Contents
Anger and confusion over Kendall’s comments on sending work coaches into mental health hospitals 3
Disabled artists ‘facing Access to Work cuts, backlogs and inflexibility’ 8
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week 16
Disabled people’s organisations unite to oppose assisted suicide bill that has ‘far-reaching implications’
Disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) from across England and Wales have united to warn of the grave risks of proposed new legislation that would allow assisted suicide for people with a terminal illness.
Not Dead Yet UK, Disability Rights UK, All Wales People First, Liberation, Disabled People Against Cuts, Disability Wales and the coalition of UK DPOs that monitor implementation of the UN disability convention, all spoke out yesterday (Wednesday) to oppose the bill.
Kim Leadbeater’s terminally ill adults (end of life) bill received its first reading in the House of Commons yesterday (Wednesday) and is now set to be debated by MPs on 29 November.
The bill would “allow adults who are terminally ill, subject to safeguards and protections, to request and be provided with assistance to end their own life”.
It is not yet clear whether the bill will restrict assisted suicide to those with a maximum of six months to live.
Disabled activists warned yesterday that the bill would pressure disabled people to end their lives prematurely, and that too little time had been set aside to understand its “far-reaching” implications.
They believe parliament’s focus should be on improving access to health, care and other services.
And they have outlined their ethical and human rights concerns in a briefing sent to MPs.
Ellen Clifford, co-ordinator of the UN monitoring coalition*, said: “Parliament only gets one go at this and if they get it wrong the consequences will be very dangerous both for individual people vulnerable to abuse and society as a whole.
“Our support services – palliative care, the NHS, social care and mental health – are currently broken.
“The government must get on and fix the foundations, so we all have the chance to live with dignity.”
Not Dead Yet UK (NDY UK), a grassroots group of disabled activists who campaign against legalisation, said laws introduced in other countries have started with “relatively strict parameters” but then “expand and expand”.
Phil Friend, co-convenor of NDY UK, said: “While we are assured there will be ‘safeguards’, in reality these safeguards are virtually impossible to implement effectively.
“Even the idea that doctors can accurately predict when a person has six months left to live does not reflect reality.
“And in a world where there is growing awareness of coercive control, and where we know that many do not receive adequate or appropriate medical care, pain management or social care, we are creating the conditions for people to find themselves agreeing that, yes, they should probably die, including to avoid feeling like a burden.”
Kamran Mallick, chief executive of Disability Rights UK, said MPs should recognise the “chilling echoes” of the pandemic, where disabled people had “do not attempt resuscitation” (DNAR) notices imposed on them without their consent.
He said: “These actions demonstrated a shocking disregard for our lives and autonomy, exposing the prevailing societal belief that disabled lives are less valuable.
“Legalising assisted suicide would exacerbate these deeply concerning attitudes, normalising the idea that disabled people are better off dead than living in a society that fails to provide adequate support.”
Joe Powell, chief executive of All Wales People First, also pointed to the pandemic, where many people with learning difficulties had DNAR notices imposed on them without their knowledge.
He said: “We are concerned that this legislation may impact on many people with learning disabilities because of misunderstandings about their quality of life.”
Dorothy Gould, founder of the user-led, rights-based organisation Liberation, highlighted how people with mental health diagnoses were “already dying needlessly” in psychiatric institutions, because of “a flawed service model and the use of disability-based detention”.
She said assisted suicide legislation could lead to a “very real risk” that “yet more of us will then die because we feel so hopeless about receiving the help we actually need”.
Paula Peters, a member of the national steering group of Disabled People Against Cuts, said the proposed bill had caused “deep concern and alarm for many disabled people”.
She said: “It is impossible to put strong enough safeguards in place to prevent coercion and feeling that we have become a burden on our families and the state.
“We fear that non-disabled people will be making choices about what is best for us and that our voices will be dismissed as they often are.”
Rhian Davies, chief executive of Disability Wales, said her organisation also opposed the bill.
She said: “We acknowledge the lived experience of pain, suffering and distress on both sides of this debate; nevertheless, we are deeply concerned at the far-reaching implications of this bill, both for individuals and society as a whole.
“Given the dire impact of austerity, COVID-19 and the cost-of-living crisis on disabled people, including in Wales, we fear that this bill would further devalue disabled lives and undermine their very right to life.”
*Members of the coalition include The Alliance for Inclusive Education, All Wales People First, Disabled People Against Cuts, Disabled People Against Cuts Northern Ireland, Disability Rights UK, Disability Wales, Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People, Liberation and The Omnibus Partnership in Northern Ireland
17 October 2024
Anger and confusion over Kendall’s comments on sending work coaches into mental health hospitals
Disabled activists have reacted angrily to “horrific” government plans that could see work coaches being sent into mental health hospitals to help push people in severe mental distress off benefits and into work.
