We can report another ‘successful’ petition on change.org
The following petition appeared on change.org’s website on 19th December 2014
Petitioning National Health Service Cumbria
This petition was delivered to: National Health Service Cumbria
Give Mike a chance to live in a home near his family in Wigton, Cumbria.
Jennifer Henderson, Silloth, United Kingdom
Mike Calvert 47, from Wigton Cumbria – is a gentle kind and loving man with Downs syndrome and Dementia – and now needs full time care – this needs to be near his family and friends who he loves and who understand him the most. They have found a fantastic home in Wigton that can meet all his needs but still the Authorities say no! We need your support to give Mike a chance, please sign our petition to get Mike the love and care that he so deserves! Thank you!
In one month Jennifer Henderson gathered 150,000 supporters, and on 19th January 2015, she reported:
FANTASTIC NEWS!! We had the meeting this morning and we got the yes we’ve been fighting for! Mike can now stay in the best home for him, in his local community and a street away from my mum! This has been a hard fight so thank you so very very much, without you we couldn’t have done it!! My brother deserves the best which is what we have got. Thankyou so much! xxxx
This is not the only petition to have been ‘successful’ recently in challenging the decision of a local authority re care provision and residential placement. And we send our best wishes and congratulations to Jennifer and Mike.
It just seems a pity that the process for challenging decisions on social care provision has come to this. Some people will have the skill and competences to set up and manage an online campaign; some people’s campaigns will be ‘lucky’ and attract the attention of the media; some will be good at networking, or their petition may just ‘go viral’. Others may not have the skill-set required, or may just not ‘get lucky’. Are we in danger of having two complaint systems in place: a) the official ‘complaints procedure’ structure, seen by many users as too slow and formal, requiring gradual escalation to a level where a complaint is taken seriously; and b) the ‘unstructured’ process of online petitioning, which is inevitably ‘a bit of a lottery’?