Have you been affected by cuts to your services?

As part of the 'Protect the Frontline' campaign, which BILD supports and will be promoting, the Learning Disability Coalition have launched a 'Cutswatch' email and website.

They want to hear if you, or the person that you care for have been affected by cuts to services or cuts to funding. They want to know how spending cuts are changing the lives of people with a learning disability and their families. Please email them at the address below and tell us as much as you can about what has happened, where, when and what the consequences have been.

As well as hearing about cuts stories, they are interested in hearing about local authorities who are responding to spending cuts by looking for new ways to deliver services, or by making services more cost-effective. These disguised cuts can be just as damaging as headline cuts.

The information that you send them will support the 'Protect the Frontline' campaign, and may be used on their 'Cutswatch' notice board. They will not include any personal information, and will contact you before putting anything up on their website.

Please email the Learning Disability Coalition at cutswatch@learningdisabilitycoalition.org.uk and let them know what has happened, where, when and how it has affected you.

Posted August 2010

Raising our sights report and DVD - copies available

Copies of the 'Raising our sights' report and DVD are now available. This report about services for adults with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities was written by Professor Jim Mansell for the Department of Health.

To order a copy: Email publications@mencap.org.uk or Tel 020 7696 6900 (There is a limit of 1 per person, 3 per organisation)

You can download the report and view the DVD on-line here
 

Posted August 2010

'Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS' was launched on Monday 12 July and sets out the Government's long-term vision for the future of the NHS. The vision builds on the core values and principles of the NHS, setting out how we will put patients at the heart of everything that the NHS does, deliver health outcomes in England that are among the best in the world and empower clinicians to deliver results.

Further information on the White Paper can be found on the Department of Health website which will also contain details of the engagement and consultation documents as they become available.

Posted August 2010

The government has announced the establishment of a Commission on the Funding of Care and Support.

The three-person commission will be chaired by economist Andrew Dilnot, formerly head of public spending experts the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and also includes Jo Williams and Lord Norman Warner; Williams is the current acting chair of the Care Quality Commission and also a former chief executive of Mencap, while Warner is a former Labour health minister, who now sits in the House of Lords.

They have been tasked by the Department of Health with reporting within a year on how best to reform the care funding system.

Read more about the Commission members on the Community Care website

Posted July 2010

Real Roles is an online community where local authority and third sector employers and people with a learning disability can come together to discuss ways for making employment a reality for people with learning disabilities.

The Guardian Jobs website is backing Real Roles by offering to advertise any vacancies available to people with a learning disability free of charge.

So, if you are an employer and there is a vacancy available for someone with a learning disability in your organisation sign up to the Real Roles Forum and head to the Real Jobs board to publicise it.

Every vacancy uploaded to Real Roles will appear on the Guardian Jobs website until at least October 2010.

Posted August 2010

The Improving Health and Lives Learning Disabilities Observatory is there to keep watch on:

• the health of people with learning disabilities
• the health care they receive
  

They have a website that provides a lot of information, you can visit it at: http://www.improvinghealthandlives.org.uk/

This three year, Department of Health funded, project is in response to Sir Jonathan Michael’s 2008 inquiry into access to healthcare for people with learning disabilities.

The national observatory aims to provide better, easier to understand, information on the health and healthcare of people with learning disabilities.

Gathering information from across England, it will help hospitals and other providers of health and social care, to understand better the needs of those with learning disabilities, as well as their families and carers, in order to identify quality improvements that will ensure the best possible outcomes.

Posted July 2010

NHS Evidence – learning disabilities specialist collection

Visit the NHS Evidence – learning disabilities  website for up to date content from a variety of sources including guidance from NICE and the Department of Health.

The aim of NHS Evidence - Learning Disabilities is to provide quick access to key documents and evidence for health professionals. including links to key journals.

The Learning Disabilities Specialist Collection has an RSS feed featuring the latest additions to the collection, a monthly evidence bulletin and a Google Group for users to network with colleagues.

Posted July 2010

A cancer patient who has a phobia of hospitals should be forced to undergo a life-saving operation if necessary, a High Court judge has ruled. Sir Nicholas Wall, sitting at the Court of Protection, ruled doctors could forcibly sedate the 55-year-old woman, who has learning difficulties.

The woman lacked the capacity to make decisions about her health, he said. Doctors at her NHS foundation trust had argued she would die if her ovaries and fallopian tubes were not removed.

Read more about the case on the BBC website and on the Daily Telegraph website. There is another article about the powers of the Court of Protection on the Telegraph website.
Find out more about the Court of Protection

There is more about the Mental Capacity Act on our human rights page
Find out about the BILD publication, 'Communication is a human right'

On Tuesday 8 June, Basildon University Hospital Trust was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay £40,000 costs for failures in its systems and procedures that led to the death of Kyle Flack, pictured left, aged 20.

Kyle was a quadriplegic and had cerebral palsy and learning disabilities and was admitted to Basildon Hospital in October 2006 after becoming ill. His bed was not fitted with the appropriate safety bumpers despite requests from his mother. When he was moved to a different ward, staff were not informed that he was deaf, and his round the clock nursing care was withdrawn. Two days after having been admitted, Kyle died from asphyxiation after his head became stuck between the bars of his hospital bed.

The inquest verdict on 20 July 2009 found that the circumstances leading to his death were:

- Inadequate risk assessments
- The level of supervision had been inadequate for Kyle’s complex needs
- There had been poor record keeping on behalf of the Trust
- Ineffective cascading of information which failed to support the staff providing direct care to Kyle
- Insufficient training on the proper use of cot sides and bumpers
- The cause of death was contributed to by neglect

The £50,000 fine followed the prosecution of Basildon University Hospital for failing to address the health and safety issues. The Health and Safety Executive’s statement identified that the Trust had no system to assess the risk to patients from bed rails: “Despite Kyle’s size, he was placed in a bed with adult spacing bed rails. Had the rails been suitable for Kyle, it would not have been physically possible for him to get his head through any gap”

Keith Smith, BILD Chief Executive said, “Kyle’s death was preventable and his loss is another indictment of the poor quality of healthcare that many people with learning disabilities continue to receive. BILD is committed to ensuring that there is equal access to high quality person centred health care for all people with learning disabilities. This requires a real change in attitudes and awareness from healthcare professionals and all those responsible for providing direct support and care.”

There is a brief interview with Kyle's mother in this Sky News report.

Posted June 2010