December 2008 Archives

 by Allan Norman

For those who haven't already picked up on it, can I tell you about Quizblawg, the free charity fundraiser prize quiz running until 31st December, where all the answers are here on the Social Care Experts' Blog. What is Quizblawg?

by Andrew Holman

Hurrah, we all look set for a January 19^th launch for Valuing People Now. After a wait of some 9 months since the last policy lapsed this replacement has been a long time in the coming. And it looks like we will get a glitzy launch with DVDs, EasyRead and all sorts.

 by Allan Norman

Today marks the anniversary of our first post on the Social Care Experts Blog, and I thought I'd take the opportunity to update you on legal developments on some of the issues we have blogged about - with a focus on the developments you're less likely to have discovered by other means.

Service users' rights when illegal presence is settled and stable

Less than a fortnight ago, we commented on duties my colleague had established were owed to service users whose children may benefit from the so-called "seven year concession". It can surely be hardly coincidence that I have to report that just three days later, the government withdrew the concession. It's always a risk, if the government doesn't like your human rights challenge, that they will change the law...

  by Peter Corser

I wrote a piece four weeks ago about the Sun campaign against professionals in the Baby P case. It was written as a gut reaction. At the time of writing it I had not seen Sharon Shoesmith's performance so was less able to understand the anger. Having now seen it I am closer to understanding where the anger comes from. I have been, as have most of my peers, in meetings when senior managers come along and swear that black is white to you.

 by Allan Norman

Today is the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, arguably still the most important human rights declaration.

Yesterday, I was speaking about rights without remedies, and the Universal Declaration seemed an obvious example - its broad approach to rights, that includes social rights such as housing, employment, food and clothing, rest and leisure, and collective rights including "to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realised", goes well beyond the more limited rights (controversial enough, it seems) for which we have a remedy in our Human Rights Act.

  by Andrew Holman

At last night's meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on learning disability, I got the chance to ask Sir Jonathan Michael a question about his report on the health of people with learning disabilities.

His report, the Independent Inquiry into access to healthcare for people with learning disabilities had been prompted by a Mencap campaign, spearheaded by the publication of Death by Indifference, detailing a shocking and unnecessary loss of life. Deaths that bring a greater pain to any of us who have known people die unnecessarily when you add the guilt about whether you could have done anything more to prevent it.

  By Allan Bowman

Child protection agencies need to look beyond "what went wrong" and identify the trains of thought that allowed mistakes to occur.

When serious case reviews were first implemented, many of us working in children's services found them to be a helpful learning tool in difficult circumstances. The small pool of independent reviewers and authors has done much to bring to light the types of structural and individual practice that can lead to oversights, mistakes and difficulties. But years on from the first serious case review, we are now concerned about how the learning from reviews is used to improve future practice and, most importantly, the safety of children nationwide.

by Jennifer Harvey


With a job to hold down, elderly and needy parents, plus a grandchild to support, there is not a moment left to spare

I'm one of the squashed generation. Squashed between supporting elderly parents and helping care for grandchildren.

by Simon Heng


If personalisation is to move forward, personal assistants employed by direct payments users will need a better deal.

What attracts you, when you're looking for a job? Decent pay, for sure, maybe even a progressive pay scale. Also, good working conditions; reasonable holiday entitlement; challenging, but not impossible tasks; job security - almost certainly; training, to hone your skills and to develop new ones; a pension that your employer pays into; and regular supervision to give you a chance to share any potential difficulties.

 by Allan Norman

My colleague Yasmeen Qazi - a social worker and solicitor like myself - has recently been able to positively clarify rights to social services when a potential service user's presence here is both settled and stable on the one hand, but illegal on the other.

The case is R (on the application of C) v Birmingham City Council [2008] All ER (D) 171 (Nov). The brief facts are that the issue was whether the family could access support from the statutory social services authority in the form of accommodation and subsistence support under the Children Act 1989. The family comprised a mother who was an overstayer and therefore illegally present, an eldest child in respect of whom an application had been made for settlement under the "seven year concession", and three further British children born between 2004 and 2006.

 by Allan Norman

"Sir, We are frequently told that "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear".
Not so. I fear having to prove I have nothing to hide."

...ran Alan Douglas' letter published in the Times and Telegraph newspapers, two days before the historic judgement of the European Court of Human Rights this week in S. AND MARPER v. THE UNITED KINGDOM - 30562/04 [2008] ECHR 1581 (4 December 2008).

 

by Simon Stevens

Attitudes towards disabled people have changed but they are still not accepted as potential leaders

The election of the first black US president got me thinking how long it would be before there was a significantly impaired prime minister, especially someone with a speech impairment.

by Nigel Leaney

Some believe that the amount of mercury used in some dental fillings could help cause dementia. But it's only a theory...

Escaping to Manali, up in the Indian Himalayas, each morning I lifted my head from my pillow to see at the first rays of sun strike the snow-capped mountain peaks and a fast-flowing river tumbling and rushing over rocks and boulders from a melting glacier.

by Peter Beresford


Service users must redouble their efforts to back personalisation because policymakers' initial enthusiasm appears to be waning.

Earlier this year, individual budgets were heralded as the reform that would transform social care. Anyone who doubted them was liable to be taken off the team.

  by Peter Beresford

Travel broadens the mind, but it's often more difficult for service users. There's an obvious reason for many people - they don't have enough money to get about much. Some are also restricted by failures to ensure access. The horror stories I have heard from disabled people, particularly wheelchair users, particularly about air travel, beggar belief. My problem is a slightly different one. One of the big difficulties that has been associated with my experience of mental health services has been agoraphobia - fear of open spaces - or as it was for me quite simply fear of going out. This has got better, but travel is still a worry and I can't cope with flying. This of course restricts the amount I can travel any great distance and means that I have to use land and sea rather than air - which means much more time. I am hoping though that things will get better as everyone gets more aware of the need to reduce their carbon footprint and effective alternatives to air travel are made easier to access.