Mencap, the voice of learning disabilities, has written this worthy of note article about concers that progress made in healthcare will be undermined by the cuts to services. They write:

Mencap is concerned that progress that has been made in healthcare may be undone by cuts to services.

Cuts to services are hitting some of the most vulnerable people in society, according to a new survey published today (Wednesday 16 May) by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

The survey of almost 500 learning disability nurses found that nearly three quarters (74%) of respondents have seen cuts to services in the past year, and of those, 73% have real concerns about the safety of their patients. They fear that people with a learning disability could be missing out altogether or face a reduced service.

The survey also found that, in the past year, over half of nurses have seen a decrease in the range of NHS services offered to people with a learning disability. Just over half of nurses surveyed said the area in which they worked offered a patient passport, while personal care packages or person-centred plans are only being carried out in around three quarters of areas.

The findings, released at the RCN’s annual congress, come on top of news that over 60,000 jobs are to be lost across the NHS. Amid these reductions in staffing levels, around three quarters of nurses said their caseload had increased and they were dealing with increasingly complex health needs.

The RCN has called for urgent investment in learning disability services. This includes an acute learning disability nurse in every hospital, a guarantee that one-to-one specialist learning disability nursing is given to all those who need it, and training and development opportunities for all learning disability nurses. The RCN is also calling on people to sign its pledge to show their support for learning disability nurses.

Dan Scorer, Mencap’s senior campaigns and policy manager said: “We are extremely concerned to see this evidence from the front line of the negative impact that cuts to services are having on patients with a learning disability.

“Mencap has campaigned for many years to highlight the poor care that people with a learning disability have received in the NHS. We have seen some improvements, and where learning disability nurses are in post, they have made a positive difference to the experiences of people with a learning disability and their carers.

“Therefore it is deeply worrying to see that any progress that has been made may be undone by cuts to services. The government needs to stand by its commitment to improve care for people with a disability and protect the frontline services they rely on.”

Dan Parton, reporting for Learning Disability Today, has written this article about the government producing a interim report on the Winterbourne View residential hospital which was closed in June 2011 due to abuse carried out there by staff. He writes:

The Government will produce an interim report on the former Winterbourne View residential hospital and other services for people with learning disabilities in the summer, care services minister Paul Burstow has revealed.

In a written ministerial statement on Winterbourne View, Burstow confirmed that the trial of the 2 former care workers at Winterbourne View has been set for August 6 at Bristol Crown Court. The 9 former employees who have pleaded guilty will also be sentenced then.

Once the trial has concluded, Burstow added that he expected the serious case review, chaired by Dr Margaret Flynn, to be published.

The findings of the serious case review, along with evidence from the other investigations and reports that have been undertaken will then be considered in the Department of Health’s final review of Winterbourne View. This will be published soon after the serious case review, Burstow wrote.

But before this, “in recognition of the seriousness of the issue”, the Department of Health plans to publish an interim report, Burstow added. This will be based on the findings of the Care Quality Commission’s summary report on its programme of 150 inspections of learning disability residential facilities, which found evidence of poor practice in some units. The report will set out proposed actions and solutions.

John Pring, reporting for DisabledGo.com, has written this article about the Department for Work and Pensions staying stubbornly silent on cuts to Disability Living Allowance. He writes:

The government has refused to say what advice it has received from local councils and the Department of Health (DH) about the wider impact of its sweeping cuts to spending on disability living allowance (DLA).

Concerns about the knock-on effects of the cuts, particularly on people’s ability to work, and their increased need for support from local councils and the NHS, were raised in a report by Disability Rights UK (DR UK) last month.

But the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has so far been unable to produce any evidence to show that it has analysed these knock-on effects, despite plans to cut spending on working-age DLA by 20 per cent, or £1.4 billion a year by 2015-16.

It insisted this week that DWP ministers and civil servants had held “numerous meetings” with colleagues in DH and local authorities, as part of planning for the replacement of working-age DLA with a new personal independence payment (PIP).

But it has so far been unable to produce any evidence to back-up its claim that councils and the NHS were not likely to see a rise in demand for their services as a result of the cuts, stating only that DWP was “working with Department of Health and local authorities to consider impacts”.

When asked what DH and councils had told DWP about the likely effects of the cuts on demand for their services, a DWP spokesman said: “We will continue to work with Department of Health and local authorities to consider impacts.”

Last week, the disabled Labour MP Dame Anne Begg raised concerns about the government’s failure to measure the wider impact of its cuts on disabled people.

Dame Anne said that those losing DLA might also be losing employment and support allowance and council-funded social care, and there was an “urgent” need to investigate the impact of all of the cuts on disabled people.

