Secure in-patient services for people with learning disability: is the market serving the user well?

Medium-secure care services developed in England following the Butler report (Home Office & Department of Health and Social Security, 1975). They were established to address the major gap in provision between high-secure and local mental health services. However, the development of special secure services for offenders with a learning disability has largely been neglected (Snowden, 1995). People with learning disability who require secure in-patient care are often placed in remote and costly units because suitable local facilities do not exist. Such placements do not usually accord with user and carer wishes.