BASW Northern Ireland response to abuse at Muckamore Abbey Hospital
BASW NI is deeply shocked and saddened by the harrowing findings of the report into abuse at Muckamore Abbey Hospital in Antrim.
The report exposes serious failures in care, safeguarding, leadership, governance and organisational culture. These failures must now lead to urgent and lasting change.
People with learning disabilities and autistic people have the right to live safely, with dignity, choice, advocacy, family connection and full participation in their communities. Institutional models of care must not continue because community services are underdeveloped or underfunded.
BASW NI calls for the Inquiry’s recommendations to be accepted and implemented without delay, with clear timescales, public accountability and independent oversight. Experts by experience, families and carers must be central to this work.
Adult safeguarding must be strengthened, with systems that listen to families, identify patterns of harm, support whistleblowing and challenge closed cultures.
Social workers have a vital role in upholding rights, advocating for people, and challenging unsafe or oppressive systems. They must be supported through safe staffing, supervision, specialist training and organisational cultures that value professional challenge.
The legacy of the Inquiry must be real reform: safer services, stronger safeguarding, properly resourced community support, and a clear commitment that abuse and neglect will never again be normalised.