Keys that unlock the doors to citizenship

 Ten years after the launch of Keys to Citizenship by the Campaign for Welfare Reform many people with learning disabilities are still living lives far removed from the principles set out in this ground-breaking guide. Sam Sly reports on a new project group formed to get people thinking about how we can revitalise the Keys to bring about real change for people.

This year will see the launch of ‘Keys – Citizenship for All’ project, very apt as it is also the year of the general election and with it, let’s hope, a positive change for the citizens with learning disabilities and their families we work alongside. We, the project group, are extending an invitation to anyone (families, people with learning disabilities, supporters, advocates) or any group (self, advocates, providers, community and statutory groups and commissioners) that would like to help us think about how Keys can help them form a platform for improving lives for people with learning disabilities in society.

As a young social worker, many years ago, it was Wolfensberger’s Social Role Valorisation (SRV) (1983) that helped me make sense of what was happening for people with learning disabilities, and what those working side-by-side with people should be doing to enhance, maintain and defend the valued social roles vital to helping people be accepted and belong in society. It was a ‘lightbulb’ moment for me! Having a set of beliefs and, more importantly, a framework to work in seemed beneficial when faced with what often felt like an impenetrable, entrenched world of congregation, segregation, isolation, de-individualisation, exclusion and wasted lives. That was in the early 90s – how much has changed today?

In 2007, while working as part of the Change Team in Cornwall helping to transform lives after the scandalous treatment of people with learning disabilities by Cornwall Partnership Trust and other public services, I was introduced to Dr Simon Duffy’s Keys to Citizenship (2003). This was the nationally acclaimed model published as a guide to getting good support for people with learning disabilities. To me it was a natural progression from SRV but with principles that were clearer and not so beset with the language barriers that put some people off. Keys became my second ‘lightbulb’ moment! In subsequent years the Keys were taken on by many working alongside people with learning disabilities helping to improve their lives and develop true citizenship.

What is citizenship?

When I am training support workers and managers the first question I ask is, what is citizenship? Often it is not something they have thought very deeply about, just taking it for granted. If you have no disability or traits that others perceive as different then citizenship is a ‘given’. However, the importance of citizenship is often little understood or appreciated. Citizenship is about how we can all be equal and different. We should all be equal as citizens and equal members of our community. As citizens we should be welcomed into the community for who we are; with all our gifts and differences. Citizenship is how we reconcile equality and difference through community.

For those people in society with perceived differences like learning disabilities, citizenship just does not happen. I believe citizenship and the acceptance it brings is possibly the Key to truly belonging, being valued and getting the good things in life. With this belief it seems nonsensical not to be shaping services around the Keys to helping people with learning disabilities achieve full citizenship.

Citizenship carries with it both rights and responsibilities.  The rights include the right to political participation, the right to be heard and to free speech. It also involves the right to work, live a life that makes sense to you and the right to respect and dignity. With rights also come responsibilities, including following the laws, respecting others, contributing and being productive. People with learning disabilities are often not made aware that they have responsibilities in the communities they live in. Not only are the rights of people with learning disabilities ignored but also their responsibilities.

Sadly, more than ten years since the Keys were published, we still have not seen a transformation. People with learning disabilities still lack a strong voice and are still not able to expect the same life chances as others. They are still housed together, lack the opportunities to work or to be self-sufficient and have few opportunities to form loving, caring relationships. Many are still unable to make positive contributions to the communities they live in. All this cumulates in wasted lives and, in some instances, the worst possible outcome of death, despite the millions poured into services and the thousands whose job it is to help people have these opportunities. Enough is enough – it’s time for change!

In 2014, Dr Simon Duffy, Wendy Perez, Cornwall People First, Gary Kent from New Key and myself came together as a project group to refresh and refocus Keys – Citizenship for All and update the model to reflect current thinking and to form a platform for transformation.

What are the Keys?

We believe there are seven key areas forming the platform for citizenship and a good life for people. Any service purporting to be supporting people with learning disabilities should be able to say and show they are accomplishing these Keys:

  1. Freedom – control over your life and the ability to speak up (or have help to speak up) to be heard and to be legally visible in society.
  2. Purpose – having goals, hopes and dreams, a structure for your life and a plan to achieve this.
  3. Money – to have money for what you need to live a good life and real control over how that money is spent.
  4. Home – a place that belongs to you, where you have control over everything that happens there. A place that can be the base for your life and where you feel safe.
  5. Help – good quality help that enhances your gifts, talents and skills and ensures you have positive social standing, freedoms, rights and responsibilities in society.
  6. Life – opportunities to play an active part in your community including working, having fun, being with other valued people and contributing through your gifts and talents. People are more powerful when they work together.
  7. Love – that you are able to experience a full range of loving relationships and through these experiences contribute to a more loving society where differences are revered and respected.

 

Key 4 illustrates how important these Keys are: Home – and how home has become distorted and misused for people with learning disabilities by ’serviceland’ leading to unhappy and sometimes dangerous lives.

‘Home is where the heart is’ – how true that old saying is. Think about how important your home is to you. My home roots me in my community and is where I can easily get to my work. It gives me status and is a financial asset. My home helps promote my citizenship. At home I can be myself and express myself through how I paint and furnish it. I feel at ease and I’ve brought up my family there. I am comfortable and settled and I can do all this in privacy. Most importantly, I feel safe because the people I live with are people I have chosen because I love them, so I am not scared of violence and abuse. Should we not aspire to make this true for all the people we work with?

Unfortunately, home for many people is often something quite different. We even talk about home differently – you and I live at home, people with learning disabilities live in a home. There is often no ownership, no belonging and it is somewhere people are put, often together with people they did not choose, grouped together because they have similar devalued traits. To top it all, if they do anything other people don’t like at home, they can be removed. Why is it so different for people with learning disabilities? There are a raft of reasons but I believe that what is good enough for me is good enough for a person with learning disabilities and Keys helps us understand what it is that we should be doing, not what ‘serviceland’ is currently doing.

Keys have been successfully used nationally by Experts by Experience Organisations, like Bournemouth People First and Cornwall People First, to form the basis of quality checking and training businesses where people with learning disabilities are paid. I also used Keys to develop ‘Hands Off It’s My Home’ a quality checking self-assessment toolkit which many providers have used nationally to ensure the services they provide give people good lives.

We want to do more and are excited about what Keys might do for people with learning disabilities and their families in the future. So far, we have interest from Gloucester Voices, Bournemouth People First, Skills for People and New Prospects and international interest from Ben Drew of Open Future Learning in America and Kate Fulton in Australia.

If you have ideas, questions or would like to become involved in this exciting project please contact me, the project manager, Sam Sly sam.sly@enoughisenough.org.uk 07900 424144.

 

Wolfensberger, W. (1983). Social role valorization: A proposed new term for the principle of normalisation. Mental Retardation, 21(6), 234-239

Duffy, S. (2003). Keys to Citizenship: a guide to getting good support for people with learning disabilities, The Centre for Welfare Reform.