of cruelty at a private hospital that purported to provide assessment, treatment and rehabilitation to adults with learning disabilities, autism and mental health problems. The paper seeks to address the issues involved. Design/methodology/approach -It describes the principal findings of a Serious Case Review which was commissioned after the TV broadcast, and outlines some of the activities designed to reduce the likelihood of such abuses recurring. Findings -From policy, commissioning, regulation, management, sen/ice design and practice perspectives, events at Winterbourne View Hospital highlight a gulf between professionals, professionals and their organisations, and leadership shortcomings.Originality/value -77ie English government responded promptly and encouragingly to the wretched circumstances of patients at Winterbourne View Hospital with a "Timetable of Actions". The Serious Case Review which was commissioned after the TV broadcast contributed to the growing scepticism of "out of sight, out of mind" placements. It covered wide-ranging territory.

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This paper reports some preliminary lessons from a qualitative study of services that have cared for a person with learning disabilities during a terminal illness. It reflects current concern about access to health care as well as the national priority being placed on improvements in cancer services for all patients.The study documents how the service learned of the person's illness, how they mobilised services and made decisions, how agencies worked together (or not!) and what support staff needed in the person's last months and weeks. It also considers the way staff, as individuals and as teams, made sense of their experiences and evaluated the input of other professionals.

This article explores the professional boundaries guidance for social workers.It presents research findings from the formal literature, from agency codes of practice, from telephone interviews with regulatory and professional bodies and from an exercise using 'snowballing techniques' in which informants responded to brief scenarios illustrating boundary dilemmas. The authors caution against ever-increasing bullet points of advice and prescription, and advance a notion of ethical engagement in which professionals exercise their ethical senses through regular discussion of professional boundary dilemmas.