The coalition government announced (following consultation) that it would proceed with its plans to transfer the Independent Living Fund budget to local councils in England (and to the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland) when the Fund was closed in 2015.
Source: Government Response: Consultation on the Future of the Independent Living Fund, Cm 8420, Department for Work and Pensions, TSO
Links: Response to consultation | Hansard | DWP press release | HOC research brief | DRUK press release | Scope press release
Notes: Consultation document (July 2012)
Date: 2012-Dec
An article examined the evidence for whether the strategy of personal budgets for disabled people in the English social care system was fulfilling its original promise.
Source: Colin Slasberg, Peter Beresford, and Peter Schofield, 'Can personal budgets really deliver better outcome for all at no cost? Reviewing the evidence, costs and quality', Disability & Society, Volume 27 Number 7
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Nov
A report was published in which people with learning disabilities gave their opinions on the coalition government's plans for social care, and discussed how their lives would be affected by the proposals. Although service users and their relatives felt that some of the proposed reforms would make a really positive difference, almost all were concerned about existing levels of funding for care; what was going to happen to their benefits; and how their support would be affected as a result.
Source: Our Future: People with learning disabilities speak out on government plans for social care, United Response
Links: Report | United Response press release
Date: 2012-Nov
A report examined the outcome of a group of projects designed to improve user-driven commissioning for disabled people. It said that the projects had begun to bring about more positive health and quality of life outcomes – with potential for whole systems improvement, and integration and productivity gains.
Source: Bernd Sass and Peter Beresford, User-Driven Commissioning, Disability Rights UK/Shaping Our Lives
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Nov
A report highlighted the way in which some local authorities and providers in England and Wales were delivering better services by working in partnership with disabled people and disabled people's organizations. Innovative services offered an alternative future to cuts, based on strengthening the capabilities and citizenship of disabled people.
Source: Doing Services Differently: Local innovations for disabled people, Scope/New Economics Foundation
Links: Report | Summary | Scope press release | NEF press release
Date: 2012-Oct
The coalition government published a disability strategy, setting out the principles that would guide future work in supporting disabled people to realize their aspirations, promote a fair and equal society, and create more inclusive communities. Key elements were:
A new cross-sector disability action alliance involving disabled people, their organizations, and others from the public, private, and voluntary and community sectors.
Public service reform to support disabled people's independence and participation.
A new partnership approach giving disabled people much more influence in the design and delivery of services.
Source: Fulfilling Potential: Next Steps – Working together to enable disabled people to fulfil their potential and have opportunities to play a full role in society, Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Strategy | Hansard | DWP press release | RNIB press release | Scope press release
Date: 2012-Sep
An article examined projections of informal care receipt by older people with disabilities from spouses and (adult) children to 2032 in England. The projections showed that the proportion of older people with disabilities who had a child would fall by 2032 and that the extent of informal care in future might be lower than previously estimated.
Source: Linda Pickard, Raphael Wittenberg, Adelina Comas-Herrera, Derek King, and Juliette Malley, 'Mapping the future of family care: receipt of informal care by older people with disabilities in England to 2032', Social Policy and Society, Volume 11 Issue 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Sep
The report was published of an independent investigation into abuses at a care home for people with learning disabilities and autism. It said that the abuse had resulted from 'serious and sustained failings' in the management procedures of the private company that owned and operated the home. It also concluded that other organizations' systems and procedures 'fell short in commissioning patient care, and in reviewing and safeguarding the well-being of patients before and during their stay'. The inspectorate for healthcare and social care published the results of an internal management review into its own role in the case. It said that it had already made 'significant changes' to its systems and processes to ensure that it was better placed to respond to concerns of whistleblowers in similar situations.
Source: Margaret Flynn, Winterbourne View Hospital: A Serious Case Review, South Gloucestershire Safeguarding Adults Board | Alan Rosenbach, Internal Management Review of the Regulation of Winterbourne View, Care Quality Commission
Links: Report | Summary | CQC report | CQC press release | ADASS press release | Disability Rights UK press release | Labour Party press release | United Response press release | BBC report | Community Care report | Guardian report | Public Finance report
Date: 2012-Aug
A literature review examined mental capacity issues and the implementation of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
Source: Katrina Jenkins, Mental Capacity and the Mental Capacity Act 2005: A literature review, Mental Health Foundation
Links: Literature review
Date: 2012-Aug
A report said that the care system was failing people with a learning disability and behaviour that challenged. The government needed an action plan, including:
A closure programme of all large assessment and treatment units to be completed in three years, combined with the integration of smaller units with local services.
Commissioners to develop local services, including community-based intensive support services.
An urgent review to ensure that funding arrangements did not work against the incentive to get people out of assessment and treatment units, and 'economies of scale' did not force the continued development of larger units.
A strengthening of the law on adult safeguarding to ensure rigorous action against abusers and responsible organizations.
