Botton Latest (March 31st) – Botton dispute reaches the High Court (Round 1…)
The following is taken from a report by journalist Ashley Bernard, which appeared in The Northern Echo yesterday 30th March. Charity and residents of village for learning disabled people at loggerheads of judicial review application outcome An application for a judicial review by learning disabled residents of a North Yorkshire care village about a breach […]
Residential Training Colleges Facing Uncertain Future
Four of the country’s nine specialist residential training colleges for disabled people are facing an uncertain future, after the government announced a huge shake-up of specialist employability support. The contracting process, completed in less than 15 working days after years of “discussion and consideration”, saw five colleges succeed with their bids, while the other four […]
Who Cares? A backward drift in policy and practice.
25.03.2015. The Centre for Welfare Reform publishes Robin Jackson’s report ‘Who Cares?‘. The report’s author is Robin Jackson. Robin is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Hertfordshire, and has a wealth of experience with regard to learning disability, having for example previously been Development and Training Co-ordinator for Camphill Scotland. Robin edited Bound to […]
Welfare Cuts – the party strategies
We heard a lot last week about balancing the budget and the need to reduce the deficit, with each of the main parties having slightly different strategies to achieve this, all of which involve cuts to welfare. The government has announced its intention to reduce the welfare bill by 12bn but will not give details […]
Budget 2015
Yesterday was the last budget before the general election but was there any good news for people living with a learning disability, autism or mental health problems? Well he spoke a lot about savers who will be better off with tax concessions, and of course there is his favourite group, the “hardworking taxpayers”, he is […]
Botton Latest (March 16th)
Questions raised in the House of Lords about the forced restructuring of Botton Village as the Action for Botton campaign continues to gain political traction. Following the petition last month presented at Downing St by learning disabled residents, and now with over 30 concerned MPs of all colours writing to David Cameron, Baroness Hollins has […]
Green Paper aiming to give people ‘more rights’.
Care Minister Norman Lamb has launched the “No voice unheard, no right ignored” programme to strengthen the rights of people with learning disabilities, autism and mental health conditions and ensure they get the best care possible. “no voice unheard, no right ignored” will ask for people’s views on a range of proposed measures, such as […]
Care Act 2014 “Beyond compliance – towards excellence” (?)
The amount of comment and supporting information on The Care Act 2014, which will be implemented in April, as new or revised guidance comes into force, is mushrooming rapidly. We bring to your attention two resources on the Act, with very different origins: The SCIE (social care institute for excellence) is a charity which describes […]
Greater Manchester Gets Devolved Health Budget
Greater Manchester is to become the first English region to get full control of its health spending as part of the agreement to devolve more powers to local areas. The budgets for health and social care will be integrated into one £6bn pot, which will be controlled by the local councils that make up Greater […]
Benefit Sanctions
During a parliamentary debate on benefit sanctions the following case was highlighted: a learning disabled man was sanctioned for being 4 minutes late for an appointment. He cannot tell the time because he has learning disabilities but was sanctioned which meant he was left with no power and no food for 5 days. That this […]