I’ve been left on trains and called ‘a wheelchair’ – train companies need to improvfully e their treatment of disabled customers

A case in question showing how it is and this is not the exception, but the norm.

Disabled people have a right to be treated equally as with everyone else, they are not the problem. The problem is Society and those who should be there to assist.

The Disability Discrimination Act 2005 (DDA) and amended by the Equality Act 2010 provided access conditions on businesses and operators to provide equal access for persons with disabilities so they can live their lives on a similar basis to those of us who do not have disabilities.

But these acts gave so many concessions to businesses and operators so that in many instances there did not, fully, have to comply.

It is some 13 years since the DDA and some 8 years since the Equality Act, surely sufficient time for all businesses and operators to provide equal access. Why should a person with disabilities have to make extensive plans ahead of venturing out when people with no disabilities can do this, virtually on the spur of the moment.

This is not right and should not be allowed to occur.

Come on the UK, for goodness sakes get your Acts together.

Scope's Blog

This week, BBC Rip Off Britain highlights the experience of disabled passengers on trains. Far too often, inaccessible transport stops disabled people from enjoying the same opportunities as everyone else. In some cases, people have been through stressful and upsetting incidents – from train staff forgetting them to being treated like an object. In this blog, Steph shares her experiences. 

Every day across the UK 100s of disabled people are left stranded on train platforms. As a wheelchair user, I use trains frequently to go to work and to socialise. But, of course, the one thing that I’m constantly aware of when travelling is accessibility.

When it comes to train travel, both locally and nationally, train companies have issues with the way that they deal with disabled people.

If you’re disabled, you always have to plan ahead

I have to plan my journey before I go anywhere in ways that non-disabled…

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PIP: Politicians unite to demand dignity for terminally ill

As though a person, with a terminal condition, attempting to claim PIP and their family have not enough to contend with the Department for Communities are adding to this with their insistence that these claimants are subjected to the full rigours of the PIP system.

The Department for Communities needs to listen to these 6 political parties and the respective families and show dignity for once to the terminally ill.

Govt Newspeak

 Six political parties have signed a letter calling for a fairer definition of terminal illness to be applied in the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) process.

The system requires people with a life expectancy of longer than six months to undertake a face-to-face assessment to prove they are terminally ill.

They can then face a wait of up to three months for payment.

The DUP, Sinn Féin, SDLP, UUP, Alliance and Green Party have signed the letter.

Politicians described the current system as “cruel, traumatic and lacking in dignity and compassion”.

• Calls for urgent change over PIP benefits
• No time limit for terminal illness benefits

Charities and clinicians say the six-month definition most severely affects patients suffering from non-cancer terminal conditions, such as dementia, for which it can be difficult to predict an accurate life-expectancy.

In April, the Scottish government announced there would be no limit set on how long…

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Tories blasted for having ‘no credible plan’ to solve care crisis as homes face being left ‘on their knees’

This is so true, but again the emphasis is on the elderly and care homes. While this is, indeed a vital area within the care industry, it is not the only one.

The home care market, with supported living, will be, most likely larger than the care home market, but is hardly ever mentioned.

Home care, in many instances id for a lifetime much longer than the years in respect of the elderly.

All these persons, whether they be elderly in care homes or other persons requiring care within their own homes are vulnerable and without good quality and quantity of care staff they will not receive anywhere near a reasonable life.

One of the main problems is the complete lack of respect and care the current Government have with the care industry and the complete lack of funding they provide for care to just stand still, let alone increase with more disabled people needing care, people living longer and more complex needs.

The whole care industry is regressing due to the lack of funding, which then has a bearing on the quality and quantity of staff within the profession.

It appears that people believe that anyone can be a paid carer and to a large extent that may be true, but to be a good quality paid carer it is not. Any carer needs to be very understanding, have respect for the persons they are caring for and treat them with dignity. Some paid carers believe that they are incharge when it should be the persons they are caring for whose choices should be respected.

If the Government does not provide the sufficient funding and local authorities then apply this funding correctly, the care industry to a large extent may not last the year through.

This will then increase the safeguarding aspects and no one gain anything.

As to Brexit, the ability of persons coming from outwith the UK needs to be maintained as threr is already a shortage of people in the paid carer industry to accommodate the current needs of care let alone the increases that are and will be coming through.

Govt Newspeak

The Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said the sector suffers “low pay, low esteem and high turnover of staff” – which risks being made worse by Brexit

Tory ministers have been blasted for having “no credible plan” to tackle the care home crisis. MPs issued a scathing report as they warned social care faces being “on its knees” without a long-term plan by the end of this year.

The Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said the sector suffers “low pay, low esteem and high turnover of staff” – which risks being made worse by Brexit. Committee chairwoman Meg Hillier, a Labour MP, declared: “The sector is scraping by. “And without an explicit, long-term plan backed by Government it could soon be on its knees.

“Levels of unmet need are high and rising; short-term funding fixes are a road to nowhere and the ingrained issues that lead to high turnover in the workforce could…

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Disabled people and care being provided by Personal Assistants

Received through the ROFA (Reclaiming Our Future Alliance) network:

A worker at Inclusion London has mentioned that some Disabled people are being asked to replace funding for Personal Assistants with volunteers to undertake their personal care by some Local Authorities.   Inclusion London would be grateful for your thoughts and  any examples of expectations from social workers to use volunteers to make up for cuts in your support package. Email Henrietta.Doyle@inclusionlondon.org.uk

I am aghast that this could be on the agenda of any authority.

This is extremely worrying and hopefully is not being contemplated within many Local Authorities. That being said, could you advise your thoughts to  Henrietta.Doyle@inclusionlondon.org.uk.

