Scotland’s largest children's psychiatric unit went years without regulator inspections amid cruelty allegations

Scotland's largest children's psychiatric hospital, Skye House in Glasgow, was never formally inspected by the country’s health regulator between 2017 and 2024, officials have confirmed, even as former patients later told a BBC investigation they experienced a culture of cruelty there.

The Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland (MWC) visited the specialist unit on a number of occasions but does not have statutory enforcement powers. Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS), the regulator with inspection authority, was not asked by ministers to inspect in-patient child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) until February 2024, after the BBC's Disclosure programme broadcast accounts from dozens of former patients.

The Disclosure documentary, which interviewed 28 former patients, reported allegations that some nurses called young patients "pathetic" and "disgusting," mocked suicide attempts, used force including physical restraint and dragging patients, administered sedative injections, and required patients to clean their own blood after self-harm. Many of those complaints were not recorded in the MWC's public reports, the BBC said.

Skye House, a 24-bed unit at Stobhill Hospital that accepts children aged 12 to 18 in crisis, opened in 2009. The MWC said it had visited the unit seven times since 2016, most recently in March 2024, and that its role is advisory. The commission told reporters it has "few powers to order things to happen" and instead relies on influence with health boards to secure changes.

A parent whose daughter was a patient at Skye House described visits by the commission as "superficial," saying concerns raised during a pre-announced visit went unaddressed and that managers prepared the unit for visitors in ways that did not reflect day-to-day care. The parent, identified by the BBC as Kirsten, said she felt parents' concerns were often dismissed because they lacked medical training.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has launched two internal inquiries into the allegations surfaced by the BBC and said a joint visit by HIS and the MWC had taken place and that it was awaiting recommendations. The health board declined to provide further details about actions already implemented.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland confirmed in a statement that it had been commissioned by the Scottish government in February to begin inspections of in-patient CAMHS and that it planned to inspect three regional services as well as the national facility. HIS said its inspection and visit to Skye House is under way and that it will publish a report at the earliest opportunity.

The Scottish government said ministers were "clear about their concern" and reiterated that responsibility for clinical governance and assurance rests with NHS boards. In Parliament in February, Mental Wellbeing Minister Maree Todd said she had requested HIS visits in response to the Disclosure programme.

The absence of formal inspections at Skye House for several years has drawn criticism from politicians. Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton called the lack of inspections an "absolute scandal" and urged a review of governance arrangements to ensure bodies have the powers to investigate and hold services to account.

In September 2018, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde was fined £70,000 over the "foreseeable" death of a teenage girl at Skye House five years earlier. That penalty, and the recent allegations recounted by former patients, are expected to feature in forthcoming reports from HIS and the MWC as investigations proceed.

The developments have prompted renewed scrutiny of oversight arrangements for in-patient child and adolescent mental health services across Scotland. HIS said it will provide independent assurance through inspections and visits in conjunction with the MWC, and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said it will act on recommendations once they are published.