News

• Government told people with learning difficulties must be higher priority

The government has admitted that it is failing to take the learning difficulties white paper 'Valuing People' seriously enough in its work, according to the first annual report on learning difficulties, writes Anabel Unity Sale.

'Making Change Happen' agrees with the learning disability taskforce that people across the government are not taking the learning difficulty white paper seriously enough when making plans, despite the fact it was published two years ago. It also says that partnership boards have failed to sufficiently involves service users.

The government’s report, which includes its response to the taskforce’s first annual report in January, said: “Partnership boards have had to do a lot things very quickly. This has made it hard to work well with people with learning disabilities.”

It also acknowledges concerns raised by the taskforce report about the closure of long-stay hospitals. “We are disappointed some places are saying they may still not be able to help everyone move out of long-stay hospitals to better places by April 2004, but we still want them to go on trying,” it says.

The government has also announced the extension of the implementation support fund for Valuing People by £2 million for 2004-05 and 2005-06.

Director of implementation Rob Greig and the Valuing People support team will have their contracts extended so they can concentrate on helping partnerships develop. The implementation support fund and the teams’ contracts were all originally due to end in 2004.

The government report says a team of expert advisers will work with the Valuing People support team on the subjects of advocacy, education, ethnicity, families, housing and work for the next 12 months.

It also says a report on the initial work of the first ever government-commissioned national survey of people with learning difficulties being conducted by Lancaster University, research firm BMRB, and self-advocacy group Central England People First, is due in May.

'Making Change Happen' from www.doh.gov.uk/learningdisabilities/annualreport/index.htm