Disability hate crime – we need action not guidance
Blog by Gary Bourlet – Membership and Engagement lead of Learning Disability England.
NEW
Being prepared in case you need to go into hospital
Guide about going into hospital from Georgia Frith, a SaLT and widgit symbols – easy read
Book about Going into Hospital and a short wordless story on ‘Beating the Virus’ from Books Beyond Words – easy read
Hospital passport / grab sheet template and guide on how to fill out the template. It’s important that passports are updated, and some family members have worked with nurses and British Institute of Human Rights to make an emergency COVID-19 hospital passport that means medical professionals can get the information they need quickly. This template has now being adopted by NHSE.
Fact sheet about the role of learning disability nurses during the pandemic from the Challenging Behaviour Foundation.
Presentation about emergency planning and templates with tips(PDF or editable Word versions) from the Dimensions family support team.
Guidance for care staff around supporting people with sensory loss, learning disability and autism. SeeAbility is part of a group of charities who have put together this advice on how to support people and communicate effectively.
Disabled people’s rights, DNAR and Covid-19
Learning Disability England has joined voices with 0ver 70 other disabled people’s organisations and allies in an Open Letter supporting a Statement about the rights of disabled people during Covid 19.
We are all concerned about recent media coverage and letters from GPs about DNAR.
You can read the response from Professor Stephen Powis, National Medical Director, NHS England and NHS Improvement and Ruth May, Chief Nursing Officer, NHS England and NHS Improvement to the Open Letter.
Baroness Campbell replied to this response. You can read Baroness Campbell’s reply here.
The Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities also issued a joint statement on persons with disabilities and Covid-19.
As a result of this lobbying, the Care Quality Commission, the Royal College of General Practitioners, the British Medical Association and the Care Providers Association issued a joint statement on advance care planning.
They said “it is unacceptable for advance care plans, with or without DNAR form completion, to be applied to groups of people of any description”.
VoiceAbility have created a template letter to raise concerns about restrictions on care where someone has received a DNAR letter from their GP or other professional.
The template can be changed to add your personal details.
We carried out a ‘snapshot’ survey at the end of April to find out the experiences of our members and DNAR during the pandemic. Read the Full Report and Easy Read here
Read the Case Studies some of our members gave us as part of the survey.
Read about Do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation (DNACPR) decisions on the NHS website here.
Other sources of support, information or advice
These are some of the other organisations funded by DHSC to support people during Coronavirus through advice lines, resources, training or local groups.
Learning from 2020 and FAQ’s for 2021
2020 will have been one of the most difficult years many of us have had.
Court of appeal judgement on staff pay for sleep ins
The Court of Appeal has made a ruling on Sleep in payments.
The court found in favour of Mencap so this means that national minimum wage does not apply when a support worker is sleeping.
Learning Disability England has been part of the #SolveSleepIns Alliance to try and find a solution to this problem.
Here is the statement from the alliance. For providers of support and personal budget holders who directly employ support workers, this decision provides some relief for those who would have struggled to pay 6 years of back pay. However it does not solve the main problem that social care is grossly underfunded and those who we expect to perform some of the most important work in our society are living on wages that often do not reflect the important job they do.
We think that not only should support staff be paid fairly to sleep in but that greater investment by the government into social care should mean better rates of pay and conditions more generally.
We support the #SolveSleepIns Alliance call for the government to legislate for improved rates to be paid for sleep ins and that the government commit to funding this properly. At the moment many Personal Budget Holders are not paid equally to service providers and therefore have a disadvantage in some parts of the country in attracting the right support workers and this too needs to be resolved.
Claire Crossley, LDE family representative and personal budget holder says ‘the lack of value and pay for essential care that is the difference between being alive and actually LIVING. We need a national standard procedure that all local authority’s agree to follow so that we have better processes and rates of pay including pensions which is imperative for personal budget holders to operate within the law’
To download the solve sleep in Alliance press release click here
To download the judgement please click here
To download SolveSleepIns-Briefing on the sleep-in crisis please click here
COVID 19 Vaccines Campaign – Update and reply from JCVI
On the 18th of December, the JCVI replied to the Open Letter that Learning Disability England and partners sent to them in November.
Coronavirus Lessons Learnt Joint Inquiry: Letter to Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP and Rt Hon Greg Clark MP
Ian Davies and Chris Hatton have written to Jeremy Hunt, the Chair of the Health and Social Care House of Commons Select Committee and Greg Clark , the Chair of the Science and Technology House of Commons Select Committee.
Ian Davies is a self-advocate and founding member of Northamptonshire People First.
Chris Hatton is Professor of Social Care at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Disabled people’s rights, DNAR and Covid-19
Learning Disability England has joined voices with 0ver 70 other disabled people’s organisations and allies in an Open Letter supporting a Statement about the rights of disabled people during Covid 19.
We are all concerned about recent media coverage and letters from GPs about DNAR.
You can read the response from Professor Stephen Powis, National Medical Director, NHS England and NHS Improvement and Ruth May, Chief Nursing Officer, NHS England and NHS Improvement to the Open Letter.
Baroness Campbell replied to this response. You can read Baroness Campbell’s reply here.
The Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities also issued a joint statement on persons with disabilities and Covid-19.
As a result of this lobbying, the Care Quality Commission, the Royal College of General Practitioners, the British Medical Association and the Care Providers Association issued a joint statement on advance care planning.
They said “it is unacceptable for advance care plans, with or without DNAR form completion, to be applied to groups of people of any description”.
VoiceAbility have created a template letter to raise concerns about restrictions on care where someone has received a DNAR letter from their GP or other professional.
The template can be changed to add your personal details.
We carried out a ‘snapshot’ survey at the end of April to find out the experiences of our members and DNAR during the pandemic. Read the Full Report and Easy Read here
Read the Case Studies some of our members gave us as part of the survey.
Read about Do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation (DNACPR) decisions on the NHS website here.