Now receiving some feedback from posts and blogs on learning disability and/or autism, and health and obesity.

One correspondent with experience of the Camphill movement , and of Botton village in particular,  drew our attention to the evidence submitted by the Botton Village Families Group (BVLG), firstly at its ‘Choice for Intentional Community’ presentation to MPs and peers in Sept 2015, and latterly to the Parliamentary Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee in 2017 during its Inquiry into Social Care: specifically, to a paper submitted by Dr Marcus van Dam, of the Danby Surgery, North Yorkshire (the surgery which serves Botton Village), entitled ‘A healthy way of life’. Dr van Dam’s article is concise, and makes for an interesting read. It also gives some background information on Botton (up to 2015).

In preparing this post, I took the chance to remind myself of the Parliamentary Committees findings, by looking at the final report on its conclusions.

The report concentrates on two broad themes: the integration of health and social care, and future funding of social care.
At paragraph 155 there is an acknowledgement of the submissions from BVLG: “We received a substantial amount of evidence about the benefits and cost effectiveness of another non-mainstream form of care, ‘intentional life-sharing communities’, in which adults with learning disabilities receive housing, support and day activities in community settings. The evidence revealed significant concerns among the families of adults in one such community, Botton Village, that funding pressures, commissioning practices and regulation posed a threat to the continuation of these communities. We greatly sympathise with the families’ concerns, but are not well-placed to investigate or adjudicate the matter. But the amount of evidence we received on this one issue, and the strength of feeling expressed, exemplifies the reasons why it is essential to get the country’s social care system right in the short, medium and long terms”. 
(I have looked but can see no mention in the report to the specific issue of obesity, and how it may be tackled by through regimes of exercise and diet.)