Questioned by the Green MP Caroline Lucas on whether DWP would assess the “cumulative effect” of planned reforms to benefits and services on disabled people, Maria Miller, the Conservative minister for disabled people, said this week that such an analysis would be too complex to undertake.

She said this was because of the “detailed information on individuals and families that is required to estimate the interactions of a number of different policy changes”, while many policy details were “still to be worked through”.

Meanwhile, members of the We Are Spartacus online community of disabled activists have submitted a detailed report to DWP as part of the latest government consultation on the proposed assessment criteria for PIP.

The report, which includes a foreword by the disabled peer Baroness [Tanni] Grey-Thompson, makes more than 100 recommendations for improvements to the PIP assessment, and is based on more than 600 responses to a survey. Most of the survey responses came from people who receive DLA.

John Pring, reporting for Disabled Go.com, has written this article about how the Leveson inquiry has effectively pushed disabilty to one side and is preventing disabled people from giving evidence. He writes:

Disabled activists who want to give evidence about newspapers that have stirred up hostility towards claimants of disability benefits appear to have been sidelined by the Leveson inquiry into press standards.

Disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) – including Inclusion London, the UK Disabled People’s Council and the Disability Hate Crime Network (DHCN) – told Disability News Service (DNS) last November that they wanted to give evidence to the inquiry, set up in the wake of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.

But although the inquiry has accepted their subsequent written statement, it appears to have ruled out any chance of disabled people giving evidence in person.

Inclusion London, and the other DPOs and activists who signed up to its witness statement, say there is strong evidence that disabled people are facing an increase in targeted hostility and hate crime as a result of stories that have been published in newspapers such as the Daily Mail, particularly on the subject of disability benefits.

They believe that headlines such as “Disabled Benefit? Just fill in a form” and “75% on sick are skiving” are leading to the “demonization” of disabled people, while “fair and accurate reporting, particularly in relation to disability benefit fraud, has gone out the window”.

But despite a joint written submission being accepted and published on the Leveson website, an inquiry spokesman told DNS that it was now too late to take evidence in person on the issue because the inquiry had moved on from discussing the relationship between the press and the public.

He said the inquiry team was “content” with the evidence it had been sent in written form, and added: “They are happy to work off written evidence and submissions and they think they have got enough of them.

“The inquiry is content that it will cover issues around the way the media has treated people with disabilities.”

Tracey Lazard, chief executive of Inclusion London, said they and other organisations and individuals would be writing to the inquiry to “strongly urge them to specifically address the issue of the portrayal of disabled people in the media” and to ask to be able to give oral evidence to the inquiry.

She said: “This issue is extremely important to disabled people and the impact of current grossly inaccurate reporting is directly linked to rising incidents of disability hate crime and hostility which in turn is causing disabled people to live in fear and anxiety.”

Stephen Brookes, a DHCN coordinator and the retiring joint chair of the National Union of Journalists’ disabled members council, said: “I am deeply dismayed that a real opportunity has been missed by Leveson and those submitting to its work in making the press as a whole take responsibility for creating an environment which is not just hostile to, but actually has created criminal hate towards, disabled people and other minority groups.

“It is of little surprise that disabled people and their organisations are at odds with the media in all its guises.”

Dan Parton, reporting for Learning Disability Today, has written this interesting article about people calling for more public places being made more autism-friendly. He writes:

Shops, restaurants and leisure facilities should do more to become autism-friendly, according to the results of an online poll.

The poll of 250 people, conducted by autism and learning disability service provider Dimensions as part of Autism Awareness Month, found that restaurants are the place most people would like to see made more accessible, with 32% of people marking it as their preferred choice.

Supermarkets received 27% of the vote followed by leisure centres (17%), shops (10%), theatres (9%), events such as fireworks displays or sporting events (4%) and banks with 1%.

Dimensions will use the survey results to help advise businesses on the types of environmental factors that people with autism may find challenging and what simple but effective alterations they can make to become more accessible.

Dimensions’ autism lead, executive director of practice development, Lisa Hopkins, said: “Accessibility is not just about wheelchairs and ramps. This is clearly something people feel passionately about.

“Many poll contributors called for extra training for staff working in services but not just in the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors; doctors surgeries, hospitals, dental practices and schools  were all given as examples of places that people had found challenging because of a lack of understanding from staff. With one contributor  describing their  3-hour stay in a hospital’s busy A&E waiting room as ‘turning a trauma into a crisis’ and another commenting that a major concern for them remains how their 13-year-old autistic son would be treated by staff should he need hospitalisation.

“Hairdressers, swimming pools, shoe shops and libraries were amongst some of the other suggestions made with one person calling for larger tourist attractions in the capital to offer special autism-friendly events for autistic adults and children; London Zoo and The Natural History Museum were two recommendations. This call for action was reinforced by the mother of an autistic boy who said that they had to ‘live in a bubble unless there is an autism-friendly event that suits – of which there are not many.’”

