The Learning Disability Coalition launches at May’s Community Care Live conference
The Coalition's press release follows:
Funding is key to building better lives for people with a learning disability says new charity coalition
A coalition of leading disability charities, which launches today, is calling for improved funding and better services to improve the lives of people with a learning disability.
Baroness Ashton, PUSS at the Department of Constitutional Affairs, is to be present at the launch.
The Learning Disability Coalition will provide a united voice in the fight for enough public funding to give people with a learning disability the same chances, opportunities and choices as other people across the U.K.
Although the Government has an excellent vision for people with learning disabilities, cuts to services are getting worse because of financial pressures on local councils. Members of the coalition, which include: the Association for Real Change, British Institute of Learning Disabilities, Down’s Syndrome Association, MENCAP, Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities, National Forum for People with Learning Difficulties, People First, Sense, Turning Point and United Response are receiving more and more complaints as local authorities squeeze their budgets.
Commenting on the launch of the coalition, Dame Jo Williams, Chief Executive of Mencap said: “These cuts are having an alarming impact on the lives of people with a learning disability and their families. We need to make sure that the Government’s admirable policies are not just words. Rhetoric must be turned into reality.”
Spending on social care for people with a learning disability may have increased by 7.2 per cent in real terms but it has not kept pace with the growth in demand.
What’s more, there is an alarming lack of information about what is happening on the ground, consistency in services and how changes in society are affecting people with a learning disability.
The coalition is therefore gathering evidence on cuts to services. It wants local and central government to make sure there is sufficient funding to meet the rights and needs of people with learning disabilities.
The group is also calling for a strategic review, similar to those conducted by Sir Derek Wanless, to assess the demographic, social, economic, and health trends that are likely to have an impact on the services needed by people with a learning disability and the funding necessary to meet those needs. The review also needs to reflect the policy objectives set out in Valuing People and Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People.
Andrew Lee, Director of People First London said at the launch "We are hearing about cuts to service up and down the country while too few people are acutally getting the things that the while paper talked about like person centred pdlans and free health checks."
Steve Inch, Chair of the Association for Real Change added "There is the danger of disillusionment in that find sounding promises and a really great policy will be seen as failing because of lack of money.''
Click here to download the powerpoint presentation, and here for the comments given by Steve Inch, Chair of ARC, at the lauch.
Linked to the launch of the Coalition Community Care is campaigning for A Life Like Any Other for people with learning disabilities. Their petition is as follows:
Too many people with learning disabilities are deprived of the support they need to have a decent quality of life and do things other people take for granted. We call on the government to make sure there is enough money getting through the system to honour the promises it has made of more choice and control for the 1.5m people affected.
You can support this petition by voting on the Community Care website, or The Learning Disability Coalition website.
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