Why a Personal Campaign?
The move from commercial/industrial employment into the social field for the writer took place in 1966 when large numbers of day centres were springing up on industrial estates signalling the demise of the 'caring and minding' concept.
Successive 'modernisation' processes followed bringing deep and lasting impressions of the complexity of the task faced when attempting to provide fulfilling and interesting life experience opportunities to those with severe and multiple learning disabilities.
Not least, there was recognition that this enhanced lifestyle should not be gained at the expense of carers upon whom both the individual and the State will continue to be utterly dependant for around the clock availability.
Whilst 'choice' and 'new opportunities' are a major priority for all, first and foremost, these carers are entitled to specialist and structured support that will enable them to have a quality lifestyle of their own. Without their dedicated support all other policies will surely fail.
In the early to mid-1980s, emotive exchanges in 'trade' publications revealed ominous signs that the consequences of radical and irrational philosophies were about to impact negatively on progressive work that was bearing fruit in Adult Training Centres (ATCs). The proven opportunity to develop a rational integration policy for those who could benefit whilst maintaining a safety net and peace of mind for carers was clearly under threat.
Radical proposals, bizarre but worryingly influential, enabled predictions to be made in 1985 that unless these policies were seriously reappraised they could only eventually lead to the decimation of vital services. The scene was set to turn a realistic Care in the Community concept and appropriate service provision back by half a century.
Sure enough, in 1986 the trail blazing aspirations of an East Sussex Director of Social Services unintentionally provided an enlightening example that should convey a stark warning to others who also mean well but are equally out of touch with reality. He ditched the evolutionary work that was well advanced and set in motion a radical inclusion policy. The total failure of this pilot project graphically illustrated the destructive consequences of responding to idealist dogmas without adequate or appropriate research.
Successful programmes implemented by the dedicated efforts of staff and enthusiastic carers across the County fell apart with the imposition of the Director's revolutionary normalisation policy. Previously successful evolutionary inclusion programmes ground to a halt; uncertainty for carers followed and two decades later East Sussex developmental policies predictably remain in a state of suspension.
Apart from this outstanding example of managerial ineptitude, the writer had seen countless examples of both best practices and worst practices and attitudes. Limitations imposed by senior management incompetence have repeatedly frustrated realistic developmental programmes, whilst staff morale and motivation have been undermined by the irresponsibility of policymakers and administrators out of their depth - yet too arrogant to recognise their limitations. In the wider world, feedback from former colleagues confirmed that these were not isolated instances. All were becoming increasingly disillusioned by the lack of managerial support for the development of quality services brought about by the existing policy vacuum.
This developing situation revived a personal campaign that tried desperately in 1985 to draw attention to the need for pre-emptive intervention before Care in the Community was set on a course for total disintegration. Major organisations, including Mencap and the King's Fund Centre were just not interested.
With the election of a Labour government in 1997 - and the forlorn hope that a more rational and socially responsive era was dawning - this had seemed an appropriate time to intensify this campaign..
A 30,000 word dissertation again identifying the obvious weaknesses in the case for total integration and justifying the need for maintaining structured and specialist services was despatched to national Mencap HQ late 1997. Only one leading and knowledgeable senior Mencap executive recognised that these views should be shared with the full membership but even his serious attempts to promote open debate amongst Mencap membership failed. As it was then so it is today - debate is suppressed rather than encouraged.
The real experts and pioneers in this field, Professors Alan and Anne Clarke in the UK and Professor Wolf Wolfensberger in the USA, although with differing views in other respects were on the same wavelength in 2001 regarding the implementation of normalisation policies. They agreed that these were becoming irrational on an international scale - but nobody was taking heed.
Encouraged personally by Professors Alan and Anne Clarke, the Mencap exposition was condensed in 2001 to form the content of a 3000 word contribution to the internationally circulated Disability and Society Journal.
When Good Intentions - Unpredictable Consequences was published in December 2001, it significantly, brought the unsolicited comment from Professor Wolf Wolfensberger (USA), that '……there is some sanity in Britain after all'.
The original dissertation was extended extensively in 2005 to provide a far more comprehensive account of the failure to learn from past mistakes.
LEARNING DISABILITIES: The Rise and Potential Demise of Structured Day Services for Adults with Learning Disabilities, 1955 - 2005
This book set out to provide a basic but comprehensive insight in to the wide range of events and issues that have bedevilled the development of a cohesive and coherent national policy in the past and were continuing to have a significant impact on further development. Hopefully this is informative enough to provide a level playing field and an extended defence for carers anxious to preserve day centres and prevent them repeatedly being misled by manipulative local authorities.
Most recently, it was again condensed to provide a two page summary in Professional Social Work Journal - The day-care we can't desert (July, 2006).
This campaign continues and is intended to share the knowledge gained from a quarter of a century of experience. Hopefully it could contribute towards restoring a rational and balanced approach to positively developing services of paramount importance to so many highly vulnerable people.
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