Dan Parton, reporting for Learning Disability Today, has written this promising article about the care services minister Paul Burstow supporting a new learning disability eye health campaign. He writes:

Care services minister Paul Burstow has backed a charity’s campaign to improve eye health services for people with learning disabilities.

The Liberal Democrat MP gave his support to SeeAbility’s ‘eye 2 eye’ campaign on a recent visit to the Morden Eye Centre, where he saw teenager Roshni Kothari receiving an enhanced sight test for people with learning disabilities. This was Kothari’s first sight test in the community, having previously been treated at Sutton Eye Hospital.

Recent research commissioned by SeeAbility and Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) highlighted that there are 1 million adults with a learning disability in the UK. People with learning disabilities are 10 times more likely to have serious sight problems than other people, with 6 in 10 people needing glasses. People with severe or profound learning disabilities are most likely to have sight problems.

The research also predicted that there will be a 10% increase in people with learning disabilities and sight loss over the next 20 years.

Burstow said; “Seeing the difference personalised tests in the community make to people like Roshni reminds us of the people behind the statistics: there are one million people in the UK with a learning disability, and 60% of those need glasses – and the support to get used to them. These people and their carers deserve our help.”

David Scott-Ralphs, chief executive of SeeAbility added: “This was a great opportunity to show the Minister an enhanced eye test in practice. People with learning disabilities are ten times more likely to have sight problems than other people in the population and yet are the least likely to get the right help and support with their eye care. Through SeeAbility’s eye 2 eye Campaign we will continue to champion this issue for people with learning disabilities.”

Dan Parton, reporting for Learning Disability Today, has written this article about Mencap’s less than enthusiastic reaction to the recent Queen’s Speech. He writes:

Learning disability charity Mencap has given a lukewarm reaction to the Queen’s Speech to Parliament, and questioned the Government’s commitment to addressing the funding crisis in adult social care.

The Queen’s Speech on May 9, which outlined the Government’s priorities for the next session of Parliament, confirmed that there will be a draft bill to modernise care and support in England.

This draft bill will focus on ensuring local authorities fit their services around the needs, outcomes and experience of people; build on the personal budgets agenda; simplify the laws around social care; and improve the way people get information about what they’re entitled to.

However, it did not mention the funding of the care system, something Mencap had been hoping for. “The commitment to a draft bill and pre-legislative scrutiny is at least a start, but we had hoped for much more – specifically a renewed commitment to address the funding crisis in adult social care,” said Dan Scorer, senior campaigns and policy manager at Mencap.

“We now have serious concerns about the government’s desire to address the crisis in social care and move beyond the limited remit of the draft bill. People with a learning disability and their families are increasingly unable to live full and independent lives, and ministers need to tell us when and how they will address the funding issues that are only intensifying as each month passes without progress.”

Kirsty McGregor, reporting for Community Care.co.uk, has written this article about a social worker who has    been admonished after covering up the disappearance of a service user. She writes:

A senior social worker who covered it up when a vulnerable man in his care went missing for two hours has been admonished by the General Social Care Council (GSCC).

Attwell Chimutwi was supporting the service user on holiday when the incident occurred in August 2009. His then employer, Bramerton Residential Home in Maidenhead, provides residential care to people with learning disabilities, specialising in helping people with autism, challenging behaviour, Down’s Syndrome and epilepsy.

Upon returning from the holiday, Chimutwi told his manager that the service user in question had wandered off, but was shortly brought back by neighbours.

However, it later transpired the man had been found wandering around a playing field in a distressed state by police two hours after he had disappeared. One police officer described him as being “smeared with faeces”. Chimutwi had not reported him missing.

Chimutwi did not attend the GSCC hearing this week. In his absence, witnesses said the social worker did not contact anyone at the home to advise them that the service user had gone missing or been found by the police; his manager and colleagues learned of the incident some days later.

Philip Bruton, deputy home manager of Bramerton, said Chimutwi mentioned “one hiccup” where the service user had wandered onto a neighbour’s property. Bruton was given the impression he was brought back by the neighbours a few minutes later, the GSCC’s conduct committee heard.

Chimutwi subsequently told another member of staff that the man had absconded for 30-45 minutes.

This was in effect a “cover up”, the committee said, whereby Chimutwi had failed to alert the authorities to the man’s disappearance and compounded the dishonesty by lying to his manager and colleagues about the length of time for which he was missing.

However, the committee heard testimonies from the social worker’s colleagues, which suggested this was an isolated incident. Bruton, for example, described Chimutwi as “very professional and knowledgeable” and said he would have had the best interests of the service user at heart.

