“This is not about getting extra violin lessons for our kids. This is about the support they need to achieve their full potential in life.
“It’s about how they might be able one day to get a job and live independently. It’s that important.”
Sarah Jones is one of four mothers from Surrey taking a case to the High Court to challenge cuts to services for their five children with disabilities.
The use of restraints on adults with learning disabilities in hospital units in England rose by 50% between 2016 and 2017, figures show.
In 2017, restraints were used more than 22,000 times – once every half an hour. This was up from 15,000 times in 2016.
Former Social Care Minister Norman Lamb said the use of restraint was “shameful”.
The Department of Health said it was committed to reducing the use of restrictive force in hospitals.
Also covered in the Guardian here
Don’t forget Transforming Care – Is it Working? will be on BBC Radio 4 at 20:00 on 2 October.
Advocacy Awareness Week (22-26th October) is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the power and impact that advocacy has on people’s lives. It also gives us time to explore and communicate some of the pressing issues facing the future of advocacy in helping peoples voices be heard.
In the aftermath of the Winterbourne View scandal the government pledged to transfer people with learning disabilities and autism out of unsuitable hospital placements and into supported community living settings. A key milestone was to cut inpatient beds by March 2019 and to transform the lives of people who have been previously been ‘stuck’ in institutional settings.
But File on 4 has been told that the target will be missed and that it’s unachievable. Without the necessary expansion of capability to provide care for people in their own homes or community settings – many still languish in unsafe and unsuitable accommodation, with little prospect of moving on.
What are the implications for people who say they’re trapped in the system, with no route out?
Parents fighting to have their children moved to more appropriate environments say they fear for their safety. They paint a picture of a system that is overstretched and at breaking point. Without enough staff to provide the one to one care residents require – some have suffered serious injuries, harm or abuse.
So seven years after Winterbourne View, has enough really changed?