Liz Kendall made the comments in an interview with BBC News ahead of the government’s first budget later this month, and an expected employment white paper.
But DWP policy under the new Labour government has yet again become mired in confusion, after the department refused to clarify her comments.
Most activists and commentators assumed Kendall was suggesting sending Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) work coaches into hospitals – rather than people working for DWP contractors – but the department refused to say if this was what she meant.
But it also emerged today that at least one of the existing projects to support people in mental health hospitals into work do not arrange for work coaches to visit wards, as Kendall appeared to claim in the BBC article.
A recording of the interview does not appear to be available on the BBC.
The BBC initially reported Kendall as saying: “We really need to focus on putting those employment advisers into our mental health services. It is better for people. It is better for the economy.
“We just have to think in a different way.”
But these comments do not appear in a later version of the story, although they had by then been reported by more than one organisation.
Kendall also said in her BBC interview that the roll-out of existing projects which already see work coaches sent into mental health hospitals would form part of her drive to cut spending on disability benefits, and that existing schemes had produced “dramatic results”.
The confusion over Kendall’s comments is just the latest example of DWP’s chaotic and hostile communications policy under the new Labour government.
Earlier this month, DWP refused to clarify comments by the prime minister which suggested that all claimants of long-term sickness benefits would be expected to look for work under Labour’s social security reforms.
And social security and disability minister Stephen Timms criticised the department for “absurdly” refusing to comply with freedom of information requests under the last government, but then weeks later refused to release three documents that link the department with the deaths of benefit claimants.
DWP has also caused confusion and anxiety among disabled people by refusing to state if it will take on any of the last government’s proposals on reform of personal independence payment and the work capability assessment.
Kendall’s comments angered activists who have fought for the last decade to fend off attempts by DWP to encroach on healthcare settings – and vice versa – and have warned of the potentially fatal impact of such policies.
It has been widely assumed this week that Kendall intends to send DWP work coaches into mental health hospitals, although DWP has refused to confirm this.
Activists warned this week of the potential to repeat the harm – including countless deaths of claimants – that followed reforms aimed at cutting spending on disability benefits in the post-2010 austerity years.
But there are also concerns over whether work coaches are equipped to carry out such work safely.
In May, a survey carried out by the Commons work and pensions committee found that two-thirds of DWP staff did not have enough time to deal with safeguarding concerns “carefully” and “correctly”.
When questioned for the survey, 67 per cent of DWP staff who had direct contact with claimants either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement: “I have enough time in my day to deal with safeguarding concerns carefully, correctly and in a timely manner.”
The chair of the committee at the time, Labour’s Sir Stephen Timms, is now DWP’s minster for social security and disability.
The grassroots, user-led mental health group Recovery in the Bin (RiTB) said this week that disabled people were being “scapegoated to distract from the rich getting richer while all our services are privatised”.
An RiTB spokesperson said: “This, along with the weight loss injections announcements, indicate that there has been no change in governance on social security despite a change of government.
“We question the supposed evidential claims being made by ministers; they cite no independently verifiable sources.
“Secondly the distress this is causing is simply more cruelty, when you are in crisis you need safety and support, not DWP pen pushers evangelising about some mythical cure-all miracle called ‘work’.
“This is both infantilising and victimising.
“The DWP remain a threat to our lives and this only gives them more weapons to assault us with.”
Paula Peters, a member of the national steering group of Disabled People Against Cuts, said: “People in mental distress in an in-patient mental health psychiatric unit are in deep distress, in crisis and suicidal in many cases.
“To place work coaches in a mental health in-patient psychiatric unit is cruel, callous and incredibly dangerous.
“This will cause further worsening of suicidal symptoms and distress and trauma.
“We urge Labour to rethink this horrific policy and allow people in mental distress and in traumatic crisis to get the support they need.
“Labour need to be looking at funding for mental health services, crisis support and suicide prevention, as mental health services have been grossly underfunded for decades.”
John McArdle, co-founder of Black Triangle, said the proposals amounted to “a war on people with mental health issues” and were “utterly unethical”.
He said: “If I was a psychiatrist I would tell the ‘job coaches’ to ‘get the hell out my ward’ and call security to have them escorted off the premises.
“This is a recipe for real avoidable harm to patients. The last thing they need is to be policed by DWP goons pressuring them into work whilst they are being treated for an acute or chronic psychiatric illness.”
