Keeping safe resources

Our friends at the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities have just published the latest edition of Foundation Stones which provides updates on their work. This edition focuses on the work carried out by a group of people with learning disabilities into what keeps people safe while they are out about in the community and when they are online. You can find out more and download some handy guides here, where you can also sign up for future Foundation Stones.

Can’t decide? You can still get a Direct Payment

As various people have said down the years “the true measure of a society is how well it treats its weakest members”. Setting aside for a moment the question of what we mean by ‘weakest’ in this context, by this yardstick what does our treatment of people with learning disabilities suggest about how we measure up? What if we extend that to people with learning disabilities who have trouble making some or all the important decisions in their lives?

Take the example of Direct Payments, a key plank in successive Governments’ drives to place control over care and support in the hands of those people who rely on it to lead the lives they want to live.  I’ve lived and worked through 30 years of painfully slow reform where the good intentions of Valuing People and the Mental Capacity Act have become mired in the seemingly intractable problems of implementation – as the House of Lords so rightly pointed out in their recent review of the MCA. Too few people see the benefits of these policies and legislation in their day-to-day lives and too often it is the people with the smallest voice (or no voice at all) who lose out. Depressingly , the root cause is usually money, or the lack of it, although that is not always the case.

What is the history of all this? For anyone new to the learning disability field, the metaphorical as well as the actual landscape of the 1980s would be unrecognisable; huge institutions, often former stately homes or workhouse seamlessly transformed into ‘long-stay hospitals’, dotted the countryside, the largest housing thousands of ‘the mentally handicapped’. Various scandals set in motion the steady decline of the large institution, although the cost of maintaining them and the savings promised by alternative forms of community-based support were the factors that ultimately sealed the fate of the hospitals. Hostels, residential groups homes and supported living arrangements emerged as alternatives, but relatively few former hospital residents went on to have their own tenancy, manage their own finances or arrange their day-to-day support.

At the same time younger people with learning disabilities and their families began demanding a more aspirational approach to their support; one based less on filling time and providing carers with respite, and based more on future careers and preferred lifestyles. Person-centred planning became something of a vogue during the early years of the new millennium, spawning many great ideas about what good support looks like. The sticking point for many however, was turning plans into reality when so much relied upon the attitude of the funding authority and whatever services were available locally.

The Independent Living Fund and Direct Payments offered more control and flexibility in the delivery of support, but despite having been available for some years, take-up remained stubbornly low despite studies that showed the really good outcomes that people can achieve using ILF and Direct Payments. In recent years take-up has accelerated although the picture is somewhat confused by the introduction of Personal Budgets which, in its different manifestations, affords people who have them more or less control depending on where they live.

Direct Payments are not for everyone, but I know from the work I’ve done in the past 15 years that they do offer a good way forward for many people who want to live active lives in their local community. But what of people who are less able to manage their own lives? Until 2009 anyone unable to consent to receive a Direct Payment was unable to take advantage of this option. Councils now have a duty to consider making a direct payment to people who lack capacity, where a ‘suitable person’ can be identified who will manage it on their behalf. This is sometimes called an ‘indirect payment’. This is an important development because it allows some of the most vulnerable groups in society to have the same opportunity to arrange support tailored to their own needs and reduce the reliance on ‘one size fits all’ services.

It needs to be widely publicised, not least to social workers, so please take a look at the new online guide (it is also available as an app for smartphones and tablets) and pass it on to anyone who you think can use it. Perhaps then we can start thinking again about how we measure up as a society.

Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland Social Entrepreneurs Programme

“If you’ve got an idea for a project to improve your local community, this programme can help make it happen…” find out more at the School for Social Entrepreneurs website

Connecting with gifts: Molly’s reflections from Turkey

Being in Turkey has woken up my inspirational spirit again; something I thought had gone missing. It wasn’t lost; it just needed a kick in the right area!

Teaching community connecting to others is always a challenge. There often is a fear by supporters and paid people that it is going to put them out of a job, a fear by relatives that people will get hurt emotionally and physically (by being let down by others or taken advantaged of), that the Community is not welcoming or ready to engage with people with disabilities. Yes these are the reasons why I continue to teach about connecting people because being a member of communities myself I see how it works.

