Document Actions
Locked out again
User-led groups have been sidelined from vital discussions that could give social workers sweeping powers to invade disabled people’s homes. John Pring reports
How many times does the government need to be told to involve disabled people from the beginning on the issues that affect them?
The message was rammed home by the publication of a Department of Health review of its No Secrets guidance on protecting adults in vulnerable situations from crime and abuse.
The review was put together with the help of an advisory board of 44 people – professionals, charity representatives and academics, but not one representative of groups run by people with learning difficulties. And there was not a single person with learning difficulties at a Commons launch of the three-month consultation on the review*.
Andrew Lee, director of People First, which is run by people with learning difficulties, says: “You need somebody on the body who can say this actually happened to me, this is how I felt and this is where it all went wrong. It’s common sense. Why weren’t people with learning difficulties approached? What went wrong with that process?”
Almost immediately, there was an illustration of why this matters.
A new coalition of non user-led charities, headed by Action on Elder Abuse, announced a campaign for new laws – raised as an option in the review – that would allow social workers to break into the homes of “vulnerable” disabled people if they thought they were being harmed.
The call has sparked fierce opposition from disabled people.
Lee said: “It’s your own private house. They may have a concern but I would be frightened about them barging into their homes. I think there might be a problem with that under the Human Rights Act. I would be worried about power in the wrong hands being used in the wrong way.”
Phil Hope, the new care services minister, called for both greater emphasis on “prevention” of abuse and “greater empowerment of people to determine how they wish to be safeguarded”.
But James Elder-Woodward, chair of Scope’s Independent Living Zone, urged the government not to copy the mistakes of the Scottish Government, which introduced similar laws. He says the emphasis should instead be on empowering disabled people to deal with risk, and developing public awareness of disabled people’s value to society.
John Horan, a disabled human rights lawyer, said such legislation would breach international human rights laws, and the new UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Sue Bott, director of the National Centre for Independent Living, said she would talk to the new coalition as there was a “difficult balance to strike” between ensuring disabled people are not taken advantage of, and not giving agencies a license to interfere in their lives.