By Caroline Lovell
Ivan Lewis, the care minister, doesn’t seem to think so; but I’m not sure. I think the revised learning disability paper contains two key levers for change. But it doesn’t seem to introduce any proposals that we haven’t already heard about this year.
I agree with Lewis that we need to move the commissioning power for learning disability social care services from the NHS to local government to shift it from a “medical to a social model”.
And I also agree that Learning Disability Partnership Boards (LDPBs) should be given “more teeth”; a phrase we seem to hear on a regular basis from the learning disability front.
Placing a statutory requirement on public bodies to work and consult with LDPBs or having them co-chaired by a person with learning disabilities and a senior member of the local authority are two good proposals.
But, to be honest with you, I didn’t see anything substantial in the document that will really move the learning disability empowerment agenda from “progress to transformation” and from “rhetoric to reality”, as Lewis repeatedly says.
Hi Caroline,
I'm trying to track down the source (govt statistics?) for the number of hetero/homo sexual partners adopting, quoted in your article:
Special guardianship numbers treble as adoption falls
Posted: 24 September 2007
writes Caroline Lovell
NB the hyperlink in the Community Care article is broken.
Thanks for any help,
Cheers,
Matt.
Hi Matt,
I got the data for this story from National Statistics. If you go to their website (www.statistics.gov.uk) you should find the info you need.
Thanks,
Caroline