by Andrew HolmanLast night's evening at Portcullis House, parliament's extension building along the road, was very pleasant, despite the purpose of the event. The Learning Disability Coalition was launching their report 'Tell it like it is', the results of a survey of people with a learning disability and their carers.
The report comes up with unsurprising results, very many people have experienced cuts across the board. There were however some positives, Direct Payments and Individual Budgets had done some good, along with free bus passes. The cuts to support for employment should worry the minister, given the central place jobs will have in Valuing People Now.
It was a pleasant evening due to the number of old friends and acquaintances there. I learned new and particularly useless stuff like when Steven Ladyman, a previous social care minister, now a now jobless MP after Gordon sacked him from transport, came up and thanked me for providing one of the few Google references for him under scholar!
He assured us this was an essential MP activity, and quite fun it turns out. I met an old hero of my brother's, Damon Hill. The last time I had seen him was when I went to the Monaco GP with Alan not too long before he died of Cystic Fibrosis. It was a bit disappointing to find he didn't live up to expectations in real life, although he had a transition project he was supporting in Guildford, he didn't make it sound terribly exciting and he was mainly used for a few photos. Still there were plenty of others to talk to and listen to.
Ivan's talk kept being delayed by the division bell when you could see just how many MPs the coalition had managed to attract to this launch as they marched out to vote. Lord Victor Abedowale, the chief executive of Turning Point, always value for money, stepped into the breach. He gave an impromptu yet impassioned speech about the need to see learning disability issues as a fundamental breach of civil rights.
Ivan got back just before it was time to go home. He really is making himself popular with people in the social care field (honestly, no sarcasm involved for once), with Jo Williams referring to him as the next prime minister. Whilst that may be a way off, he was greeted with much applause from all. He certainly seems to have his heart in the right place.
Ivan confirmed that the launch of Valuing People Now would be in the autumn. Apparently, the interviews for the new director are being held next week, so assuming they will need to give 3 months notice we should eventually be able to get on with things then. The thrust for Valuing People Now, he assured us, was delivery. Which left me wondering why we hadn't thought of that before? Silly us!
You can read the survey results yourself here. Gist is over 30% of people with learning disabilities have experienced cuts of some sort, the bad outweighs the good, with some having terrible experiences when they didn't get the support they needed. Roll on October then. It can't come quick enough, but gives us time to work on the social care green paper.
He assured us this was an essential MP activity, and quite fun it turns out. I met an old hero of my brother's, Damon Hill. The last time I had seen him was when I went to the Monaco GP with Alan not too long before he died of Cystic Fibrosis. It was a bit disappointing to find he didn't live up to expectations in real life, although he had a transition project he was supporting in Guildford, he didn't make it sound terribly exciting and he was mainly used for a few photos. Still there were plenty of others to talk to and listen to.
Ivan's talk kept being delayed by the division bell when you could see just how many MPs the coalition had managed to attract to this launch as they marched out to vote. Lord Victor Abedowale, the chief executive of Turning Point, always value for money, stepped into the breach. He gave an impromptu yet impassioned speech about the need to see learning disability issues as a fundamental breach of civil rights.
Ivan got back just before it was time to go home. He really is making himself popular with people in the social care field (honestly, no sarcasm involved for once), with Jo Williams referring to him as the next prime minister. Whilst that may be a way off, he was greeted with much applause from all. He certainly seems to have his heart in the right place.
Ivan confirmed that the launch of Valuing People Now would be in the autumn. Apparently, the interviews for the new director are being held next week, so assuming they will need to give 3 months notice we should eventually be able to get on with things then. The thrust for Valuing People Now, he assured us, was delivery. Which left me wondering why we hadn't thought of that before? Silly us!
You can read the survey results yourself here. Gist is over 30% of people with learning disabilities have experienced cuts of some sort, the bad outweighs the good, with some having terrible experiences when they didn't get the support they needed. Roll on October then. It can't come quick enough, but gives us time to work on the social care green paper.