Prevent avoidable deaths by making autism/learning disability training mandatory – Petitions

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Prevent avoidable deaths by making autism/learning disability training mandatory

My son Oliver was only 18 when he died in hospital on 11 Nov 2016. I believe his death could have been prevented if his doctors and nurses had received mandatory training. He had autism and a mild learning disability, and they weren’t trained to understand how to make reasonable adjustments for him.

 

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• Created byPaula McGowan
• Deadline7 December 2018All petitions run for 6 months
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Source: Prevent avoidable deaths by making autism/learning disability training mandatory – Petitions

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TUC Disabled Workers’ Conference: UN convention ‘must become part of UK law’ | DisabledGo News and Blog

Disabled trade unionists have called UN’s committee on the rights of persons with disabilities (CRPDthe TUC and unions across the country to campaign for the UN disability convention to be incorporated into UK law.

Disabled members of 22 unions, who were at the annual TUC Disabled Workers’ Conference in Bournemouth, voted unanimously for a motion calling for a national campaign on the issue.

The conference was held just a few months after the UN’s committee on the rights of persons with disabilities (CRPD) told a UK government delegation that its cuts to social security and other support for disabled people had caused “a human catastrophe”.

The UN committee called on the UK last autumn to make more than 80 improvements to the ways its laws and policies affect disabled people’s human rights.

But delegates in Bournemouth heard that the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) was not legally binding in the UK, and so the government was free to continue breaching any of its articles.

David Chrimes, of the FDA union, which represents senior public servants and professionals, who proposed the motion, told the conference about his brother, Richard, whose case was featured by the BBC earlier this year.

Richard Chrimes has to crawl up and down his stairs several times a day – and crawl from his front door to his car – because there is not enough space to adapt his two-storey house to make it accessible for him or even to fit his wheelchair through the front door.

 

Source: TUC Disabled Workers’ Conference: UN convention ‘must become part of UK law’ | DisabledGo News and Blog

TUC Disabled Workers’ Conference: Backing for national demo on SEND cuts | DisabledGo News and Blog

Disabled trade unionists have unanimously backed calls for a national demonstration this autumn against cuts to support for disabled children and those with special educational needs.

Janine Booth, co-chair of the TUC disabled workers’ committee, who proposed the emergency motion, said the government was making “brutal cuts” to special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) funding.

Booth, whose motion was passed unanimously, was speaking at the TUC Disabled Workers’ Conference in Bournemouth, which was attended by disabled delegates from 22 unions.

Her motion said the cuts would have a “significant adverse effect” on the education and job prospects of disabled children, and on the resources available to education workers, and that these and other austerity cuts were “not an economic necessity but a political choice”.

Labour-run Waltham Forest council in London has announced 2.3 per cent cuts to high needs budgets, she said, with Labour-run Hackney council cutting high needs budgets by five per cent and SEND provision by another £5 million.

Booth said that cuts like these were forcing disabled children out of mainstream schools and into segregated special schools.

The government’s own figures show that the proportion of pupils with statements of special education needs or education, health and care plans who were attending state-funded, mainstream secondary schools plunged from 28.8 per cent in 2010, to just 22.2 per cent in 2017.

But Booth said there was “a fightback going on” and that it was important the demonstration took place “to stop a further round of cuts next year and reverse the cuts that have been made”.

She told fellow delegates: “It is very disappointing to me that a Labour coun

 

Source: TUC Disabled Workers’ Conference: Backing for national demo on SEND cuts | DisabledGo News and Blog

Project DRILLs down into social isolation of young people with learning difficulties | DisabledGo News and Blog

Young people with learning difficulties are at risk of “significant social isolation”, with the risk increasing as they approach adulthood, according to a new report delivered through a ground-breaking research programme.

The young people interviewed for the report “unanimously” said they needed practical help, emotional support and communication skills to maintain friendships.

Eight young people with learning difficulties were employed and trained to take part as peer researchers for the Young People and Friendships report, which was due to be launched at the Welsh assembly today (Thursday).

The peer researchers worked with 85 other young people with learning difficulties who were aged between 14 and 28 and lived in the Gwent region of south-east Wales.

All the young people were at significant risk of social isolation and almost all did not see friends outside either structured activities or education settings, with friendships “dependent upon local segregated services”.

They faced a “complex web of barriers” to having a full social life, including discrimination within the education system; inaccessible public transport; and difficulties in using communication tools such as mobile phones, with some prevented from using social media by their parents.

In some cases, social media and online gaming increased isolation and disconnection with the local neighbourhood, particularly among boys and young men, but it also enabled some friendships to be maintained,

About two-thirds of the 85 participants in the research had experienced bullying during the transition years from childhood to adulthood (14 to 25), with most believing they were picked on because they were disabled.

One participant in the study said: “Sometimes bad friends upset me, they pull faces at me and I feel like they hate me. They sometimes used to pick on me in school, use bad language.”

Another said: “They abuse you, harass you and use you. They put pressure on you and put you in the middle. Boys will fight you and bully you and pretend that it is all a joke.”

Participants felt unable to do anything about bullying or hate crime in the local community, other than avoiding certain areas, not going out or only going out with their parents.

The report says: “None of the participants wanted to criminalise other young people, but they did want non disabled young people to be better informed about hate crime, respect and [to be] more knowledgeable about disability.”

They also wanted it to be easier to report disability hate crime.

The report also found that young people with learning difficulties did not have the same opportunities to undertake work experience at the same age as their non-disabled peers.

The peer researchers were clear that segregating young disabled people was “morally wrong and creates second class citizens”.

One of the peer researchers said: “I feel that being referred to [as] ‘special’… is a derogatory term. But people have got used to it.”

