Victim Support strongly sympathises with the calls being made by Irish child abuse victims that welfare benefits should not be affected by the award of compensation (News, page 14, 23 May). Sadly, many other victims of crime are similarly affected.
Each year we help more than 20,000 people make claims for criminal injuries. Many of these people are receiving means-tested benefits and we have to tell them that if they are successful their benefits may be reduced or stopped altogether. This is because a compensation payment is treated as capital for the purposes of assessing the victim's entitlement to income-related benefits.
The response of the Benefits Agency to victims in this situation is that they can set up a discretionary trust. However, this is too expensive for all but the largest awards. Moreover, there are severe restrictions on the amount, and on the purpose for which payments out of the trust can be made. This has implications for the victim's ability to regain control of their lives after the crime, and limits how effective the compensation is in terms of helping to overcome the effects of the crime.
Victim Support believes that an award of criminal injury compensation, which is paid to acknowledge the suffering of the victim, should be completely disregarded in assessing the capital allowance.
Anthony Forsyth
Policy officer
Victim Support
Schools offer protection
Your article about the role of schools in child protection ("Off the curriculum", 30 May) makes no mention of guidance from the Department for Education and Skills, currently being revised, which adds considerably to Working Together and greatly informs day-to-day practice, along with guidance from local area child protection committees. Practice is infinitely better than it used to be, and local education authorities and schools have considerably raised the quality of both policy and procedures in recent years.
Schools frequently report that they would like to share more information with colleagues in other agencies, but confusion over having to obtain parental consent has seriously inhibited them. Teachers cannot be expected to know in advance that an issue is one of child protection rather than a child "in need" - that would require them to conduct an investigation prior to referral, which is not appropriate. This is not a problem with schools but a confusion in the assessment framework, which is being interpreted inconsistently by social workers and has disempowered teachers in feeling confident about sharing their concerns.
Education welfare officers should not be seen as the conduit for referrals. They are not necessarily any better trained or qualified in child protection than an experienced designated teacher, and there is no need for duplication or the risk of delay. Much of what your article asks for already exists, as schools take on increasing responsibility for dealing with their own problems without needing to rely on expertise from outside.
Ben Whitney
Training and development officer
Social Inclusion Unit
Staffordshire Education Department
Drugs have a role to play
Peter Beresford's comments about a "silent drug menace" (Perspectives, 11 April) are understandable given the role that drugs play in our society. Looked at from the other end of the couch, so to speak, the dilemma for doctors is the constant demand for quick solutions, for prescriptions and for "something to be done".
It is often thought that somehow counselling or psychotherapy are more effective or more valuable than medication, but the quality of counselling must be carefully monitored and its effectiveness remains extremely difficult to clarify. Every psychiatrist and GP regularly sees individuals who have already sought alternative treatments, despite being in states of considerable distress, and have subsequently found great benefit in appropriate prescribed medication.
It is questionable whether psychoactive drugs are a means of "social control". This suggests that people are conned or bullied into having medication, and cannot understand what is being done. My experience is that individuals are aware of their choices, using the excellent input of organisations such as Mind and various user groups to improve treatment effects. The notion of what the world would look like if "convenience chemicals" were not an option denies the benefits of effective treatment of some conditions, such as schizophrenia or manic-depressive psychosis.
When effective treatments weren't available, tens of thousands of people were banged up in asylums, their lives put on hold for many years. Social utopias sound great, but the real task is to destigmatise public attitudes to mental illness.
Trevor Turner
Consultant psychiatrist and clinical director
East London and the City Mental Health NHS Trust
Listen to the people
I was interested but disappointed to read the case study of a young woman with learning difficulties (Practice Panel, 23 May). Valuing People has been published for over a year, yet practice and attitudes continue to be slow to change.
Why are we still charging forth as health and social care professionals with plans, services and multi-disciplinary assessments? It seems we continue to jump into solutions before asking what individuals want and need; before offering advocacy support if needed; and before thinking about the needs of someone with learning difficulties as we would those of any other young adult.
In Norfolk, we recognise that if services are to move forward we have to completely change the way we approach support for people, raise our expectations of people with learning difficulties, and realise that people with learning difficulties and their advocacy organisations often have a clearer idea of the approaches and support people need than the professionals do - as demonstrated in your case study.
Amanda Reynolds
Joint director of learning disabilities
Norwich primary care trust/Norfolk social services