In Turkey where we are teaching about person centred working and community connecting, I have had the privilege to observe connections happening between people with disabilities and community members in short periods of time with little to no effort needed by paid workers. It took the right place, time and opportunities to be with other people, and sharing gifts. That is all!

Ozge is a student living in Istanbul, a beautiful young woman who has experienced of institutional life. Now she is on the course to be a trainer, staying at the hotel with the other group of trainers. She has found a friend there in Fatma, the waitress in the dining area every morning and evening when our training group had their meals. Ozge connects with her eyes: she looks intently at you and then, if connecting with you, blinks and smiles this infectious smile that melts your heart, so all you want to do is to keep looking at her to see if she really means you. She does not do this to everyone, it is intentional and it means she wants to know what you are thinking. Every day Fatma spent time talking with Ozge during breakfast, and dinner. She even stayed later than her shift to keep talking with Ozge. Fatma is also a student, studying in Ankara when she is not a waitress. Both are on Facebook and whatsapp so they can exchange information, but better than that, Fatma is visiting Istanbul and Ozge has invited her to her home.

What did it take to connect Ozge with Fatma? There were the opportunities to meet at consistent times. Being with other people who value you so others know how to connect – her support worker Yelda knew when to support and when to back off and let Ozge do her own thing. Shared interests were introduced by just having informal chats. The gifts of a smile, eye contact, or the excitement over seeing someone each day which, as Fatma told me, brightens up their day. And, it was important for Ozge to be respected by someone like Fatma who is of a similar age.

Hulye is a very quiet soul. You recognise when you meet her that something bad has happened in her life. She recently moved from a very large institution where she spent 22 years of her 30 years into her own home with two friends. You can see from time to time a glimmer of hope that says “this time life might get better if I am careful”. Hulye spent a week with us training away from her home city. Every day she would sign in at the reception desk overseen by Emre from the organisation hosting the training. He also took photographs of the training and so was with us in the room throughout. We had done lots of drawing that Emre had dutifully captured and on the last day Hulye went to the desk and with a big smile on her face handed him a picture she had drawn herself. Emre asked if it was for him and she nodded. He asked about the picture with the house, the trees, the flowers, and the sun. She said it was where she lived now. Emre thanked her graciously, using her name, and later told the trainer how Hulye’s gesture had moved him to tears. He said he had never been given such a better gift in all the time he had serviced such events. He got Hulye’s address and said he would like to keep in contact, but whether he will or not is less important than the fact that this community member will not walk towards not away from people with disabilities in the future. That is his gift from Hulye.

These are just some of the people who have connected with me but also with others in a country where the social model of disability is a very new concept. Now they are getting it ‘live’ from people like Ozge and Hulye.

Job opportunity in Barking & Dagenham

Friends & Places are looking for a connector to work in Barking & Dagenham for 10 to 12 hours a week.

To find out more please contact Denise Nygate  denise@friendsandplaces.org.uk

 

The long shadow of Winterbourne

Winterbourne View still casts a long shadow over the support that we, as a society, offer to people with behaviours that challenge. We’ve seen the television programmes, read the inquiry reports and heard the official responses, but we cannot pretend that the sort of problems exposed at Winterbourne View will go away until we change the culture that accepts institutional care as the norm for this group of highly vulnerable people. Despite the consensus that they should be supported within their own communities, enjoying their rights as citizens, we hear very little evidence of this being played out in practice.

One of the reasons, I suspect, is that there are too few people with the right skills and experience in positions to influence those who make the key decisions about supporting people who challenge. What I mean is that we need to start prioritising skills and experience in connecting rather than regarding them as an adjunct to all the behavioural supports that people with certain labels invariably attract. In saying this I don’t mean to belittle the work of specialists in this field – they clearly have a vital role to play – but it is more a plea to address the fundamental of human existence including the need for relationships.   

So here are two things you can do as the people with those skills and experiences. The first is to take part in a free event being run by The Think Local Act Personal (TLAP) and the Winterbourne View Joint Improvement Programme in London on Thursday 27th February. It is an opportunity for you as frontline connectors to sit alongside commissioners, providers, family carers and others and provide a unique perspective on what should happen from now on.