Hopefully this worrying situation can be stopped.

My own view on this is what messages are these local authorities, who are in the process of asking for volunteers to replace paid carers, sending to the paid care workers. For the huge responsibility that these care workers undertake within their role for the low remuneration they receive, this is deplorable. No paid care worker should be only on the Minimum Living Wage, but should be, at least on the Living Wage and even above.

To be a care worker requires them to be committed to the person they are caring for, be responsive to the needs and requests from the cared for person and conduct themselves respecting the cared for persons dignity, privacy and the confidentiality with regards to the information they will be aware of about the cared for person and also their family.

They are required to attend at the times required according to the respective care packages and inform the cared for person when they are unable to do so with sufficient time for a replacement care worker to cover the caring shift to be found. Where the cared for person is deemed to be vulnerable and therefore be at risk of abuse, safeguarding is therefore an area of concern and a DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check is required.

You cannot say that one person requiring care is the same as the next person requiring care, as we are all individuals and therefore have our own views. This is especially so for persons with learning disabilities and those with Autism. In these instances it takes considerable time to understand each individual and their routines, for to not take this into account could cause the cared for persons to have an adverse reaction, which if a full understanding is not known could and most likely will create situations where harm could occur to the carer and the individual concerned. The carer needs to understand that they are technically a guest in the cared for persons home and as such they should act accordingly.

While a volunteer could and should be capable of all of the above, will all volunteers respect the commitment that is required to undertake care. After all they will be undertaking this on a voluntary basis so will they really commit to engaging with regards to timings. Then what will occur if they cannot attend , say to illness, will the cared for person have a bank of volunteers they can call upon.

These Local Authorities are only looking at their own interests. If they are so committed to using volunteers, why do they not have a volunteer Chief Executive and then there will be a multitude of funds saved.

That you could say is flippant, but where is the difference with regards with paid carers.

Any local authority who undertakes using volunteers could be open to a challenge on ‘Duty of Care’.

Parents’ privacy fears as school removes wall from front of girls’ toilet block : Liverpool Echo

A school is facing a privacy backlash from parents after removing the front wall of a girls’ toilet block.

Parents of children at St Mary’s College in Wallasey have criticised the re-design, with many concerned about their daughters’ privacy.

The exterior wall of one of the school’s female toilet blocks has been removed to make the toilets open plan with the only doors now being those on individual cubicles.

A video sent to the ECHO shows the toilets, which are set back off a corridoor, facing what are believed to be two classrooms and a CCTV camera.

Parents have claimed their children have been told the wall had been removed in a bid to stop smoking, bullying and pupils skipping class and hiding in the toilets.

 

Source: Parents’ privacy fears as school removes wall from front of girls’ toilet block : Liverpool Echo

Care about Real People and Fight Aids

I also was not aware that today was World Aids Day and it is good to have a day to emphasise that we should be treating people with dignity and respect and that we should be caring about real people and to fight Aids.

However, as we are all aware we should be doing this, not just for one day per year, but for all the 365 days each year. In doing so the World will become a better place for all concerned and we will be able to all live in harmony.

Let’s all have a good day and endeavour to eliminate discrimination.

Source: Care about Real People and Fight Aids

Better funding for social care needed now to avoid staffing crisis | Care Industry News

A leading social care group has warned that any predicted increases in NHS pay must be matched by better funding for the independent care sector to avoid a

Source: Better funding for social care needed now to avoid staffing crisis | Care Industry News

Petition update · Changing Places toilets on Victoria Derbyshire Show · Change.org

Here is a link to the full film that appeared on the Victoria Derbyshire Show, a couple of days ago. Please watch and share x

Source: Petition update · Changing Places toilets on Victoria Derbyshire Show · Change.org

Woman ‘forced to sit in her own urine for two hours’ by PIP assessor – Black Triangle Campaign

A disabled women says she was left to sit in her own urine for nearly two hours after her plight was ignored by a healthcare professional carrying out a disability benefit assessment.

Maria Lane has spoken up about the “devastating” experience she endured during her personal independence payment (PIP) assessment, in the hope that other disabled people will not have to go through similar experiences.

She told – and showed – the assessor just 10 minutes into the assessment that she had had an accident and had emptied her bladder into her incontinence pad, and that urine was leaking into her trousers.

But she said the female assessor – who works for the government contractor Atos – “looked for a second at the pad” and then continued typing.

Atos has now launched an investigation.

For nearly two hours, she was forced to continue answering questions, with the assessor warning her whenever she failed to do so that if she did not respond she would have to return for another assessment.

Maria Lane has a number of long-term health conditions, including diabetes, osteoarthritis – which affects all of her joints and has spread into her spine – sciatica, a slipped disc, high blood pressure, and depression.

She is waiting for a major operation on her bladder, because of severe incontinence which means she has to wear pads permanently.

 

Source: Woman ‘forced to sit in her own urine for two hours’ by PIP assessor – Black Triangle Campaign

At considerable cost to the Tax-payer.

Sensible logic from Poppy, but do Governments do logic let alone sensible.

Poppy's Place

I am so happy.

Saturday was a good news day for me.

After several weeks of waiting, I finally received the two brown envelopes through the letterbox which told me how I’d done with my enforced PIP (Personal Independence Payment) application and my ESA (Employment Support Allowance) reassessment and I was successful for both Benefits.

And, further to that, a very good family friend also received her brown envelope for PIP on Sarurday as well and she’s been successful as too. Virtual High Fives all over our social media pages let me tell you – we were delerious. We both got to sleep properly for the first time in quite a while that night and we can now both breathe freely once more because we know that our finances are guaranteed for at least the next few years at any rate.

Brilliant!

But, there is something we both want to…

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