Welfare Reform on the Web (August 2000): Services for the Disabled - UK
THE BIG PICTURE
A. Phillips
Community Care, no. 1322, 2000, p. 30-31
Spurred on by the Quality Protects initiative, many local authorities are now working either to set up or refine their own disability registers. These contain data on disabled children in the locality. They provide amalgamated and anonymised statistical information to assist planning across all services, and may also be used as a vehicle for despatching information about services offered to parents and carers.
BRIDGING THE GAP: USING DIRECT PAYMENTS TO PURCHASE INTEGRATED CARE
C. Glendinning et al
Health and Social Care in the Community, vol. 8, 2000, p. 192-200
Paper begins by discussing the introduction of direct payments and the current arrangements for obtaining and using them. Then reports how disabled people themselves conceptualise the distinction between health and social care; how they use direct payments to purchase integrated personal care that crosses this divide, and their views on the constraints and opportunities for extending direct payments to purchase a wider range of health-related assistance.
DISABILITY, DEPENDENCY AND THE NEW DEAL FOR DISABLED PEOPLE
A. Roulstone
Disability and Society, vol. 15, 2000, p. 427-443
Paper places the New Deal in the context of the wider "Welfare to Work" ideology. In doing so it highlights similarities between "New Deal", Welfare to Work, and the victim blaming ideas which characterised discussions of a growing "social underclass" in the 1980s. It is argued that the New Deal is unlikely to address the barriers created by discriminating employers that prevent disabled people from working. Indeed it risks seriously misrepresenting the causes of disabled people's economic and social exclusion and falsely labelling them as workshy.
DOUBLE INVISIBILITY: A STUDY INTO THE NEEDS OF BLACK DISABLED PEOPLE IN WARWICKSHIRE
M. Banton and M. M. Hirsch
Leamington Spa: Council of Disabled People in Warwickshire, 2000
Results of a survey of over 60 organisations in Warwickshire revealed widespread ignorance about the special needs of black disabled people. Interviews with 180 black and Asian disabled people showed that language and communication problems make it difficult to find out about the help on offer. Recommends that separate provision for ethnic minority groups should be supported by statutory authorities, that black volunteering should be developed, and that minority groups should be encouraged to develop separate services.
NEW KINDS OF CARE, NEW KINDS OF RELATIONSHIPS: HOW PURCHASING SERVICES AFFECTS RELATIONSHIPS IN GIVING AND RECEIVING PERSONAL ASSISTANCE
C. Glendinning et al
Health and Social Care in the Community, vol. 8, 2000, p. 201-211
Paper first summarises the arguments for enabling disabled people to exert greater control over their personal assistance and care through the medium of direct payments. Describes both the benefits and drawbacks reported by disabled people in employing their own personal assistants. These reports are complemented with the perspectives of the PAs themselves. Concludes with a discussion of the measures which could enhance the advantages, while minimising the drawbacks, of directly employing people to provide personal and other assistance.
REMPLOY WINS CASH BOOST
Anon.
Community Care, no. 1322, 2000, p. 5
Remploy, the UK's largest employer of disabled people, is to receive £5m from the government to invest in updating facilities at its factories and providing more training opportunities for disabled people so that they can move into mainstream work.
VITAL LESSONS TO BE LEARNED FROM THE SOUTH LANARKSHIRE RULING
C. Bewley
Community Living, vol. 13, Apr./May 2000, p. 9-11
Article looks in detail at the possible impact of the South Lanarkshire Employment Tribunal ruling on the development of direct payments for disabled people across the UK.
WANTED: CARING EMPLOYEES
N. Valios
Community Care, no. 1324, 2000, p. 20-21
Two disabled people describe their experience of using direct payments to purchase their own care instead of relying on local authority services.
WELFARE TO WORK FOR THE (IN)CAPACITATED: THE REFORM OF INCAPACITY BENEFIT
G. McKeever
Industrial Law Journal, vol. 29, 2000, p. 145-166
The principles on which the "welfare to work" reforms are based are sound and correspond closely with what its claimants want. The main difficulties with the reforms are failure to provide a specialised support service tailored to the needs of disabled people, and failure to reassure them that they will not be forced into work through sanctions such as loss of entitlement to benefit. The system could be improved by the introduction of partial incapacity benefit to compensate claimants with residual ability for their reduced earning power.
WHEN IT'S TIME TO GET EVEN
L. Donnelly
Health Service Journal, vol. 110, May 25th 2000, p. 11-12
Reports on various initiatives to prevent discrimination on grounds of disability in the NHS, and to support disabled people at work.