Wednesday 30 July 2014

Winterbourne and Addenbrookes

I'm up in Cambridge this afternoon with my colleagues from ACEVO, working with the third sector in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough to develop a consortium to provide a joined up service on the elderly and people with long term conditions (LTC). We will be working with the health service here. Its exciting work and an example of our sector joining up - not just locally but with specialist national charities in LTC.

We had our first meeting of the steering group on the Winterbourne pledge on Monday. A good session but we are still forming and working out our remit. We agreed we need to make our documents public so we will be putting up the membership, terms of reference and minutes on the NHS England website soon.

We're trying to co-commission a national framework locally delivered that can help ensure better outcomes for people with learning disabilities. And that means moving from an institutional approach to community; from officials to users.

And as I said in my last blog, it is good to have Gavin Harding on our group (he is the co-chair of the new Department of Health assurance group). We discussed how best to ensure effective involvement of people with learning disabilities. Given that we must deliver our report in October it's crucial to have these conversations now.

I was talking to the local government group on learning disabilities "Finding Common Purpose" this morning on all this. Councils are key partners here, especially in commissioning. There is a new opportunity here with the NHS England steering group. And the stories told in the comments on my Blog on Monday put these matters in context; they’re about people in their communities who need a better deal.

11 comments:

The Mother. said...

The comments on your blog on Monday told of CLAIRE'S story. Sadly she is one of many and it needs to stop NOW!

Time and money spent on meetings achieves nothing whilst Claire and others are still being sent away from their families and the lives they wish to continue.

Claire has a temporary reprieve. This was achieved by an application to the courts - full hearing on Friday.

The fact that this family is being put through hell to try and keep their daughter locally shames you and your organisation.

There are no guarantees that Friday's hearing will completely stop the move to Brighton.

What are you doing to help?

The Mother. said...

The comments on your blog on Monday told of CLAIRE'S story. Sadly she is one of many and it needs to stop NOW!

Time and money spent on meetings achieves nothing whilst Claire and others are still being sent away from their families and the lives they wish to continue.

Claire has a temporary reprieve. This was achieved by an application to the courts - full hearing on Friday.

The fact that this family is being put through hell to try and keep their daughter locally shames you and your organisation.

There are no guarantees that Friday's hearing will completely stop the move to Brighton.

What are you doing to help?

Zoe said...

Your current blogpost reads as if all the 'stories' in the comments on your previous blogpost were relating to different people. They were all about the same person - Claire. Claire is on a section and shouldn't be. Can you please start your review by prioritising and addressing the most pressing of the cases of young people who are being held in inappropriate placements.

Walk Not Talk said...

A better deal when exactly. Claire Dyer needs hers on Friday.

Jayne Wales said...

Chris spent another birthday, age 22, in hospital for want of people to agree he can move to decent housing and support. It costs half a million a year to keep him in a state establishment where he has suffered abuse.mthey were going to move him to another but found safeguarding issues there. The only reason he wasn't moved.
Doesn't thus say something about shocking services and shocking waste of money? Chris situation us also in the media. Can his mum and I show you how it can be done. It will take us half an hour and you can yes thus as a template for others?

Jayne Wales said...

Excuse typos texting from phone

Sir Stephen Bubb said...

I have not joined the commentary on this so far, as it's not part of my remit or role as Chair of the group to comment on individual cases.
However I have read all the comments and ensured they have been noted by those who have the responsibilities. I also know that both Mencap and CBF have been involved, as have so many others, to support Claire and her mother to resolve their case.

carole said...

good intentioned rhetoric and individuals, glossy brochures, Assessments of need that are generic and not user specific regarding medical conditions, Assessments of need that are budgetary led with local authorities disproportionally prioritising their own agenda.........these are the things that need to STOP support is not what parents or their loved ones need action and a fair system with integrity is...........currently hope is given where there is none and there in lies the abuse..........

The Mother. said...

Sir Bubb - your mission has failed before it has even begun. The system is so evil that Claire was moved to Brighton even before her family had chance to get back to Wales from the courts in London. This is the evil you are supposed to stop - might be a bigger challenge than you imagined.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=98tM3ZGrAuc

Thefrenchfiend said...

Feeling very despondent that over three years since the watershed Panorama programme was shown and my son returned from Winterbourne View so little has changed. A lot of promises, hot air and rhetoric, people talking the talk but very few walking the walk.
Committees formed, re-formed, concordats made and broken. Time for all that to finish and a radical change needs to take place NOW.
Local authorities, professionals, officials should be working with families not working against. Why don't all parents of children with a learning disability automatically become legal guardians when their children become 18 to enable families to have a say?
Stop sectioning being used as a blunt instrument. Limit the number of people that can live in a group home. Train and respect carers....any parent can go on and on but nobody worries what we think, hey we might just get it right and where would the professionals be then?

The Mother. said...

And worse was to come! In Brighton they have taken Claire's iPad off her - so now she can not face time her family. Not only have they moved her hundreds of miles from home they have removed her main method of communication with her family, who have also been told they can't visit until after a 'risk assessment' has been done.

Methinks the polite term for this is BALONEY!

Come on Sir Bubb - less breakfast and more action!