FDHS/FDLD Politics Policy and Empowerment

1. FDHS/FDLDPolitics Policy and Empowerment Citizenship Personalisation Empowerment Inclusion and Choice

2. Lesson Outcomes • To define citizenship and relate this to people with a learning disability. • To identify the legislative framework for personalisation. • To discuss personalisation for people with a learning disability. • To consider empowerment, inclusion and choice for people with a learning disability. • To consider advocacy and citizens rights for people with a learning disability.

3. Concepts for discussion • Citizenship • Personalisation • Empowerment • Inclusion and Exclusion

4. What is citizenship? “Citizenship is membership of a political community. It involves rights and obligations, typically framed in law and enforceable through a system of justice” Taylor-Gooby, 2009, p4

5. Citizenship Theorists “Citizenship is a status bestowed on those who are full members of a community. All who possess the status are equal with respect to the rights and duties with which the status is endowed” (Marshall cited in Gates, 2008, p600)

7. What is social citizenship? • “Social Citizenship concerns the rights and duties associated with the provision of benefits and services designed to meet social needs and enhance capabilities and also to guarantee the resources necessary to finance them” Taylor-Gooby 2010, p5

8. Every citizen is entitled to an equal set of civil, political and social rights including the means to exercise these rights effectively. • All citizens must have access to resources that meet their essential needs. • There must be equality of opportunity in education and employment not affected by gender, class, ethnicity or disability. • There should be a fair distribution of resources across the community.

9. Citizenship for Disabled People • The question – what does Citizenship mean for people with a disability? • Specifically those people with a learning disability.

10. Three elements to citizenship for people with a learning disability Self determination Participation Contribution These engage with Marshall’s three elements of citizenship Morris 2005

11. Self Determination • Being in charge of your own life • Removing barriers to self determination • Having the resources to make self determination possible • Requires changes in attitude from non disabled people

12. Barriers experienced by people with disabilities

13. Participation • This involves being part of mainstream life in society • Having a family • Being part of a community • Inclusion • Is an integral part of being a citizen • What are the barriers to participation for people with a learning disability?

14. Participation Issues • Benefit rules create barriers towards people with disabilities within society. • Many people experience inadequate access to health treatment • Society thinks of people with learning disabilities as being unable to do things for themselves • People with learning disabilities often treated as not belonging to communities

15. Discrimination • People experience both direct and indirect discrimination • People with learning disabilities experience high levels of access discrimination • People with learning disabilities experience financial hardship • People often have to live in ‘care services’

16. Valuing People 2001 A New Strategy for Learning Disability for the 21st Century Key to a better life for people with a learning disability Rights Inclusion Choice Independence

17. Valuing Peoplein 2001: that all people with a learning disability are people first with the right to lead their lives like any others, with the same opportunities and responsibilities, and to be treated with the same dignity and respect. They and their families and carers are entitled to the same aspirations and life chances as other

18. Valuing People 2001 Key points were Person centred planning Enabling people to have more choice and control Enabling people to have a say in the services delivered to them Direct payments

19. DOH Putting People First 2007 Local authority leadership accompanied by authentic partnership working with the local NHS, other statutory agencies, third and private sector providers, users and carers and the wider local community to create a new, high quality care system which is fair, accessible and responsive to the individual needs of those who use services and their carers to achieve the highest level of personalised care possible

20. What happens next? Valuing People Now (2009) • The Government set out a new 3 year strategy for people with learning disabilities in our society. Valuing People Now sets a challenge for public services and everyone who works with people with learning disabilities to take an approach which starts with each individual, their wishes, aspirations and needs, and which seeks to give them control and choice over the support they need and the lives they lead.

21. Valuing People Now 2009 • Including everyone • Personalisation • Better health and housing • Work and meaningful employment • Relationships and having a life • Advocacy, transport, leisure • Being safe and access to justice

22. Personalisation and valuing people now • Person centred planning, advocacy and direct payments to give people more choice and control in their lives were at the heart of the original Valuing People. in December 2007, the cross-sector concordat Putting People First set out a vision for transforming social care. At its heart is the commitment to giving people more independence, choice and control through high-quality and personalised services. Putting People First is about empowering people to shape their own lives and the support they receive by allowing them to use resources more flexibly to suit their needs and lifestyle. Valuing People Now (2009)

23. This means: • Person centred approaches to care • Improved opportunity for inclusion • Empowerment and equality • People being able to commission their own services • People should have real choice about the way that they live their lives

24. Representation • Empowerment and representation is fundamental to society and it is closely linked with citizenship. • Citizenship centres on the relationship between the person and the state. • Social Care legislation has emphasised the importance of representing service users and more recent social care guidance has emphasised the importance of involving the service user in decision making about their own lives.

25. Task In small groups consider the following questions: • What are human rights? Are they so much a part of our lives that we take them for granted? • What barriers do people with learning disabilities face in asserting their rights? • What situations may arise in which the person’s rights conflict with the wishes of others?

26. Elements of empowerment • Self advocacy • Exercising choice • Effective representation • Improving confidence, self esteem and communication skills • Starting to know your rights • More opportunities might come your way

27. Empowerment Gibson (1991) cited in Gates 2008 p602 regards empowerment as: “a social process of recognising, promoting and enhancing people’s abilities to meet their own problems and mobilise the necessary resources in order to feel in control of their own life”

28. Empowerment is: • Not being powerless • Not feeling helpless • About people having greater opportunity and ability to express their thoughts and needs and to decide how these might best be met within their life.

29. Exclusion From participation in gaining equal access to information, education, employment, public transport, housing and social/recreational Opportunities because of • Physical • Service • Attitudes of society Exclusion Article

30. What happens to you if you are socially excluded • Mental health issues • Poor physical health • Deteriorating skills • Lowering of self esteem • Increase in drug and alcohol abuse Day centre closures Mark and Helen Mullins

31. Inclusion for people with a learning disability • Responsibility for exclusion is placed on people who control the power and not on the people that are excluded from participation. • Social inclusion is tackling problems such as such as poverty, unemployment or low income, housing problems and becoming housebound and isolated due to illness.

32. O’Brien and Tyne’s Five Service Accomplishments (1981) • Community Presence • Choice • Competence • Respect • Community Participation

33. Inclusion means trying to involve people: • In the world of work Remploy • To be a part of their local community and locality • Involvement in political life People First • In education and learning

34. Inclusion? • Inclusion video • Are these people included? • Do you feel that people with learning disabilities will be included in society to the level that their rights dictate that they should be? • What part can/does Valuing People and Putting People First Play in this?