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interview
A long fight for ordinary lives

A radical publication led to campaigns to move people with learning disabilities out of
institutions and into ‘ordinary houses in ordinary streets’. David Towell, one of the authors of
An Ordinary Life, tells Sean Kelly about how a family member inspired his life’s work

avid Towell starts his story with with learning disabilities could live as up to pay for alternatives. The NHS was
three critical days that have driven everyone else did. It was a shocking idea nationalised and controlled all these
Dthe story of his life for the for many people at the time. resources, and the King’s Fund was well
following 74 years. On 8 May 1945, the It was also a call to revolution and, as a placed to act as a central agency
Second World War ended. The following young support worker, I was profoundly coordinating a coalition of agencies
day, Towell’s older sister Pat, who was influenced by the ideas in the publication. pushing for change.
profoundly disabled, was sent away into Towell laughs several times as I tell him In 1991, he took a sabbatical to work in
care; that was what people did in those how fervent a young revolutionary I was what was then Czechoslovakia with the
times. On 10 May, Towell was born. with my colleagues in those days as we Health Ministry on deinstitutionalisation
We sit in his north London flat, where pushed for people to move into their own and integration. He also began work in
black and white photos of his parents and homes. With the certainty of youth, I had Canada, which is continuing, on inclusive
Pat are on display. Seeing the images probably only read the title page but that education. Towell says schools are the
every day makes sure he does not forget in itself formed an clear demand for starting point for inclusion “because, if
his sense of purpose. “Families never give change. He agrees: “Every revolution we get that right, we’re more likely to get
up,” he says. needs a powerful slogan.” that sense of community and people
With his sister, he says “We had this being valued”.
deal – although she didn’t use words,
so the deal was a bit one-sided – that I “ Official recognition
We had this deal that I
would do what I could to help her and, Some 20 years after An Ordinary Life was
learning from her experience, others in would do what I could to published, in 2001, the government
her situation.” help her and, learning from published Valuing People. “Valuing People
Characteristically perhaps, the chapter her experience, others is really a summary of the ordinary life
he wrote about their lives in Brian Rix’s programme written in government-
book All About Us (Rix, 2006) is called in her situation speak,” says Towell.
“Brothers and sisters as change agents”. This one began with journalist Ann ” Towell left full-time employment in
Sadly, Pat died seven years ago now but 2003. “I have a pension but I am not
he says: “I am still working for Pat really, retired,” he says.
and people like Pat. That’s what keeps Shearer, one of Towell’s coauthors. She He set up the Centre for Inclusive
me going.” wrote about people with learning Futures as an umbrella for his future
disabilities living in ordinary houses in work. One part of that continuing work
Postwar revolutionaries ordinary streets alongside mostly people has been to support two long-running
One of the first children born after the who were not disabled, which was peer learning groups (called learning sets)
war, Towell grew up in a rapidly changing condensed into “an ordinary life”. It was a made up of chief executives of what he
world. His parents were socialists and powerful vision expressed in plain
deeply committed to making things better. language that was perhaps easier to grasp
Towell’s father was the leader of than conceptions such as “social role “ I don’t think there
Feltham Council and very proud of valorisation” or “normalisation”.
developing 3,500 new homes for people In 1988, the King’s Fund published his were any superstars. The
who had previously lived in slums. (Many book An Ordinary Life in Practice (Towell, movement had many
years later, Pat left institutional care to 1988), “which claimed we were doing it,” leaders – in fact hundreds
share an ordinary house only a couple he says wryly.
of miles from Frank Towell Court, the Of course, many people were doing as it developed
block of flats commemorating their it and, as Towell says, it had become a ”
father’s contribution.) social movement. He accepts he had a
“The new welfare state gave me every leading role but points out that others calls “vision-led provider organisations”.
chance to make something of myself and did too: “I don’t think there were any There are two groups, one of eight chief
be useful,” says Towell, who pauses before superstars. It was a movement with many executives of larger organisations and
adding: “I am still trying to be useful.” leaders – in fact hundreds as this another of eight chief executives of much
I first heard of Towell as one of the movement developed.” smaller, more locally based organisations.
authors of An Ordinary Life (King’s Fund, Towell acknowledges that some of the I first met Towell as a member of the
1980). Prompted by scandals in big conditions of the time helped. The latter group through my work at the Elfrida
institutions, it was the first of a series of institutions already existed “so we knew Society and found his ability to analyse a
papers and books in which he and his what we didn’t want” and they used large group discussion and draw out shared
colleagues promoted the idea that people amounts of resources that could be freed underlying threads to be deeply impressive.

20 Vol 32 No 4 | Summer 2019 Community Living www.cl-initiatives.co.uk