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Residential Care or Supported Living?

The new government is said to have signalled the end to austerity and there is now an opportunity for the opposition to resist some of the worst effects of this policy on vulnerable people.

Unfortunately, it is unlikely any policies will be related specifically to learning disabilities. The last seven years have seen an alarming fading of government focus on learning disabilities and the funding to support them, along with the services, infrastructure and policy initiatives necessary to enable them to live independent and meaningful lives.

We raised major issues during the recent election campaign that we feel are vital to the future of people with learning disabilities in this country. First, why are they, even though already among the groups most affected by poverty in the UK, inordinately bearing the brunt of spending cuts? This process must be reversed. Second, action must be taken over the scandalous 6% employment rate of people with learning disabilities. This is a shocking waste of human potential. Third, we are seeing a move away from people with learning disabilities living in their own tenancies in their communities and a growth in large-scale institution-like ‘housing units’ (as our columnist Robin Jackson writes on page 10). This is a depressing step back into the past which is taking people out of the communities they have fought so hard to be a part of. Finally, there are still over 2,000 people with learning disabilities locked up in hugely expensive ‘assessment and treatment’ units, often far from home and family, where abuse and ill treatment are rife, as happened at Winterbourne View. Our article on page 7, written from inside the world of NHS commissioning, shows the callous way in which some of these dreadful commissioning decisions are made.

We endorse the call by Simon Duffy on page 9 to get political In the face of these threats and government indifference. People with learning disabilities, their families, activists, and those who work in the field, have an obligation to return to grass roots action, to bring the issues facing people with learning disabilities back into public focus. There is no better place to begin than the Seven Days of Action campaign (https://www.sevendaysofaction.net) and we urge readers to join and support this campaign against the scandalous incarceration of people in bleak institutions far from home. Our forthcoming issues will focus on the other challenges that people with learning disabilities face, on multiple fronts, and we will discuss action to address them. As Simon Duffy puts it, “It’s time to stop feeling sorry for ourselves.” The time to be quiet and hope for the best is over.