Winterbourne abuse scandal: criminal law to hold care home owners to account Next spring we will announce proposals to address the gap in the law on effective corporate accountability. Castlebeck should cover the costs of inquiries into the criminal behaviour of staff at its Winterbourne View private hospital, Mr Lamb added. The minister's remarks were made as the Government unveiled plans to move out of long stay hospital every person with a learning disability or autism who does not need to be there. Under the plans, the cases of all patients in current placements will be reviewed by June next year with a view to placing anyone being treated "inappropriately" in hospital into community-based support by June 2014. There are currently 3,400 people in NHS-funded learning disability inpatient beds of which around 1,200 are in assessment and treatment units. "I want this to be seen as a moment when there is a collective view that there needs to be a substantial culture change in society, that people with learning disabilities have the same rights as anybody else, and that we cannot any longer tolerate inappropriate care or treatment for these people and we have a collective obligation from top to bottom to change this and that there is a national imperative that we act decisively on that," Mr Lamb said. In October six members of staff - four support workers and two nurses - were jailed for between six months and two years for their roles in the abuse at the Winterbourne View Hospital in Hambrook, South Gloucestershire. Five others were given suspended prison sentences by a judge at Bristol Crown Court, who condemned the "culture of ill-treatment" and said it had "corrupted and debased." The prosecutions came after the BBC's Panorama programme exposed the scandal in June last year when it broadcast undercover journalist Joseph Casey's secret footage of the abuse when he was employed at Winterbourne View as a care worker. Mr Lamb noted in the report that he felt "shock, anger, dismay and deep regret" that vulnerable people had been treated in this way. Journalist Mr Casey got a job at Winterbourne View after whistleblower Terry Bryan, a former nurse at the home, went to the BBC after his complaints to care home owners Castlebeck and care watchdogs were ignored. His shocking footage showed residents being slapped, soaked in water, trapped under chairs, taunted, sworn at and having their hair pulled, eyes poked and being illegally restrained. On one shocking occasion, three support workers forcibly held down a resident while a nurse forced paracetamol into her mouth. Barristers representing the 11 defendants apologised on behalf of their clients but blamed the culture of Castlebeck - calling it a "disease," a "cancer" and a "fog" that had engulfed Winterbourne View. A serious case review published in August criticised the firm for putting profits before humanity. The 26-bed hospital opened in 2006 and by 2010 had a turnover of £3.7 million. The average weekly fee for a patient was £3,500. The report published today: Transforming Care, a national response to Winterbourne View Hospital, said Care Quality Commission inspections of nearly 150 other hospitals and care homes had not found abuse and neglect like that at Winterbourne View. But many of the people at Winterbourne View should not have been there in the first place and in this regard the "story is the same across England," the report noted. "Many people who are in hospital who don't need to be there and many stay there for far too long - sometimes for years," the report said. Mark Goldring, chief executive of the learning disability charity Mencap, said the Winterbourne View scandal had "shone a spotlight on a care system that has failed the most vulnerable people with a learning disability." "In today's report, the Government shows that it has listened to families and campaigners by committing to a national programme of change," he said. But words are not enough. To achieve this, commissioners in local government and the health service must take urgent, joint action to develop local services, provide support to children and families from early on, and ensure that no-one else is sent away.