An article said that there was potential for expanding disabled people s social rights to both direct services and direct payments, by enforcing the positive obligations on public authorities conferred by human rights legislation and by challenging rationing regimes.
Source: Kathryn Ellis, 'Disability rights in practice: the relationship between human rights and social rights in contemporary social care': Subtitle, Disability & Society, Volume 20 Number 7
Links: Abstract
Date: 2005-Dec
A report reviewed four community organizations providing support to black disabled people. Projects were most successful where they responded from the outset to the complexity of participants identities, multiple support needs, and experiences of multiple exclusion.
Source: Becca Singh, Improving Support for Black Disabled People: Lessons from community organisations on making change happen, York Publishing Services for Joseph Rowntree Foundation, available from York Publishing Services Ltd (01904 430033)
Links: Report | JRF Findings
Date: 2005-Nov
A report expressed alarm over the spending pressures caused by learning disability services on social care budgets.
Source: Brian Parrott, Pressures on Learning Disability Services: The case for review by government of current funding, Association of Directors of Social Services (020 8741 8147)
Links: Report (pdf) | ADSS press release
Date: 2005-Oct
An audit report reviewed the Supporting People programme (launched in April 2003 to provide a better quality of life for vulnerable people and to help them live more independently). It said that services had improved, but that delivery on the ground was not consistently good. There needed to be a long-term commitment and a financial framework to underpin minimum standards.
Source: Supporting People, Audit Commission (0800 502030)
Links: Report | Audit Commission press release
Date: 2005-Oct
A report examined the role and experiences of personal assistants employed by people receiving direct payments.
Source: Margaret Flynn, Developing the Role of Personal Assistants, Skills for Care (formerly Topss England) (0113 245 1716)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf) | SFC press release
Date: 2005-Sep
A series of articles examined the options for changing the law on euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.
Source: British Medical Journal, 24 September 2005
Links: BMJ press release | CofE press release
Date: 2005-Sep
An article questioned whether the employment market in suitably skilled and competent personal assistants for disabled people had been sufficiently well researched.
Source: Peter Scourfield, 'Implementing the Community Care (Direct Payments) Act: will the supply of personal assistants meet the demand and at what price?', Journal of Social Policy, Volume 34 Issue 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2005-Jul
The Court of Appeal upheld the validity of guidance issued by the General Medical Council on the withholding and withdrawing of life-prolonging treatment. (The guidance had been successfully challenged in he High Court in 2004.)
Source: R (Burke) v General Medical Council (Official Solicitor intervening), Court of Appeal, 28 July 2005
Links: GMC press release | BMA press release | VES press release | DRC press release | Scope press release
Date: 2005-Jul
A report said that the type of assistance that younger disabled people often required needed to be more flexible, or of a different type, than that offered by social services - for example, assistance with making decisions concerning work, both paid and voluntary, or in parenting. It explored ways of incorporating these and other types of assistance into assessment processes.
Source: Jennifer Harris, Michele Foster, Karen Jackson and Hannah Morgan, Outcomes for Disabled Service Users: Department of Health final report, Social Policy Research Unit/University of York (01904 433608)
Links: Report (pdf) | Appendices (pdf)
Date: 2005-Jun
An audit report said that the Public Guardianship Office had improved the quality of information it received on the stewardship of the financial affairs of people who had lost mental capacity. But it needed to do more to target its resources, focusing on those cases where the risk of mismanagement or financial abuse was greatest.
Source: Public Guardianship Office: Protecting and promoting the financial affairs of those who lose their mental capacity, HC 27 (Session 2005-06), National Audit Office (020 7798 7000)
Links: Report (pdf) | NAO press release | DCA press release
Date: 2005-Jun
A think-tank report said that the welfare system should be radically overhauled to support and empower disabled people to design and deliver their own services. The government should use reform of incapacity benefit to create a system of support for disabled people based on the principles of independent living.
Source: Sarah Gillinson, Hannah Green and Paul Miller, Independent Living: The right to be equal citizens, Demos, available from Central Books (020 8986 5488)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary | Demos press release | Guardian report
Date: 2005-May
A report by a committee of peers said that the demand for assisted suicide or voluntary euthanasia was particularly strong among determined individuals whose suffering derived more from the fact of their terminal illness than from its symptoms, and who were unlikely to be deflected from their wish to end their lives by more or better palliative care. Any future Bill to legalize assistance with suicide or voluntary euthanasia should focus primarily on this group of people.
Source: Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill [HL], First Report (Session 2004-05), HL 86, House of Lords Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | VES press release | DRC press release | FPLD press release | CofE press release | Guardian report
Date: 2005-Apr
A report by a committee of MPs said that arrangements for funding long-term healthcare were "beset with complexity", and that a lack of clear government guidance had led to widespread geographical variations in service provision.
Source: NHS Continuing Care, Sixth Report (Session 2004-05), HC 399, House of Commons Health Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Alzheimer's Society press release | Guardian report
Date: 2005-Apr
A leading disability charity said that it was changing the focus of its organization to concentrate its budget on helping people with a disability to live in the community, instead of housing them in separate institutions and schools.
Source: Press release 25 February 2005, Scope (020 7619 7341)
Links: Scope press release | Guardian report
Date: 2005-Mar