Write to Community Living at simonj@jarr.demon.co.uk. Note: all letters may be edited
People earn more from work than money
Following your issue on employment, (CL 31:1), recent NHS Short and Long Term Care (SALT) figures reveal a worrying trend in national employment patterns for people with learning disabilities.
From a high of 6% in 2014-15, they fell to 5.8% the following year then 5.6%. Most of those in paid employment work for less than 16 hours per week.
Kudos to Bexley – the only council to report a rate of more than 20% in its area. Congratulations also to North East Lincolnshire, which achieved a 15% increase, the most nationally, over 2014-17. They prove that people with learning disabilities can work successfully.
Fourteen authorities – Birmingham, City of London, Hull, Isles of Scilly, Lambeth, Manchester, Nottingham, Oldham, Rutland, Sandwell, South Tyneside, Telford & Wrekin, Warrington and Wigan – report levels of 1% or less. They should be asking themselves some tough questions – as should those seeing sustained, substantial declines.
Why does this matter? Work means far more than money and productivity. It means self-esteem, confidence and social opportunities. People supported into employment by Dimensions have real jobs where they can fulfil work aspirations and achieve social and economic inclusion. Dimensions also directly employs more than 50 people with learning disabilities as quality checkers, as film makers, on the reception team and in other roles.
But the story that prompted me to write this letter does not come from any of them. It comes from a thank you letter from a young autistic man called Corey,
If you have any influence over how companies and councils prioritise employment for people with learning disabilities and autism, please use it.
Duncan Bell Head of marketing, Dimensions
Beware the mini institutions
Robin Jackson’s column (CL 31:2) summarises the trend towards miniature institutions and services from the past.
Unless a disabled person capable of living in a way that suits them is allowed to do so, they will always depend on the “institutionalisation” of services as dictated by others – more so if they are not capable.
The move towards a culture of provision by profit rather than of knowledge and care is leading to a culture of “bums on seats based on costs” and “if we can’t afford to take you in” then “disappear quickly” – you don’t matter to us.
The case of Scope illustrates such troubling outcomes. I write as the parent of an adult with limited capacity who has used their services for many years.
Cerebral palsy is complex and everyone affected is an individual; without the expertise gained from a specialist organisation such as Scope, expertise and resources for those individuals, families and professionals in the community will be lost.
Then off we will go again! People will be tucked away (especially in later life) where they don’t matter: in old people’s homes, where care staff have enough on their plates; hidden among people with dementia; unable to cope in a strange, hostile environment; unable to make their views and wishes known because of the lack of appropriate communication; and unable to interact with peers. They can become trapped in a horrifying cycle of misunderstanding and abuse.
This is indeed a troubling sign of things to come. Perhaps it is time for the wheel to be reinvented.
Betty Fisher Chester
