the national board of institutional care 66 The National Board of Institutional Care’s management emphasised that its guidelines partly address issues of access to staff. If a department, for example, does not have sufficient staffing levels to administer separate care, there is then no basis for the department to make a decision concerning such care. The National Board of Institutional Care’s guidelines for separate care state, inter alia, that an individual should be able to be left alone for a short time, but never for long periods and not in conditions similar to isolation. 5.5 Conclusions The Parliamentary Ombudsman inspected the special residential home for young people Sundbo in November 2018. During the inspection, very serious details emerged concerning misconduct. This picture was confirmed by the National Board of Institutional Care following the inspection, and it took a number of measures to address the problems that were highlighted. The measures were aimed not only at the situation at the home, but also at the agency’s work with care and treatment in general. At the dialogue meeting between the Parliamentary Ombudsman and the National Board of Institutional Care, the management reported, inter alia, on how the follow-up on what had happened at Sundbo had formed the basis for discussions between all heads of institutions.40 This is positive. What emerged during this year’s inspection of the special residential home for young people Vemyra, however, shows that it still has several fundamentally important issues to deal with in order to ensure the legal security for the individuals. Similar to the findings at the special residential home for young people Sundbo, the National Board of Institutional Care had noted serious shortcomings at the home long before the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s inspection. However, these shortcomings had not been addressed at a central level within the agency, which meant that the management of the home did not receive the support it needed to provide the individuals with safe and secure care. The problems at the home had then escalated. The Parliamentary Ombudsmen’s OPCAT operation, therefore, will continue to follow questions concerning the safety and security of young individuals and the treatment by staff in the coming years. The Parliamentary Ombudsmen will also carry out a follow-up inspection of the special residential home for young people Vemyra in 2020. A recurring issue during the Parliamentary Ombudsmen’s inspections of the National Board of Institutional Care’s institutions concerns highlighting routines that have led to individuals being held in conditions that can be compared to being placed in separate care or segregation. This issue was also raised at the dialogue meeting with the management of the National Board of Institutional Care. At the meeting, the representatives of the National Board of Institutional Care stated, inter alia, that young people admitted to a 40 See the Parliamentary Ombudsmen’s report ref. no. O 55-2019.