Mikey Erhardt, policy and campaigns officer for Disability Rights UK, said the move was “hugely inappropriate”
He said: “It is ridiculous to try and turn a hospital, a place of care and support, into a business setting.”
He added: “It’s difficult to see how generic work coaches with limited knowledge of health and disability and the huge barriers disabled people face, ranging from inaccessible workplaces to employer attitudes, will even be able to provide anything of value to a disabled person who would want this sort of support in a hospital setting.
“A government serious about supporting those who want to into work would focus on the disproportionate barriers to accessing work and staying in work we face.
“The systemic reasons for this are many, including discrimination in the workplace and societal barriers such as inadequate transport, lack of training and a lack of support for those who become disabled while in work.
“This sort of support should be offered to prepare for work without any threat to people’s entitlements.”
A DWP spokesperson refused to confirm if Kendall was quoted accurately by the BBC, or to provide any information about the plans, other than sharing a link to a speech she made in July, and saying that further details would be announced in due course.
17 October 2024
Badenoch’s ‘sinister’ comments on mental health and autism raise fears about future Tory disability policies
Disabled people have reacted with alarm to “stigmatising”, “damaging” and “inaccurate” comments about mental health and autism by Kemi Badenoch, the right-wing Conservative MP who could soon be the next leader of her party.
The comments were made in a pamphlet (PDF) published on the Renewal 2030 website, which Badenoch is using to spearhead her leadership campaign.
Although Badenoch is not credited as the author of the Conservatism in Crisis paper, she wrote its introduction and is certain to have played a major part in drafting the document.
There will be fears that, if she wins the leadership contest, these beliefs will provide the backbone to Conservative policies for years to come, while also potentially dragging the Labour government to the right.
But it appears likely that policies under Robert Jenrick, her opponent in the leadership run-off, will be similarly hostile to disabled people.
He gave a speech yesterday (Wednesday) in which he spoke about “misuse” of disability benefits, and claimed the country was “medicalising normal human stress, signing off as incapable those for whom work could be a valuable source of support and self-esteem”, and said he would cut £12 billion from spending on working-age benefits.
In the Conservatism in Crisis paper, Badenoch and her colleagues criticise the “constant focus” on supporting “the ‘marginalised’, the ‘oppressed’, ‘victims’ and ‘the vulnerable’” and “group identities” such as “the disabled or neuro-diverse”.
They write: “Being diagnosed as neuro-diverse was once seen as helpful as it meant you could understand your own brain, and so help you to deal with the world.
“It was an individual focused change. But now it also offers economic advantages and protections.”
They also claim that an autism diagnosis provides protection from workplace discrimination, free transport to school, and generous benefits.
They add: “In short, whereas once psychological and mental health was seen as something that people should work on themselves as individuals, mental health has become something that society, schools and employers have to adapt around.”
Badenoch and her colleagues also claim that “the rise in welfare claims related to mental health, in the UK at least, has outpaced any conceivable clinical explanation”.
They conclude that a class of super-powerful bureaucrats have plotted to replace the free market with an endless assault on “unfair oppressive structures”, in an attempt to support groups such as “those with fragile mental health”.
This, they say, is “gumming up capitalism”.
Dr James Cusack, chief executive of the autism research organisation Autistica, who is himself autistic, said Badenoch’s comments were “unhelpful and stigmatising” and “part of a damaging and, unfortunately, growing trend where people attempt to use issues like autism and neurodiversity to gain political capital by making overly simplistic and ignorant assumptions”.
He said: “Not only has Badenoch completely misapplied the terminology around neurodiversity, these arguments don’t reflect the nuanced situation that we currently face, nor do they reflect the growing injustices that autistic people face.”
Amy Wells, senior communications and membership manager for National Survivor User Network, a user-led network of groups and people with experience of mental ill-health, distress, and trauma, said the “disgraceful” comments displayed a “cold and ruthless attitude towards disabled people”.
She said: “We all knew this hostility existed, but here it may as well be stated outright that we are a burden, that we are not deserving of the (meagre and barrier-ridden) support that is on offer, and that ‘society, schools, and employers’ should not have to ‘adapt’ to our needs.”
Wells said the comments were “rooted in a complete misunderstanding of neurodivergence and mental ill-health, distress, and trauma”.
She added: “The idea that receiving a diagnosis related to mental ill-health or neurodivergence offers ‘economic advantages and protections’ would be laughable if it wasn’t so sinister.
“It is so obvious, given disabled people’s extensive accounts of the punitive and totally inadequate social security system, or their experiences of discrimination in settings such as the workplace, that this is far from the truth.”
