Channel 4 Documentary: Under Lock and Key (Wed 1st March, 10pm)
A preview ‘ad’ on Channel 4 last night alerted me to an upcoming documentary ‘Under Lock and Key’ to be screened on Wednesday (1st March) at 10pm, which might be more rewarding viewing than the news. The program’s page on the Channel 4 website describes it thus: “How best can suitable care be provided for […]
DRUK publishes its submission to DWP’s Green Paper “Improving Lives”
Just received from Disability Rights UK (DRUK): a copy of its response to the DWP’s Work, Health and Disability Green Paper “Improving Lives”. In it DRUK makes 25 recommendations for halving the disability employment gap consultation. DRUK begins by listing its ‘Top Ten’ priority recommendations.
Uncoordinated regulation of shared accommodation for ‘vulnerable people’
I’ll fess up: as the father of an autistic son in supported living in a Housing Association multi-unit property, I had no idea that my son’s housing was regulated by the Homes and Communities Agency. I noted the following exchange (Parliamentary Question and Answer) and thought ‘Why, when it comes to learning disability, is every […]
CQC and its Regulatory Role (FFPR for Directors of Providers)
I feel like I’m being bombarded via tweets and emails from various parties, including the CQC, on the issue of the CQC and the regulation of care services, with many parties having opinions on the (in)effectiveness of the CQC in its various regulatory functions i.e. its fitness for purpose. Some ask whether it is adequately […]
Dodgy and defensible cuts
Just ‘recovering’ from the January webinar from Belinda Schwehr… on the Care Act, Reviews, Revisions and Reassessments. Important, informative stuff but it makes your brain hurt. Webinars details are on Belinda’s blog website www.schwehroncare.co.uk . The webinars are protected intellectual property; but for once, and because some of the content is so jaw-dropping, Belinda has […]
Why don’t we have a National Care Service?
There has been a lot written recently about the affects of local authority funding cuts on social care. Access to care is now very much a postcode lottery and the whole process is disjointed and in some cases totally shambolic. Isn’t it about time we looked at a different way to take care of those […]
Legislation, Legislation, Legislation…
RE Children and Social Work Bill [Lords] in a Public Bill Committee at 9:45 am on 10th January 2017… I received an email alert to a relevant debate in a Lords Committee two days ago (10th Jan), and specifically to the contribution of shadow children’s minister Emma Lewell-Buck. I have to admit that I am […]
Expert answers difficult questions on Direct Payments.
Having discovered recently that the Care Act and its Guidance have superseded all previous legislation and guidance on Direct Payments (you live and learn), I was interested to see the following article in Community Care online, which deserves a wide audience. Whilst technically a ‘Q&A’ session, the article by Belinda Schwehr considered the ‘big questions’ […]
Nicola Sturgeon announces new flexible childcare policy and review of the care system
Amongst the ‘other stuff’ in Nicola Sturgeon’s keynote speech to the SNP conference, e.g. a second referendum bill, there were some interesting and important announcements on social policy. These included changes to childcare policy, and to the care system for looked-after children, and a wider review of the whole care system in Scotland.
Research into ageing and autism
An article in the i newspaper on 11th October caught our attention. Academic Rebecca Ann Charlton of Goldsmiths, University of London, described research being undertaken in conjunction with the Autism Diagnostic Research Centre in Southampton into what happens as people with autism age. “If you mention autism to most people they will think about children, […]