DWP Consultations
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Stakeholder Bulletin – July 2012 has arrived in the Rescare office’s email inbox… Two items are of potential interest, each inviting responses to a current consultation. If you, or the person you care for, has experience of one or more Work Capability Assessments, or of a Right To […]
Cuts putting lives of learning disabled at risk, say nurses
16th May 2012: an article by Mary O’Harain the Guardian, highlighting the results of a RCN survey, will worry the parents and carers of persons with learning disabilities. “When the abuse of adults at Winterbourne View hospital near Bristol hit the headlines earlier this year it catapulted the mistreatment of people with learning difficulties in […]
Care and support White Paper published
On 11th July 2012, the Department of Health finally published its White Paper on the future provision of care and support. Whilst much initial reaction and comment in the media focused on the implications for future care services for people in old age, the White Paper will obviously also have implications for people with learning […]
Peter Bergel (the first child taken into the care of the Camphill movement)
18th June 2012: A moving and illuminating obituary, written by Allan Potter, has appeared in the Guardian. It begins…”The life of my friend and neighbour Peter Bergel, who has died aged 83, had something miraculous about it. He might have perished along with so many of his peers with a learning disability in the euthanasia […]
First annual report of new Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, Dame Julie Mellor.
11 July 2012: In her first report as the new Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, Dame Julie Mellor, DBE reveals that a record number of enquiries were received in the last year from people needing help with their complaint..The Ombudsman’s Annual Report for 2011-12 shows that 23,846 enquiries were received last year, more than ever before, […]
48% of 150 care homes inspected failed to meet standards…
25th June 2012, Guardian Society: Almost half of residential care homes for people with learning disabilities failed to meet care and welfare standards, the health and social care watchdog has found. The Care Quality Commission said 48% of the 150 locations it inspected were non-compliant in terms of whether patients “experienced safe and appropriate care, […]
Dame Philippa Russell re-appointed as Chair of the Standing Commission on Carers
Source: Department of Health, 18 July, 2012 Dame Philippa Russell re-appointed as Chair of the Standing Commission on Carers Dame Philippa Russell has been re-appointed as Chair of the Standing Commission on Carers. This is her second term after serving 3 years and the appointment is with effect from 20 May 2012. The Standing Commission […]
Charity chief quits over fit-for-work test
2nd April 2012: Paul Farmer, chief executive of the mental health charity Mind, resigns from the government advisory panel scrutinising welfare policy changes – to publicise his anger at the coalition government’s refusal to listen to his and other charities’ concerns. The panel is responsible for monitoring the introduction of the Work Capability Eassessment (WCA), […]
CQC is a joke… But it’s no laughing matter!
Rescare Editorial: The following article appeared in the latest (May 2012) edition of Rescare’s magazine, and appears here with the kind consent of its author. CQC is a joke… But it’s no laughing matter! Two Care Quality Commission whistleblowers dramatically and independently came forward at the eleventh hour to give evidence to the Mid Staffordshire […]
Banks ‘mis-selling to the vulnerable’
16th July 2012: An interesting article in the Business Section of the Daily Telegraph citing an unpublished report from The Citizens Advice Bureau given as evidence to the Financial Services Authority on how ‘packaged or bundled’ bank accounts are sold to people for whom they are inappropriate and who really require a ‘basic’ bank account. […]