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Name: Late August Update
E-mail: charles.henley1@ntlworld.com
Sent: 08/29/2010 09:38:01 am

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Name: Late August Update
E-mail : charles.henley1@ntlworld.com
Sent: : 08/29/2010 09:08:28 am

Having still received no response to my missive to thr forum of the 23rd July, the following was resubmitted on 16th August following the posting on FPLD of ‘Some worrying statistics’. The following quotes an extract from a lengthy statement made by Imelda Redmond CBE, Chief Executive of CarersUK.
…………………………………….
Message to Neil FPLD from Charles Henley 16th August 2010
Hi Neil,

'There is not a moment to lose. The care system is crumbling. On top of the existing postcode lottery in care, cuts are already starting to bite as councils reduce support to families'. Imalda Redmond

Who would argue with these statements?

We all know that the Valuing People policy has failed and we all know why.

The charitable organisations have clearly failed their membership and those
in the community at large by failing to have these issues debated in the
public arena before the policy fiasco developed.

The Mental Health Foundation should be holding an inquest on their part in
the failure and the potential consequences.

Perhaps you can oblige me with a logical explanation why my submission of
the 23rd July, which I resubmit, was neither acknowledged nor posted.
Best wishes
Charles
(The message continues with the resubmissions detailed below.)
Message ends
..................

Name: AUGUST UPDATE 6.8..2010
E-mail: charles.henley1@ntlworld.com
Sent: 08/06/2010 05:32:20 pm

Submitted to FPLD forum (Copied to Learning Disability Coalition) 23rd July 2010 – so far not acknowledged.

CHARLES HENLEY <charles.henley1@ntlworld.com>
23 July 2010 12:21
home@choiceforum.org <home@choiceforum.org>
Re: Examples of day service closures and provision thereafter

Liverpool’s proposals to replace 12 day centres and 3 residential homes for the elderly and people with learning disabilities with 3 round - the- clock centres for intermediate care and 3 community hubs will inspire little confidence in hard pressed carers that the anticipated personalisation (modernisation) benefits will be forthcoming.
Since 2001, two of the cardinal principles enshrined in Valuing People policy - CHOICE and the obligation to provide residential and day care services better than those that were being replaced - have repeatedly been ignored as valued resources have been depleted.
The anguish and heartfelt postings expressed on the forum alone over the past few years bear testament to the extent to which Valuing People has failed so many people with severe and moderate learning disabilities and their carers - but the full extent of the deprivation and despair experienced by carers and those needing appropriate support will not be revealed until it is addressed in the public domain.
In early June, 2010 Mrs Anne Brand, a mother and Mencap branch secretary, forwarded to several national newspapers substantial evidence of the consequences of failed current policies and appealing for a national debate. I not only wrote fully supporting this request but also, on the 19th June, emailed the Learning Disability Coalition appealing for its support for this proposal - it should surely be of concern to most of its own membership. There was no response.
I find it difficult to believe that members of the Learning Disability Coalition do not monitor this site (the FPLD forum) for surely there is a duty of care and responsibility that the Coalition takes account of the views and experiences of the most vulnerable.
This then this poses significant questions - why are poignant postings and apparent injustices so consistently ignored? Is it unreasonable to expect the Learning Disability Coalition to compensate by taking an active role in the debates on this forum? They are clearly basing their policies upon advice gleaned form various expert sources. Perhaps these experts can give reassurance to members of the forum by detailing the nature of the research upon which their judgments are based and give some background information regarding their hands-on experience that convinces them that their advice is sound?
Personally, I am not overconfident that a response will be forthcoming as I append an email I sent to the LDC on the 19th July which as yet has not been acknowledged. Admittedly, it is provocative for that is the intention. If it is too provocative to be posted on the forum would you kindly refer readers to my website where it is published in full? www.learningdisabilitiesenlightenment.co.uk
Charles Henley
………………………………………………………….

To Anthea Cox Learning Disability Coalition
Valuing People Now under threat as review looms. 15th July 2010.
‘Staff delivering the key government programme to improve the lives of people with learning disabilities have been told their job could be axed Community Care has been told.’ Community Care 15th July 2010
In the light of mounting evidence that for almost a decade the Valuing People policy has totally failed many families dependent upon stable and rational residential and day care services it is sad to see leading charitable organisations lamenting the loss of financial support for a policy that has cruelly raised unattainable and unrealistic expectations.
The full Valuing People policy was doomed to fail - vital aspects of this policy, founded on questionable premises and unrealistic expectations were fundamentally flawed from its inception. A central tenet of this policy – CHOICE – in practice has proved to be a fiasco. Rushed through in 2001 for political expediency without clear strategic guidance or sufficient reliable and validated research, the timescale within which ‘modernisation’ was to be achieved was totally out of touch with reality.
Nevertheless, Valuing People and Valuing People Now have had the NHS and local authorities and charitable organisations trying to comply with ‘wish lists’ that conflict with their own strategic agendas. Inevitably their own agendas, within which the individuality of each person with learning disabilities too often rates a very low priority, predominate at the expense of traumatised carers and victims.
Already given a licence to decimate services under the smokescreen of inclusion and personalisation dogmas – the recession has reinforced the ruthless revision of eligibility criteria and the decimation of support services - bringing turmoil and despair to hard pressed families. The publication of Valuing People Now in 2009 simply deferred facing the moment of truth.
Without a clearly defined and rational policy billions of pounds could continue to be poured down the drain under the umbrella of the present government’s Big Society aspirations by distribution to incompetent and misguided national and local authorities, profit motivated private enterprises, and charitable organisations who appear to have lost their sense of direction as they have become increasing dependent on government handouts.
There is an urgent need for objective and informed debate in the public domain to identify rational and achievable objectives if the obscene waste of millions of taxpayers’ money is not to continue - but open debate is pointedly avoided.
Although my article in the December 2009 edition of the reputable RCN Learning Disability Practice journal proposed that current policy zealots were turning the Care in the Community clock back half a century this accusation has remained unchallenged. An extended article in the July 2006 Social Work journal accusing the major charitable organisations of losing their sense of direction and failing their membership raised not a whimper of protest. Much earlier efforts in Community Care (Learn from our past mistakes) and Disability and Society (Good Intentions-Unpredictable Consequences) both in 2001 failed to raise a flicker of interest in the UK although commended as a return to sanity in the USA. So why are no major organisations or individuals prepared to openly debate these issues in the public domain?
I am, in fact, left to wonder if there is anyone left who is accountable for and prepared to justify the current trend - or have all abandoned ship and left local authority bureaucrats to continue their path of destruction and eventually take full responsibility for the ultimate debacle?
The Valuing People episode will surely go on record as the most lamentable chapter of service development in social history.
Charles Henley


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