by Peter Beresford
What amazed me, when for the first time I saw Iain Duncan-Smith speaking the other day, was not that he was jettisoned from the leadership of the Tory party, but that he was ever given it.
by Simon Stevens
There are too many disabled people. Despite just being 33, I feel like Victor Meldrew as I remember the good old days when disabled people were seen as freaks.
by Andrew Holman
Last night's meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Learning Disability was not as packed as I had expected, especially with the Minister speaking. Perhaps others knew the Valuing People refresh was still not ready to be launched.
by Stephen Burke
Employers and government could do much more to support the growing number of carers who work and want to work. Carers should be given the same rights at work as parents – particularly by extending tax breaks for childcare vouchers to care vouchers.
by Andrew Holman
Whilst getting older I had promised myself I would try not to behave like my parents. The grown when you get up from a low chair, complaining about the new music of the day, how time goes by faster and faster and how you had seen that new policy or practice before, with a joke about waiting long enough and my flared trousers will come back into fashion.
by Peter Beresford
Note: Blog first posted on 15 October
Christmas comes early in capitalist Britain. So as I was wandering unthinkingly through my local BHS (British Home Stores), I was drawn to the capacious Xmas product display giving me months of advanced planning time for my festive giving.
by Stephen Burke
Note: Blog first posted on 11 October
Today’s spending review announcement promises a ‘radical rethink’ of social care for older people. The proposed Green Paper offers a once in a lifetime opportunity to develop a lasting settlement providing a fair and affordable sharing of the cost of care for our ageing population.
by Stephen Burke
Note: Blog first posted on 26 September
Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an unprecedented commitment to better care and support for older people, their families and carers at the Labour Party conference this week.
by Andrew Holman
Note: This blog was first posted on the 29 October
Yesterdays voluminous newsletter from the Valuing People Support Team on health care must be the first one I have ever found interesting enough to print off. For years we have argued for major changes if people with learning disabilities are to get anything like equality in health. The subject is important, I have seen first hand how people’s health is ignored, eye sight left to deteriorate, or health interventions or procedures are not offered to someone because they have a learning disability. We are, of course, talking life and death here and I have seen people die far too early as a result of late diagnosis or complete lack of treatment.
by Peter Beresford
Note: Blog first posted on 27 August
I started last week with knives on my mind. Most of us ended it confronted with the gunning down of an 11 year old, Rhys Jones, in Liverpool.
