Care companies who look after people with learning disabilities are not being inspected often enough, the Care Quality Commission has admitted to ITV News, as families say the health regulator is failing to prosecute providers of negligent care.
In an exclusive interview, the CQC’s Chief Inspector of Adult Social care said he would make increasing inspections his “number one priority” and would personally prioritise the care of people with learning disabilities and autism, following an ITV News investigation which has found multiple failings across the sector.
The CQC, which regulates health and social care settings in England, has the power to prosecute care providers for “severe or persistent breaches of safety”, but ITV news has found that since 2016 the regular has prosecuted just 11 providers relating to the care of people with learning disabilities.
That’s despite ITV News speaking to hundreds of families since February 2025 alleging negligent care of their relatives with learning disabilities, including 9 men and women who have died while under the care of providers regulated by the CQC. In none of those cases were any of the care providers prosecuted.
Those nine cases include a man with Down Syndrome who was starved to death in an NHS hospital, a young man who was given the wrong blood-thinning medication because doctor’s wrongly didn’t believe he was taking it, and a man who choked to death on a sandwich because carers left him unattended in a private care home.
The CQC’s Chief Inspector admitted the regulator needs to inspect the quality of care “more consistently and more regularly” than it has been doing.
“My number one priority as Chief Inspector is to do more inspections and get out and see more services,” said Chris Badger, who was appointed in September 2025.
“We have done 68% more inspections this year than last year, but we need to go further. When we do that and we do more assessments, it’s likely that we’ll have more enforcement action all the way through from warning notices, potentially prosecutions.
“The care of people with learning disabilities and autism is a really significant priority for me personally.”
Families have told ITV News they believe the CQC is denying them justice through a lack of action.
Sally Lewis had a learning disability and lived in a care home in Worcester run by Dimensions. In October 2017 her sister Julie Bennett received a phone call to say Sally had died suddenly, with no explanation, and no prior warning that she was unwell.
The postmortem report found Sally had died from constipation. Dimensions claimed that there had been no discrepancies with Sally’s medication, but it was discovered that for 300 days carers had failed to give her regular prescribed laxative medication as stated in her care plan.
Sally, who was almost entirely non-verbal, was unable to say anything.
An inquest later found Sally had died from neglect.
“I phoned the CQC, because they (Dimensions) should be held accountable for killing my sister,” said Julie.
“They asked me what had happened to my sister. I said she died and (they) said I’ll take your details someone will ring you back. No phone call back, nothing.
“I just presumed that they were looking into it.”
It took the CQC a further three years to bring a criminal case against Dimensions for Sally’s death, by which point it was too late. A judge threw the case out because it went beyond the statutory three-year time limit.
“It’s disgraceful, disgraceful,” Julie told ITV News.
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