 

Source: Project DRILLs down into social isolation of young people with learning difficulties | DisabledGo News and Blog

British public ignorant to the reality of disabled people’s lives

I agree there is a great deal of public ignorance to the reality of disabled peoples lives, especially in respect of people with learning disabilities and/or autism.

This ignorance is causing a “hostile environment” towards disabled people, especially with all the rhetoric and policies that are emanating from this current Government.

Govt Newspeak

British public ignorant to the reality of disabled people’s lives, survey shows, A “hostile environment” towards disabled people is fueling a negative public perception of people living with a disability.

New research published by the disability charity Scope reveals that non-disabled people are increasingly becoming out of touch with the reality of disabled people’s lives, with outdated and ignorant attitudes towards people with disabilities remaining a significant problem in modern Britain.

The research reveals how the proportion of the British public who think there is a lot of prejudice towards disabled people has dropped significantly since the turn of the millennium. However, this is at odds with the opinion of disabled people themselves, who believe that public perception of disability has barely changed in 17 years.

In 2000, a third (37%) of disabled and a third (34%) of non-disabled people felt that there was a lot of prejudice towards disabled people. Seventeen years…

View original post 367 more words

Disabled workers paid £2,730 a year less than non-disabled workers : Welfare Weekly

A new TUC report published today (Friday) finds that the disability pay gap has increased to its highest level since 2013.

In 2017 average hourly pay for disabled workers was £9.90, compared to £11.40 for non-disabled workers – a disability pay gap of £1.50 an hour and £2,730 a year.

The disability pay gap has now reached 15% – its highest level since 2013 when the government began publishing comparable data using the 2010 Equality Act definition of disability.

The new report is published to coincide with the TUC’s annual Disabled Workers Conference, which this year takes place in Bournemouth.

It finds that disabled people are less likely to be in employment – and when employed they are paid less than their non-disabled peers.

The other key findings include:

 

Source: Disabled workers paid £2,730 a year less than non-disabled workers : Welfare Weekly

The DWP left one man so ‘destitute’ that the police had to step in to help him

Unfortunately there is logic, that is it is the DWP’s intention to push claimants to the brink and beyond to create the ultimate aim (Death), Government Euthanasia and thereby reduce those claiming benefits.

I can see no other reason for this Government policy.

Govt Newspeak

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) reportedly left one man so “destitute” that police were called out because of people’s concerns for his “welfare”.

The DWP: leaving people “destitute”

Police Community Support Officer Chris Hamer works in the Irwell area of Lancashire Constabulary. He took to Twitter to expose a disturbing incident:

Luckily we, and @raftfoundation were there to try and pick up the pieces. Genuine lad who was trying his best to get back into work. This is happening too often which makes people destitute and other services have to step in and sort things out 2/2

— PCSO Chris Hamer (@PCSO7637) May 17, 2018

Nothing else is known about the man’s case. It appears that he was trying to do what the DWP asked of him, and yet the department sanctioned him anyway. Evidence given to the Work and Pensions Select Committee shows the DWP sanctioning people…

View original post 382 more words

Santa Fe High School: Up to 10 dead in shooting – BBC News

Between eight and 10 people have been killed in a shooting at a Texas high school, says police.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez told reporters the majority of the dead at Santa Fe High School were students.

A student is in custody after the attack at the school, which is about 40 miles (65km) south of Houston.

The death toll makes this the deadliest school shooting since the one in February at Parkland, Florida.

That attack left 17 dead and spawned a nationwide youth-led campaign for gun control.

The Texas school district confirmed that people were injured in an “active shooter” incident as classes began on Friday morning.

Sheriff Gonzalez said his officers were tackling a “multiple-casualty incident”, but the final number of dead is unclear.

He earlier tweeted: “An injured police officer is being treated, the extent of his injuries are unknown.”

 

Source: Santa Fe High School: Up to 10 dead in shooting – BBC News

Transparent and fair: what England can learn from Japan’s social care reform | Natasha Curry | Social Care Network | The Guardian

The long-awaited green paper on social care in England will finally be published this summer. But despite a royal commission, multiple independent reviews, and social care green and white papers over the last two decades, pledges to address problems in the system have become politically toxic and the issue has been repeatedly kicked into the long grass.

At the Nuffield Trust, we have been looking into Japan’s long-term care system to discover how the country managed to transition from a setup of highly variable and largely unaffordable care in the 1990s to a universal care system supporting nearly 6 million people. Although the context is different, Japan can teach us valuable lessons about implementing change with widespread public support.

 

Source: Transparent and fair: what England can learn from Japan’s social care reform | Natasha Curry | Social Care Network | The Guardian

Broad horizons: Europe’s social care leaders to share good practice and challenges | Social Care Network | The Guardian

When social care leaders from across Europe gather in Spain at the end of this month to share their challenges and good practice, delegates from the UK intend to make clear that next year’s Brexit does not mean they are saying farewell.

Although the three-day conference in Seville is being organised by the EU-funded European Social Network (ESN), agencies from non-EU countries will be involved. Official bodies and groups from Norway, Israel and Georgia are among members of the network from 33 countries.

“This international perspective is critical if social care is to keep its horizons broad and we are able to learn from the experiences that other countries have and share our own,” says Glen Garrod, president of England’s Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (Adass).

“I have seen some truly inspiring developments in social care from an app designed by disabled people in Paris that helps them book suitable [transport], to work in a region of Spain on large-scale digital transformation for people with social care needs.”

Garrod will be at the Seville conference, as will his opposite numbers from associations in Wales and Scotland. Delegates from agencies in Scotland will be especially active, leading sessions on care standards, inspection and working with children and young people. From England, Milton Keynes council will be hosting a workshop on positive behavioural support for people with learning disabilities and autism.

 

Source: Broad horizons: Europe’s social care leaders to share good practice and challenges | Social Care Network | The Guardian