Defining Community care needs and assessment after McDonald - Legal Action Group

If you are interested in the legal implications of the Supreme Court's decision around Elaine McDonald, and the court cases involved:

'Defining community care needs and assessments after McDonald'

19 July 2011
Chairperson: Paul Bowen, barrister, Doughty Street Chambers
Speakers: Stephen Cragg, barrister, Doughty Street Chambers (counsel to Elaine McDonald) and Stephen Lowe, social care policy adviser, Age UK.
Notes and relevant documents
Stephen Cragg notes (pdf: 92.6Kb)
Stephen Lowe notes (pdf: 54.2Kb)
What price dignity? Speech by Lord Justice Munby (pdf: 115Kb)
R v Gloucestershire CC ex p Barry: (1997) 1 CCLR 40 (pdf: 242Kb)
R (Bernard) v Enfield LBC: (2002) 5 CCLR 577 (pdf: 132Kb)

http://www.lag.org.uk/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=93809

RBKC - Safeguarding adults - London multi-agency policy and procedures

Safeguarding adults - London multi-agency policy and procedures

Book now to secure your place at the local launch of these new guidelines!

14 October 2011, 9.30am to 12.30pm

Small Hall, Kensington Town Hall, Hornton Street, London W8 7NX

There will be a chance to have your questions answered and take part in a group activity.

Refreshments and a buffet lunch will be provided.

The policy and procedures represent the commitment of organisations in Kensington and Chelsea to:

·        work together to prevent and protect adults at risk from abuse and neglect

·        empower and support people to make their own choices

·        investigate actual or suspected abuse and neglect

·        support and provide a service to adults who are experiencing abuse, neglect and exploitation.

Speakers will include Cllr Fiona Buxton, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Mike Howard, Independent Chair of the Kensington and Chelsea Safeguarding Adults’ Executive Board.

To book your place please email lara.pavey@rbkc.gov.uk

Press coverage about the protest about the Elaine McDonald judgement

Tuesday, 09 August 2011 09:40

Protest demonstrates anger over council’s McDonald court win

Activists were set to stage a protest this evening over the treatment of a disabled woman denied the night-time care she needs by her local authority.
The Supreme Court caused outrage earlier this month when it ruled that Kensington and Chelsea council did not break the law by deciding to withdraw night-time support for Elaine McDonald, even though it had assessed her as needing that support.
The council’s decision meant McDonald would be forced to use incontinence pads at night, even though she was not incontinent.
The protest was set to take place outside Kensington and Chelsea’s town hall, while councillors were inside in a cabinet meeting.
Campaigners planned to deliver an open letter to the council, outlining their concerns about McDonald’s case and how she has been treated.
They are also angry that four male Supreme Court judges ruled against McDonald’s appeal, while only the female judge, Baroness Hale, ruled in her favour.
They say that male judges were “undermining a woman’s right to choose how she is helped with personal care” and that night-time personal assistance was “vital to many disabled people’s independence and safety”.
Jenny Hurst, personal budgets coordinator for Action Disability Kensington and Chelsea, one of the disabled people’s organisations taking part in the protest, said they had received support from across the country.
She said there was “real concern” about the council’s decision, and the precedent now set by the courts.
Hurst said that now the council had removed McDonald’s care during the night, there was nothing to stop other local authorities removing such support from disabled people during the day, or even forcing them to be tube-fed twice a day if they needed assistance with eating.
She said: “It is a real human rights issue. It is absolutely terrible for disabled people. Where does choice and control come into it? There is supposed to be a personalisation agenda.”
Claire Glasman, a spokeswoman for WinVisible, the disabled women’s organisation, which was also supporting the protest, said: “Many women feel we have contributed in all kinds of ways and should not be charged or rationed when it comes to needing some care services.
“There has been a fantastic response from all kinds of groups, not only disability groups but also people who feel they will need care in the future and that we need to be supporting each other.”
21 July 2011

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

News - have a direct payment lived up to expectations - Guardian

Have direct payments lived up to expectations?