Click here for the event flyer.

You can find more details about the project on the National Development Team for Inclusion website and the TLAP website here.

The second way is by getting involved in the Engagement Reference Group that is being set up by the Winterbourne View Joint Improvement Programme.  The aim of the reference group is to help people from across England get involved and again we must ensure that the right mix of views and experience are being drawn upon.

Reference group members can choose not to get involved if they are busy or it is something they do not want to work on. If you are interested in joining the engagement reference group, or would like more information, please visit the website

If you would like to find out more about the engagement plan and work, you can also get in touch with Angela Ellis, the Engagement Adviser angela.ellis@local.gov.uk.

Checking the quality of community connecting

The Learning Disabilities Good Practice Project was set up in the wake of Winterbourne View to highlight services that improve the health and lives of people with learning disabilities. The report, published at the end of November, includes examples of good community-based supports and is well worth reading, not least because the work behind it was carried out by people with learning disabilities and family carers.

You can download a copy of the report here.

My eye was drawn to the example of the 360˚ Quality Checking initiative in Gloucestershire, in particular how quality checking has identified the importance of social networks in the lives of people with learning disabilities in the county and the impact of social isolation. In response, people’s circles of support are now invited to be involved in quality surveys.

This set me wondering how we should go about checking the quality of community connecting. This is not just about the questions we should ask, but also how we go about gathering information and, most importantly, what we do with that information once we have it. I’ll be posting a wider review of quality checking and community connecting in the New Year and you can help by using the form below to share what happens in your area or any examples that you are aware of.

Thanks and I hope you enjoy the festive season.

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Recommended new resource… and it’s free

Friends: Connecting People with Disabilities and Community Members (2013)

By A. Amado

This new manual provides concrete, “how-to” strategies for supporting relationships between people with disabilities and other community members. It describes why such friendships are important to people with disabilities and why it is important to promote community belonging and membership. The manual includes specific activities to guide users in creating a plan for connecting people. It is designed for agency staff, but can be used by parents, support coordinators, teachers, people with disabilities, and others to support community relationships. Additional Activity Worksheets are available in a separate document. Published by the Institute’s Research and Training Center on Community Living.

Cost: Free. Available on the Web at http://rtc.umn.edu/docs/Friends_Connecting_people_with_disabilities_and_community_members.pdf.

Additional activity worksheets available at http://rtc.umn.edu/docs/Friends_Activity_worksheets.pdf

 

New funding opportunity

The Vulnerable and Disengaged Young People Fund, a new funding stream through the Cabinet Office Centre for Social Action, has up to £2m to help grow ambitious social action programmes to support England’s most vulnerable young people. It will be administered by the Social Investment Business on behalf of the Cabinet Office.

 

Organisations can apply for a development, evidence or scale-up grant from 8 November until 6 December 2013.  Successful organisations will have a strong track record of reaching and creating positive impact for the most vulnerable young people as well as be able to demonstrate strong evidence of need.  Applications can come from the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector, public bodies (for example Local Authorities) and businesses with a social mission or a clear objective in their corporate social responsibility policy towards increasing social action, or businesses involved in the delivery of public service.

 

The grants will fund work with young offenders, young people in care or leaving care, and other groups of disengaged and vulnerable young people.

The Fund will focus on improving the outcomes of society’s most vulnerable young people, including academic performance, work outcomes, reducing reoffending and improving health outcomes.  It will consider proposals from social action based projects supporting young people as well as those that involve social action opportunities for young people.   Applicants can either apply for funding for new projects or to further develop existing programmes.

 

Applicants will be able to attend one of four workshops in London and the north of England in November 2013 to help them make the most of the application process.

 

More information on the Vulnerable and Disengaged Young People Grant Fund including criteria and how to apply is available at www.sibgroup.org.uk/youth.

Match Buddies – can you help

Hub member Bee Maidlow asks about Match Buddies: I would like to know if anyone knows of a ‘match buddies’ type of project in their area. This is where fans of a local team offer to support or accompany other fans – on a 1:1 basis – who may be unable, or lack the confidence, to go alone. There is an established one in Wigan (You’ll Never Watch Alone) and I wondered if there are others. Thanks, Bee

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