In light of those observations, the committee was satisfied that there was only a limited risk of a recurrence of such behaviour and decided a five-year admonishment was sufficient.

Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust has posted this article on their website about a intern from Project SEARCH landing employment after a article about him was posted in a local newspaper. They write:

A Project SEARCH intern with Aspergers Syndrome has gained full time paid work after an employer saw his plea for paid work in a local newspaper.

Thomas Waring, 21, spent an academic year working as a Project SEARCH Intern at Derriford Hospital gaining his administrative and general work skills to achieve his dream of paid employment.

Following the article that appeared in the Herald, Project Search was approached by Support Yourway, a local company that enables adults with learning disabilities to lead a fulfilling life and achieve their full potential, who were keen to meet Thomas.

Thomas is very positive about his success gained through Project Search, a collaborative partnership between Derriford Hospital, City College Plymouth, Pluss and Serco that supports young adults with Learning Disabilities into paid employment.

Thomas said: “Project Search helped improve my confidence and gave me the opportunity to increase my skills by working in the hospital. Getting paid work has given me a big sense of responsibility and independence.

“I was able to work in a professional environment using the skills I had whilst learning about the world of work.”

During his internships at the hospital he worked on data entry, as a clerk preparing clinical notes and supported the work of the Learning Disability Liaison Nurses.

Support Yourway company director, Mike Tozer was keen to ensure that his workforce was diverse and reflected the clients they support saying, “We see Thomas’ Aspergers Syndrome as a positive and not a limiting factor.”

“Thomas not only has the skills we need to complete the administration tasks but has a first hand knowledge of living with a difference and focuses on the work he is set.”
“His duties include attending meetings and taking minutes, creating reports and maintaining records and files.”

Following his induction, Thomas commented, “I am very pleased now I have paid employment, it is what the last 12 months have been all about, Yourway have given me a great welcome and I’m grateful for the confidence they have shown in me.”

Pluss Employment Consultant, Pip Critten, commented, “We are very proud of Thomas and are delighted that 75% of our first year interns are now in paid employment making us one of the leading sites worldwide which will be recognised at a conference later this year in Austin, Texas.”

Zernta Zubka-Hill, City College Plymouth tutor on the project said, “Thomas went on an incredible journey from being a very shy young man to a confident and competent employee who is so deserving of his successes.”

Aspergers Syndrome is on the Autistic Spectrum and is often referred to as High Functioning Autism.

People with the condition are generally very intelligent and have the ability to focus on and stick to tasks but have difficulties with social communication making everyday life difficult.

Videos about the project can be found by searching for “Project SEARCH Derriford” on www.youtube.com

Health bosses are to repay almost £70,000 to a family wrongly charged care home fees for four years.

Phyllis Blatchford, from Saltash, needed 24-hour care after suffering a stroke in 2006 and moved into a nursing home in the town. Mrs Blatchford, who suffered with dementia, became increasingly ill and died at the home in February 2010, aged 88.

Nine months earlier, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust had found that her health needs meant she was eligible for NHS funding and paid care costs of some £1,600 a month.

After a review, the primary care trust then ruled that she had been entitled to the funding from February 2008. The decision was appealed to the South West Strategic Health Authority by Mrs Blatchford’s family with the assistance of Hugh James solicitors.

An independent review panel concluded that the NHS should have paid for her entire period of care and Mrs Blatchford’s estate should be reimbursed all the care fees paid, amounting to almost £70,000.

Mrs Blatchford’s daughter, Cynthia Bunt, said “This has been a long and very complicated journey – we’re grateful for the help and support from the team at Hugh James and obviously very pleased to finally have confirmation that the NHS should have been paying these care home fees and not the family.

“Unfortunately for us it’s come too late for mum who is sadly no longer with us, we can only hope that our story will help other families to realise that they may also be wrongly paying for nursing care and that it is possible to get that money back.” A landmark 1999 ruling established that the NHS was responsible for funding care in a home if the primary reason was health needs.

Lisa Morgan pictured, from Hugh James, said: “Nursing home fees can escalate, often leading to individuals having to sell their home to pay for care.

“Individuals or their families may be entitled to thousands of pounds in reimbursement and this family proves that victory is possible, even though obstacles were put in their way at every turn. Despite having to appeal the primary care trust’s previous decision, I’m pleased that Mrs Blatchford’s family have recovered all the care fees which were wrongly paid.”

Joseph McEvoy, assistant director at the primary care trust, said: “We are always happy to look into any cases where relatives feel the NHS should fund care as each case is different.

“When someone is deemed to have a primary health need, care is funded by the NHS after an assessment by a nurse. All of these cases are reviewed regularly to ensure that the care provided is appropriate, safe and of high quality.

“Where relatives do want funding decisions reviewed, we follow national guidance on the appeal process for NHS funding of care.”