There is proof that direct payments really can foster independence, but much more could be done, says Su Sayer

August 2011 10.00 BST

In one case, two young men passionate about gardening were helped to launch their own business. Photograph: Alamy

Almost exactly 15 years ago, the Community Care (direct payments) Act 1996 was passed into law.

Celebrated as a victory for the rights of people with disabilities, the act was the first to enshrine in law the principle that people who receive social care funding could receive the money directly, rather than having it administered by a local authority.

The intention was to give people more control over their lives, allowing them to tailor their care and support to fit their own needs and ambitions by giving them control over how their money was spent.
Fifteen years later, the big question is: have direct payments lived up to those expectations? The answer – perhaps predictably, is yes – and no. For those who do receive direct payments, there are thousands of remarkable stories of people seizing control of their own lives and being creative with the way they structure their support.
Unfortunately, direct payments have not been rolled out as rapidly or as evenly as they should have been, despite endorsements by social care experts and successive governments (including the current one).

Most progress has been made for people with physical disabilities, many of whom now receive such payments. For people with learning disabilities – and mental health needs - the numbers are far lower, and vary enormously from local authority to local authority.

One reason for the slow progress is a mistaken belief that many people with learning disabilities lack the skills to manage their own support. We know from experience that this is not true. If a person with a learning disability has access to good information, advocacy services or a supportive family, for example, they can benefit just as much from direct payments as people with physical disabilities.

Take Thomas, who has Asperger's syndrome, and spent most of his adult life shuffling between his family home, supported living, and institutional care – none of which met his need for independence and security. Thomas knew how he wanted to live, but none of the "ready made" solutions worked for him.
Then, in 2005, we worked with Thomas, his family and his local authority and agreed that direct payments, along with shared ownership of a property, might provide a way forward, enabling Thomas to have more say in how he lived and who supported him. As a result, his confidence has increased, his social life is richer and his wellbeing enormously improved.
Others have been even more creative. We used to support two young men in Cumbria, who were passionate about gardening and looking for work in that area.
With some support from us, they used direct payments to appoint someone who was not only able to provide some personal support and assistance but also had the business experience to help them launch their own gardening business.
That business still thrives today and the two young men have developed so much that they no longer need our support and recruit their own staff directly; proof that direct payments really can foster independence. We remain in close contact with them as they go from strength to strength.
Unfortunately, such great examples of direct payments in action are still rare, and the number of people with learning disabilities receiving true direct payments remains low. Too many "personal budgets" are administered through local authorities, without choice, hardly in line with the original objectives. This is compounded by a postcode lottery, which means that while some local authorities are deeply behind the idea of giving people who need care more control, others have been less eager.
None of us wants to wait another 15 years before we can say that direct payments are finally achieving their full potential. We must all honour the original vision and ensure that they are truly giving control back to their recipients, with the potential to transform their lives.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/joepublic/2011/aug/15/direct-payments-care

Personal Budget meeting September - date change

The Personal Budget meeting planned for 19th September has been changed to 23rd September.

This will take place between 12.30 and 2.30 at the London Lighthouse in Lancaster Road as usual.

Black and Minority Ethnic Seminar on Personalisation - CarersUK

BAME Carers Personalisation Seminar

Sign up!  There are limited 25 seats available for the seminar. 

When:    2:00 – 4:30pm 6 September 2011

Where:  Carers UK,

20 Great Dover Street, London, SE1 4LX

RSVP by:  Emailing dalveer.kaur@carersuk.org or by calling Dalveer Kaur on 0207 378 4936

Speakers to be announced.

