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Valuing People Now

‘Valuing People Now – From Progress to Transformation’

This paper, which was published on the 5^th December 2007, is widely welcomed in the Learning Disability sector as a positive step in the right direction. The main question is whether it will result in far more widespread change than has been achieved since the launch of Valuing People six years ago.

The new paper is a cross-government consultation which sets the agenda for people with learning disabilities across a range of key issues including health and well-being, housing, employment and inclusion in the community. It builds on the vision set out in Valuing People - A New Strategy for Learning Disability for the 21st Century, which was published in 2001 and outlined policy intended to improve the lives and chances for people with learning disabilities. This new paper says what the Government thinks should happen for the next three years. It indicates that Valuing People was right but concedes that some areas need more attention and adds further policies.

Speaking at a special meeting of the Government’s Learning Disability Task Force to discuss the launch of the Report, the Minister for Care Services Ivan Lewis said:

“People with learning disabilities have a right to live independently as equal citizens in our society. Valuing People led to many improvements for some people with learning disabilities in some parts of the country. This new paper sets out to make independent living and equal citizenship a reality for all people with learning disabilities in every part of the country.”

Richard Blake, Task Force member and co-chair of the National Forum of People with Learning Difficulties said:

“Valuing People Now is a really positive step in the right direction. The government has listened carefully to what people with learning disabilities had to say about their lives and this paper clearly sets out how progress should be made. I am really pleased that it has given priority to helping people get paid work. The National Forum is delighted that our campaign to get hate crime against people with learning disabilities taken seriously has been included in the new policy. However, we are disappointed that it says so little about children. What happens to children affects them all their lives and so we have to look at adult and children’s services together.”

Learning Disability Task Force Welcomes Government Report

Speaking at the Task Force meeting, Task Force member Peter Kinsella from Paradigm said he was pleased that the new Paper acknowledges some of the failings of Valuing People and has incorporated this into new national and local action plans:

“What is new in Valuing People Now is that all the government departments are working together with a real focus on the individual person and their needs. The document represents a very exciting opportunity to re-energise the whole issue of learning disability and although there are many challenges ahead we look forward to its far-reaching vision becoming a reality. The movement of ‘social care’ commissioning from the NHS to local authorities is right and statements about promoting assured tenancies and home ownership for people as the preferred housing model are important progress. Making these changes happen is the real challenge. Government cannot just let local people pick and choose which bits of the Valuing People policy they implement. There has to be improved performance monitoring of all public services with Partnership Board being given more ‘teeth’ to force the changes to happen.”

Valuing People Now is an interim Report, launching a three month consultation process until 28^th March 2008. The Government has asked the Task force for its thoughts and recommendations and will incorporate them into the final White Paper to be published in summer 2008.

Richard Blake continued:

“The consultation process will give us important opportunities to talk to the Government about our continuing concerns.”

Ivan Lewis concluded:

“I urge people with learning disabilities, their carers and front line professionals to respond to this consultation so that the final strategy can achieve a major revitalisation of the Valuing People agenda and reflect people’s every day aspirations and experiences."

About Valuing People Now

Valuing People Now focuses on the following key areas for the next three years:

• Personalisation – having choice and control through individual budgets, direct payments and person centred planning
• What people do in the daytime and evening – helping them to be more socially included with access to paid work
• Better health care in mainstream NHS services
• Better access to housing especially real tenancies and home ownership
• What should be done so that Valuing People becomes a reality for everyone

For access to the full consultative document, including the easy read version and questionnaires to download please follow this link: 

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Consultations/Liveconsultations/DH_081014

Valuing People

A vision for future services

As well as the title for this section, 'Valuing People' is also the title of an influential government White Paper published in March 2001. This document outlined government plans for the 21st Century for services for those who have a learning disability.

