The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has confirmed it is now investigating the Blue Ribbon Healthcare Group following ITV News’ findings, Investigations Editor Daniel Hewitt reports.
The care regulator has suspended its quality ratings for two private care homes after an ITV News investigation exposed allegations of abuse and neglect towards disabled residents.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC), which had previously rated the care homes as ‘Good’, has confirmed it is now investigating the Blue Ribbon Healthcare Group after the prime minister ordered them to look into the company.
Andy Burnham said “there must be consequences” after ITV News found residents with learning disabilities were living in “filthy” and “dangerous” conditions, with a care worker found taking cocaine.
At one residential home run by Blue Ribbon Healthcare Group, several staff members were suspended, and police were called after they “bench-pressed” a resident with learning disabilities and threw them across the room.
At another supported living service, two staff were investigated for sexually abusing a vulnerable resident after they encouraged them to touch their breasts and buttocks.
Multiple whistleblowers who worked for the company told ITV News residents are being seriously neglected.
The CQC has suspended its quality rating at Millbrook in Preston, a home where one resident with profound learning disabilities was found by his parents outside, naked, in the cold, standing in a pool of his own urine and vomit.
On a separate occasion, Rohan developed frostbite on his feet after being left outside. His parents Liz and Ian told ITV News they feared for his life at Blue Ribbon.
After an inspection by the CQC, Millbrook was rated ‘Good’ in November 2025, at the same time Rohan was living there. Rohan was eventually moved out of Millbrook in March 2026.
The CQC has also suspended its rating for Willow Lodge, which it had also rated ‘Good’ in 2023 after an inspection.
In an internal email seen by ITV News, Blue Ribbon’s Chief Executive Charlotte Smith described conditions inside Willow Lodge as “revolting” in November 2025, warning her own managers that there was a “significant risk” of an inadequate rating by the CQC and “significant enforcement actions” if the regulator was to visit.
ITV News has asked the CQC for a response to its decision to rate Millbrook ‘Good’ as early as November 2025, given the alleged treatment of Rohan. It declined to address that query.
Instead, a spokesperson said: “These are truly shocking allegations of abuse, no person receiving care should ever have to suffer such treatment or have their dignity and independence taken away from them.
“We continue to review information of concern we hold about this provider to determine any regulatory action we need to take and next steps.
“Our priority is to ensure people are kept safe, working with partner organisations such as local authorities. We will publish any action we take when it appropriate to do so.”
When approached by ITV News, Blue Ribbon did not deny that any of the incidents took place, but said: “Many do not reflect the information available to us or are presented without important clinical, regulatory or factual context.
“Other concerns relate to historic incidents that were thoroughly investigated at the time”.
Blue Ribbon Healthcare Group, which also runs Forevermore Care and Cade Care, is a private company which provides residential care and supported living for adults with learning disabilities, autism and other mental health conditions.
It operates across the North of England. Since 2020, it has received at least £31 million in publicly funded care contracts, according to data from Tussell.
ITV News has learned that five local councils and two NHS trusts are reviewing the allegations uncovered in our investigation.
Lancashire County Council, who have paid Blue Ribbon at least £9 million since 2020, said it is “not making any new placements with Blue Ribbon Healthcare while we carry out further checks”.
It said it has “visited everyone in Lancashire who receives support from Blue Ribbon Healthcare and, at this stage, we have not found any immediate concerns about their safety or wellbeing.”
Meanwhile the London-based private equity firm which owns Blue Ribbon Healthcare Group temporarily deleted reference to ownership of the company from its website.
Queen’s Park Equity acquired a majority stake in Blue Ribbon in February 2022, in a deal which valued the care company at approximately £17m.
Publicly available accounts show Queen’s Park Equity financed Blue Ribbon’s services, directly investing more than £6.5m in loan notes, and helping to raise further capital.
The day before ITV News published its investigation, the Queen’s Park Equity website showed a page celebrating their buyout of Blue Ribbon.
On the web page, Queen’s Park Equity said they chose to invest in Blue Ribbon because of its “uncompromising focus on quality” and “expertise in looking after service users with high acuity autism and learning difficulties”.
Lead Queen’s Park Equity investor Alison Price specifically praised Blue Ribbon CEO Charlotte Smith and her team for their “impressive success to-date”.
Following the publication of ITV News’ investigation, the firm took down the web page and all references to its ownership of the care company for nine days.
Other companies who assisted the purchase in February 2022 also removed their web pages.
ITV News approached Queen’s Park Equity to ask why this page had been removed. Their page was then put back up, with edits.
The other companies websites remain removed.
Queen’s Park Equity declined to comment on the changes to the web page, and on the allegations of abuse and neglect at Blue Ribbon.
According to the latest financial statements available on Companies House, Blue Ribbon Healthcare Limited made £1.3m profit after tax last year.
In a statement, Blue Ribbon CEO Charlotte Smith said: “The safety, dignity and wellbeing of the people we support have always been, and will always remain, at the heart of everything we do. When concerns are raised about our services, we take them extremely seriously.
“We are committed to listening, learning and continually improving, and we have robust safeguarding, governance and quality assurance processes in place to ensure that concerns are thoroughly reviewed, appropriate action is taken and learning is embedded across our organisation”.
“We have carefully reviewed the wider concerns raised with us. Many do not reflect the information available to us or are presented without important clinical, regulatory or factual context.
“Other concerns relate to historic incidents that were thoroughly investigated at the time, with safeguarding procedures followed, relevant authorities and regulators notified where appropriate, and any necessary actions taken.”
“We remain proud of the care provided across our services and of the dedication shown every day by our colleagues in supporting people with complex needs to live safe, fulfilling and meaningful lives.
“We remain committed to working openly and transparently with the people we support, their families, stakeholders and regulators, and to continually strengthening the quality of care and support we provide.”
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