Carers UK is a registered charity in England and Wales (Charity number 246329).

news - Servces users doubtful over NHS Personal Budgets - Community Care Magazine

Service users doubtful over NHS personal budgets

Molly Garboden

Friday 12 August 2011 00:54

Personal health budgets are at risk of failure in mental health after service users joined professionals in voicing doubts about the flagship policy to boost choice in NHS.
"Deeply engrained clinical, organisational and managerial cultures" needed to change to make mental health services less medicalised and more person-centred if personal health budgets were to work, found a report today by the NHS Confederation's Mental Health Network, based on a survey of users.
The report follows a poll of professionals by the network, which found social workers and other mental health practitioners were unconvinced that personal health budgets would deliver improvements for service users.
Only a minority of service users surveyed said they would take up a budget, many saying they were confused about what a personal health budget was and were unclear about how it would integrate with similar social care budgets.
This comes with the government planning to roll out personal health budgets from October 2012 following pilots in 68 areas.
The Mental Health Network has urged the government to postpone the roll out, extend the pilot schemes and begin an extensive programme of professional engagement as soon as possible.
"There is clearly some scepticism among service users about personal budgets being just one more policy solution that promises so much and delivers so little," said Steve Shrubb, director of the Mental Health Network.
"All of this in spite of the fact that personal budgets offer solutions to many of the frustrations people express about the care and support they receive.
"We think personal budgets can be a really powerful tool to improve services, but they will only work if both clinicians and service users - not simply policy makers - are convinced they will."
Shrubb said service providers needed to show service users that they would be supported in using budgets and to convince clinicians that the system would work.
The survey revealed fear among service users that personal budgets would lead to valued existing services closing. Service users also emphasised that people should not have to go through repeated assessments as needs change and that more support must be given to those less able to express their needs to guard against widening health inequalities.

http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2011/08/12/117291/service-users-doubtful-over-nhs-personal-budgets.htm

Read what "service users" have to say about various issues - Community Care Magazine

Service Users Voice Blog

http://www.communitycare.co.uk/blogs/service-user-voice/

RBKC - community equipment changes.

Community equipment update

A walking stick on prescription

In May 2011 the Royal Borough in partnership with NHS Kensington and Chelsea began work to introduce a new way of providing equipment to residents who need help with daily personal tasks. This is called 'community equipment'.
Community equipment includes simple items such as a bath board to help a person get in and out of the bath, or a raised toilet seat to help someone get on and off a toilet. More complex equipment includes items such as a battery powered hoist to help someone who has difficulty standing to get in and out of bed. These items support people to manage everyday tasks independently in their own homes.
This equipment is currently issued on loan to people who are eligible by the Council’s current provider of equipment – Medequip Ltd. The changes being introduced only include simple items of community equipment which tend to be items with a value of less than £100. Complex items will continue to be provided on loan via Medequip.
This is a Government initiative which has already been successfully started in other London boroughs by the Department of Health. We are introducing this later than others so that we can benefit from their experience.

What does this mean for people who require community equipment?

People who are eligible for equipment following an assessment by Health and Social Services will continue to have their equipment needs assessed by suitably trained staff as they do now. However, once the assessment is complete they will be issued with a prescription for simple equipment, which can be redeemed free of charge at an accredited retailer. People will have the option of paying extra for their equipment if they prefer something more to their own taste - this is known as topping up their prescription – so that they have a greater choice in the equipment they receive. Those who receive equipment via a prescription own the equipment and it does not need to be returned to the Council once it’s no longer needed. This new scheme is called the “Retail model”.
Some residents do not wish to be assessed for equipment, or do not meet the eligibility threshold to have equipment provided. The retail model will also support these residents to buy equipment, because the items will be more visible and accessible in the local community through advertising and shop-floor placement.
The plan is to start issuing prescriptions for simple aids to daily living in October 2011 and over the next few months our work will include developing:

• a catalogue of simple equipment available at accredited retailers
• a paper prescription
• an information leaflet
• a list/map of accredited retailers

We will also be visiting local retailers who are interested in supplying community equipment as part of the accreditation process. Most of those interested are local pharmacies.
If you would like to speak to someone about this initiative please contact Lisa Cavanagh (TCES Business Change Manager)
Phone: 020 7361 3241
email: lisa.cavanagh@rbkc.gov.uk

http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/healthandsocialcare/peoplefirst/gettingintouch/thisjustin/communityequipmentupdate.aspx