Threats to support in both the UK and the US continue apace, as the summer marked a year in power for Labour here and six months for Trump’s administration in America. Against this backdrop, we canvassed opinion on both sides of the Atlantic about the rights rollback.
Mary O’Hara’s report reflects the determination of those campaigning on the frontline as both US and UK administrations move to cut benefits and access to vital support that were already under pressure.
O’Hara writes: “Despite the attacks on people’s rights and the unease and uncertainty in both countries, advocates were all determined to keep up the fight.”
Defiance and holding authority to account are vital. Witness, as we highlight, the government’s lack of priority in publishing the Lives and Deaths Report (LeDeR) into the deaths of adults with a learning disability or autism. This has finally come out – to a barrage of criticism for its inadequate and poorly presented content.
Lip service
The need to challenge the status quo also runs through Phil Hughes’ piece on his experience of emergency healthcare and through Chris Hatton’s column. Hatton explains how the NHS 10-year plan essentially pays lip service to learning disabled people. Yet this part of our population dies on average 20 years earlier than everyone else.
More widely, although the plan’s aim to improve health by shifting care from hospital to the community is welcome, transformation will only happen if adult social care – which reduces pressure on health services – is properly funded.
Here lies an obvious point worth making, as underlined in Shubhanna Hussain’s words on the parent carer experience in the summer holidays. Hussain argues that, while campaigning must go hand in hand with optimism, aspiration alone is not enough: “Hope alone won’t give us the breaks we need. Real change takes time, funding and a system that listens.”
