A NORTH-EAST care provider promised new safeguards last night to ensure appalling scenes of abuse filmed at one of its nursing homes are never repeated.

Darlington-based Castlebeck faced public outrage yesterday after hidden cameras at a taxpayer-funded care home revealed how severely disabled patients endured an appalling culture of beatings, and physical and verbal abuse.

The company, which has 11 homes across the North-East and a further 45 elsewhere in the UK, featured in a BBC Panorama documentary, Undercover Care: The Abuse Exposed, aired on Tuesday.

An undercover reporter posing as a support worker captured footage of patients being repeatedly pinned down, slapped, taunted and teased by staff at Winterbourne View, in Bristol.

The 24-bedroom home for people with learning difficulties and autism is owned and operated by the company.

Yesterday, a member of staff at Castlebeck’s Chesnut Street head office said: “The phone has been ringing all day with people giving us abuse.

“It’s not necessarily family members, just members of the public who are, rightly, outraged by what has happened.

“I can understand why. It is utterly terrible, but I believe the management will do all they can to ensure it is never repeated.” Thirteen members of staff, including two managers, have been suspended by Castlebeck and four have been arrested by Avon and Somerset Police.

The company has issued an unreserved apology to the victims of the abuse and their families.

It has also asked consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers to carry out a full review of its operations and set up an external whistle-blowing telephone line for all employees in an attempt to ensure that no complaints are missed.

Castlebeck chief executive Lee Reed said: “We are deeply distressed by the completely unacceptable and appalling behaviour of a small number of our employees at one of our facilities. Such behaviour will not be tolerated, and we are very sorry. Castlebeck had not seen the Panorama footage depicting the abuse until the programme aired.

“An independent review will be completed within 30 days and its findings and recommendations will be conveyed directly to a committee of non-executive directors.

“The committee intends to share the report with the appropriate authorities and to implement the recommendations in full.

“We were shocked when Panorama contacted us with these allegations on May 12 and shocked that this alleged behaviour had not been detected via the whistle-blowing policy that the company had in place.”

In addition to the review, the company has appointed an external advocacy group to review patient experiences at all of its facilities.

It will also appoint an external auditor to check all future complaints and a dedicated team will review all patient care records from the past 12 months to look for evidence of similar abuse.

“The company would like to reiterate its distress at the allegations and to acknowledge that they are significantly more distressing for the families of those involved,”

said Mr Reed.

Care services minister Paul Burstow yesterday ordered a “thorough examination”

of the role of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) – the social care services regulator that received complaints about abuse at the home in October last year but failed to act.

He also asked the CQC to carry out a series of unannounced inspections of similar services.

Mr Burstow said: “The abuse of people with learning disabilities at Winterbourne View uncovered by Panorama is shocking.

“There can be no place for such inhumanity in care services.

I have already asked CQC to undertake a series of unannounced inspections of similar services.

“There have been failures of inspection and adult protection which have exposed people to appalling abuse.

“I am determined to strengthen the system of safeguarding to protect vulnerable adults from abuse.”

The Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA), an organisation based in Darlington that maintains a list of people barred from working with vulnerable people, also expressed its shock.

Chairman Sir Roger Singleton said: “The programme on the Winterbourne View residential hospital was shocking in showing the levels of abuse meted out upon some of the most vulnerable members of our society.

“Sadly, the ISA knows all too well that vulnerable adults can be the victims of a range of abuse, not only physical, like at Winterbourne, but also financial and sexual.

“We would like to take this opportunity to remind employers that in cases of this nature, they are under a legal duty to refer the person to the ISA, so that we can consider whether they should be barred from working or volunteering with vulnerable adults and children.”