Until the 1950s it was generally accepted that individuals with a learning disability could enjoy a better life with the protection and security of living with other disabled people in segregated institutions rather than with families and carers in the community. By the end of the 1960s it became clear that the quality of care in long stay hospitals and institutions was poor. The White Paper 'Better Services for the Mentally Handicapped', produced in 1971, paved the way for change for the next two decades. It committed the government to supporting individuals with a learning disability to live as normal a life as possible, without segregation from the community. However the government realised that achieving change would require sustained action over many years with the main thrust of the plans surrounding a hospital closure programme and the creation of community services.

After twenty years the government realised more needed to be done. Too many people with learning disabilities and their families still led lives apart. To maintain momentum we now needed to open up mainstream services and not create further separate specialist services.

Social Exclusion

The government believes that despite much committed work by staff, public services have failed to make consistent progress in helping individuals with a learning disability overcome social exclusion. They feel there are still key areas like the following to be addressed:

• Expense: families with disabled members have higher costs and diminished employment prospects
• Transition to adult life: young disabled people often leave school without a clear route towards a fulfilling and productive adult life
• Carers can feel undervalued by public services and the lack of the right information and enough support to meet their caring responsibilities
• Choice and control: many individuals with a learning disability have little or no choice, or control, in their lives. Advocacy services are patchy. Direct payments have been slow to develop for individuals with a learning disability
• Health Care: the substantial health care needs of individuals with a learning disability often go unmet. They can experience illness that could be avoided
• Housing is a key aspect to achieving social inclusion. The numbers being supported to live independently in the community remain small. There can be no real choice and people receive little advice about possible housing options
• Day services frequently fail to provide sufficiently flexible and individual support. Some centres remain large and it appears they offer just a daytime caring service rather than undertaking a wider range of individually tailored activities
• Social isolation remains a problem for many people. A recent study showed that only 30 percent had a friend who was not either learning disabled, part of their family or paid to care for them
• Employment is just as much an aspiration for people who have a learning difficulty as others. However, currently less than 10 percent are in any form of work, so most people spend a lifetime on social security benefits
• Ethnic minority communities: People from these communities and their needs are too often overlooked. The increased prevalence rates, language barriers and lack of understanding regarding cultural traditions and beliefs are often not taken into consideration

Key Principles of Valuing People

There are four key principles at the heart of the 'Valuing People' proposals:

• Legal and Civil Rights
• Independence
• Choice
• Inclusion

Legal and Civil Rights

There is a commitment to enforce civil rights to eradicate discrimination for disabled people in our society. Individuals with a learning disability have the right to a decent education, to vote, to marry and have a family and to express their opinions, and to be given the necessary help and support to do so. They have the right to full access to and protection of the law when they need it.

Independence

Whilst people's lives and aspirations may differ, the starting presumption should be one of a person aspiring to independence, rather than being encouraged to be dependent. Independence does not necessarily mean doing things unaided; it also means being offered support to be as independent as possible. The theme of independence promotion can operate at all levels of care, from the most personal of self care tasks, to being assisted to buy your own home.

Choice

People should be able to make choices and express a preference about their day to day lives. Like others, individuals with learning disabilities want a real say in where they live, what work they do and who looks after them. This should also include those with severe and profound disabilities who will need extra support to express themselves. Whilst Advocacy Services can support and safeguard individuals over some of their major life decisions if required, choice should clearly feature as an innate perspective of every day services and support programmes. It should not be confined to just the minor aspects of life; support should be given to people to help them to speak for themselves on a whole range of matters.

Inclusion

Being part of the community is something most of us take for granted. People with learning disabilities want the same access to things in the community that we have:

• To be fully included in leisure, culture and sport activities.
• To have such things as a local dentist or GP service of their choice.
• To have their own local bank account.
• To have the opportunity to acquire housing in a community where they have lived all their lives, and to have security of tenure of that accommodation.
• To have these things regardless of whether they have mild, moderate or severe and profound learning difficulties.

Whilst 'Valuing People' considers many more aspects than the values highlighted above, it is important to recognise that these constitute 'best practice in care' and support, explicitly reinforced by a national policy. Such good practice needs to be a natural part of the everyday experiences which individuals with a learning disability have while receiving services.