Dr Jay Watts, a disabled activist and writer, and a consultant clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, said it was “hard not to overstate how fast and loose Kemi Badenoch plays with ‘facts’ in Conservatism in Crisis”.
In reality, said Watts, discrimination law has been developing for half a century, and disabled people have “always sought help” to “escape unbearable lives and avoid burdening loved ones”.
She said: “Badenoch implies that we – disabled folk peculiarly lumped together as neurodivergent, whether we have anxiety or are autistic – have only recently prioritized social support over individual resilience.
“But this notion ignores the long-established social model of disability.”
She said society had, in fact, “become more individualized, with less social infrastructure”.
She said: “Without proper support, we become more disabled, with growing neurodivergence awareness simply allowing us to articulate this more clearly.
“She claims we’ve abandoned resilience for social support, but the truth is the reverse: neoliberal individualism has stripped away our safety nets, leaving people isolated and vulnerable.”
Dr Hannah Belcher, an autistic lecturer on user-led research at King’s College London, who focuses on autism in her work, told Badenoch on Twitter that her comments “belittle the struggles of autistic people, implying we have adopted some identity to gain advantages above others”.
She said Badenoch’s claim that a diagnosis provides autistic people with an advantage at school and work was “completely inaccurate” and that such misinformation “perpetuates the stigma autistic people face on a daily basis”.
Belcher, author of Taking Off the Mask, said most autistic people cannot work because most workplaces do not make the adjustments they need, and even when adjustments are made, they do not provide an advantage, but “merely create a slightly less hostile working environment”.
Many others are too scared to disclose their autism diagnosis at work, with many driven out of work by bullying and harassment, while autistic people are “at a greater risk of mental health issues, being hospitalised, and death by suicide”, she said.
17 October 2024
Disabled artists ‘facing Access to Work cuts, backlogs and inflexibility’
Disabled people working in the creative and cultural sectors are increasingly seeing cuts to the support they receive through the Access to Work (AtW) scheme, campaigners have warned.
Disabled artists have reported payments being stopped, cut or suspended by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), even as ministers are calling for more disabled people to be supported into work.
The concerns have led the disabled-led arts and culture consultancy BAP! to appeal for case studies of disabled people in the creative industries who have been affected by AtW problems.
That appeal came as employment minister Alison McGovern said there were currently about 55,000 AtW applications yet to be dealt with, in a response to a written question from Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesperson Steve Darling.
Tom Ryalls, founder and director of BAP!, said DWP appeared to struggle with the “gig economy” that disabled freelancers rely on, with unpredictable income and jobs.
They have already raised the issue with Labour’s arts and creative industries minister, Sir Chris Bryant, at a roundtable event, when they told him of “the importance of Access to Work in terms of disabled-led culture in England”.
Ryalls said Access to Work was a “cornerstone” in ensuring disabled people can have a say in “shaping national arts and culture”.
They said: “I think there’s a huge risk that if we see Access to Work increasingly reduce/reject applicants in the arts disproportionately, this money will have to come from elsewhere.
“The Equality Act won’t stop existing. In a sector where organisations are struggling for funding as it is, people are already talking about how we might need to turn to Arts Council England to cover more access costs for employment.”
This could reduce the funding available for project budgets for disabled artists, they said.
Ryalls said they hoped to use the case studies to “demonstrate the importance of AtW to disabled artists, arts workers, and the whole of the creative industries” and ensure the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and DWP “understand the impact any destabilisation of AtW might have on disabled-led arts and culture” as the new government drafts its cultural policy.
They said: “In the cultural sector we’ve worked really hard to reinforce the importance of disabled people leading art and culture, instead of being positioned solely as consumers or participants.
“Destabilising Access to Work puts this progress under threat, and it feels like a clear signal that the agency and national contribution of disabled artists is not valued.”
They said that even disabled people running arts organisations were “losing significant amounts of the support they need to work”, putting their jobs and those of their employees at risk.
Ryalls said: “Decisions feel illogical, and it is incredibly difficult to communicate with AtW about any decision they make.”
They warned that undermining AtW “threatens the economic stability of the wider sector”, which would have to meet more of the bill for access measures required by law, or might decide to employ fewer disabled people, even though that is now a criteria often assessed in funding applications.
They said: “Access to Work is a unique programme in that it keeps people in work; I can’t see why any government serious about growth in the creative industries wouldn’t unequivocally support it.
“It will become incredibly difficult to make sure public investment in the arts is representative of the UK population without an effective Access to Work system, and action needs to be taken now before we get to that point.”
The concerns raised by BAP! have been echoed by other disabled artists and disability arts organisations.