Source: Out of Sight: Stopping the neglect and abuse of people with a learning disability, Mencap/Challenging Behaviour Foundation
Links: Report | Mencap press release
Date: 2012-Aug
A report said that a failure by the European Union to bring its Structural Funds into alignment with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities would needlessly expose the EU – and its member states – to international legal liability if the Funds were used to build new institutions. Such a failure would amount to a wasted opportunity to harness the Funds to ease a major process of transition needed to embed the right to community living for all.
Source: Gerard Quinn and Suzanne Doyle, Taking the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Seriously: The past and future of the EU structural funds as a tool to achieve community living, Centre for Disability Law and Policy, National University of Ireland (Galway)
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Jul
An article examined the deprivation of liberty safeguards (DoLS) and, in particular, the extent to which the functions of supervisory bodies could, or should, be performed as part of wider 'safeguarding' responsibilities. Some practitioners believed that DoLS and safeguarding functions should be consolidated, and others that they should remain discrete: most, however, accepted that the two functions should work closely together, and also that an understanding of the Mental Capacity Act was important for each. There was a suspicion that DoLS-activity was greatest where the two functions were kept discrete (and, it was assumed, DoLS practitioners therefore had more to prove). There was also concern about financing, particularly within discrete DoLS services, and some suspicion about the whole business of 'safeguarding'.
Source: David Hewitt, 'The deprivation of liberty safeguards (DoLS) and adult safeguarding', Journal of Adult Protection, Volume 14 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Jun
An article examined decision-making power in six European countries (including the United Kingdom) in respect of social support for the participation of disabled or chronically ill persons in society. The level of decision-making power varied between the countries and between the types of decision-making power. Citizens' participation was mainly represented through patient associations. Countries with strongly decentralized decision-making made use of framework legislation at national level to set general targets or aims.
Source: Madelon Kroneman, Mieke Cardol, and Roland Friele, '(De)centralization of social support in six western European countries', Health Policy, Volume 106 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-May
An article examined recent Court of Protection case law on deprivation of liberty. It considered whether it would help to achieve the right balance between minimizing state interference with individuals and families, and protection of the most vulnerable, or risk undermining the core purpose of the system.
Source: Ben Troke, 'The death of deprivation of liberty safeguards (DOLS)?', Social Care and Neurodisability, Volume 3 Number 2
Links: Article
Date: 2012-May
The coalition government responded to a report by a joint committee of MPs and peers on the right of disabled people to independent living. It said that it was committed to tackling the barriers that might prevent disabled people from participation in society as equal partners.
Source: Reply by the Government to the Twenty-Third Report of the Joint Committee on Human Rights Session 2010-12: Implementation of the Right of Disabled People to Independent Living, Joint Select Committee on Human Rights, TSO
Links: Response
Notes: JC report (March 2012)
Date: 2012-May
The Supreme Court ruled that resources should not be taken into account by local councils when establishing the needs of disabled people. It also ruled that when social care support was provided by direct payments to the individual it was 'crucial' that local authorities provide 'a reasonable degree of detail so that a judgement could be made whether the indicative sum was too high, too low or about right'. The case followed a legal challenge by a severely disabled young man, who needed intensive support, against his local council's decision to provide him with care worth £85,000 – just over half the level one expert had estimated he would need.
Source: R (on the application of KM) (by his mother and litigation friend JM) v Cambridgeshire County Council, UKSC 23 (2012), United Kingdom Supreme Court
Links: Judgement | Supreme Court press release | Irwin Mitchell press release | Guardian report | Telegraph report
Date: 2012-May
A report examined how policy-makers, local authority commissioners, and service providers could improve access to services by black and minority-ethnic disabled people.
Source: Robert Trotter, Over-Looked Communities, Over-Due Change: How services can better support BME disabled people, Scope
Date: 2012-Apr
A report by a joint committee of MPs and peers said that cuts to benefits and services being introduced by the coalition government risked leaving disabled people without the support that they needed to live independently. The coalition government had failed to conduct an assessment of the cumulative impact of its 'reforms' on disabled people. The report called on the coalition government to immediately assess the need for, and feasibility of, legislation to establish independent living as a freestanding right for disabled people.
Source: Implementation of the Right of Disabled People to Independent Living, Twenty-Third Report (Session 2010-12), HC 1074 and HL 257, Joint Select Committee on Human Rights, TSO
Links: Report | Disability Rights UK press release | Mencap press release | Scope press release | Guardian report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2012-Mar
A report for the equality watchdog in Northern Ireland identified significant gaps in public policy and service delivery for people with disabilities in Northern Ireland.
Source: Colin Harper, Simon McClenahan, Bronagh Byrne, and Hannah Russell, Disability Programmes and Policies: How Does Northern Ireland Measure Up?, Equality Commission for Northern Ireland
Links: Report | Summary | ECNI press release
Date: 2012-Jan