Jess Thom, co-artistic director of Touretteshero, said Access to Work was “a vital equalising scheme” and allowed her “to do the job I love and am good at”.
But she said: “Right now, Access to Work isn’t working for disabled artists or creative organisations.
“In addition to the huge backlog of new applications, changes of circumstances and renewals are taking six to eight months to process.
“There’s also a worrying pattern of decisions that suggest not all types of work are being valued equally.
“These issues are putting huge pressure on disabled artists, pressure our non-disabled peers don’t have to consider.
“While the issues surrounding Access to Work are deeply troubling, the silence from the wider sector, creative press and funders makes this feel like an issue disabled professionals are facing alone.”
On a personal level, Thom has been waiting for more than three months just to speak to AtW about replacing the specialist wheels she needs for her wheelchair.
She said: “I don’t need additional funding, just the permission to use some of my existing award slightly differently.
“It should go without saying that as an artistic director who uses a wheelchair, wheels are fundamental to me being able to work.
“I should be focusing my energy on leading our company rather than spending huge amounts of time and energy on whether I’m going to have wheels or not.”
Zoe Partington, interim chief executive of disability arts organisation DaDa, said the government was “a long way off” ensuring that AtW was flexible enough to provide the additional support disabled artists need to deliver their performances, workshops and exhibitions.
She said AtW had the potential to do much more to support change but that would require “honest dialogue” with the government.
She said: “Generally, AtW is set as a defined monthly support and fails to understand the nature of artistic work, the intense schedule in contrast to the research process, and some artists require more support some months than others.
“DaDa tries to support disabled artists’ access requirements, as we know AtW doesn’t provide enough for them.”
This need for disability-led arts organisations to spend more on accessibility than other arts organisations can lead to a “sense of responsibility, tiredness, forever fighting for change”, she said.
DaDa is currently preparing for next year’s DaDaFest International 40 festival, and it will need to share some of the “weight” of ensuring accessibility for disabled artists appearing at the festival, which will inevitably impact on the festival’s budgets, quality and staff and how many disabled artists DaDa will be able to support.
Calum Perrin, a disabled artist and musician, and currently a musician in residence with Paraorchestra, said AtW was important because it is “more generous and requires less evidence and hoop-jumping” than disability benefits, and does not require “a horrible assessment process and they don’t invade your privacy trying to police every aspect of how your funding is used”.
He said: “They are flexible and I am able to use whoever I want as a support worker, which is really essential being an artist, and someone who works across disciplines.”
And he said time sheets for support workers can now be submitted online rather than sent through the post, while it is also possible to check online how much funding is left.
But he said communicating with AtW was “incredibly difficult”, with emails left unanswered and 90-minute waits for calls to be answered.
DWP refused to comment on the concerns this week, although it claimed in a background briefing note that all AtW grants were tailored towards supporting the needs of disabled applicants, which included taking account of their field of work.
DCMS had failed to comment by noon today (Thursday).
17 October 2024
‘Major concern’ as disability hate crime prosecutions fall again, although recorded offences also drop
The number of disability hate crimes recorded by police has fallen by nearly 20 per cent in a year, Home Office figures have revealed, but the number of prosecutions has also continued to drop.
The figures show the number of disability hate crimes recorded by police in England and Wales dropped by 18 per cent over the last year to 11,719 offences, from 14,285 in 2022-23.
Most of the offences were for allegations of stalking and harassment (41 per cent), public order (30 per cent), and violence (17 per cent).
But the proportion of offences tagged as disability hate crimes that resulted in the alleged perpetrator being charged or summonsed to appear before a court has again remained worryingly low.
Just one per cent of offences of violence against the person, two per cent of public order offences, and two per cent of criminal damage and arson offences resulted in a charge or summons, according to the Home Office.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) stressed that it can only consider charging a suspect if cases are referred to it by police.
It is now the sixth year that Disability News Service (DNS) has been raising concerns about the low number of cases being passed to the CPS by police, and how few disability hate crime prosecutions are taking place, despite huge numbers of recorded offences.
In 2023-24, just 338 disability hate crime cases were referred to CPS by police – despite 11,719 recorded offences – although this was an increase on the 269 referred in 2022-23.
CPS figures* also show that in the year to April 2024, prosecutors completed just 306 prosecutions for offences tagged as disability hate crimes, a fall from 311 last year.
As recently as 2016-17, CPS was completing 1,009 prosecutions of disability hate crimes.
Successful prosecutions also continued to fall, with convictions dropping from 245 in 2022-23 to 233 last year.
The Home Office and CPS reports mean that in 2016-17, there were about 5,400 disability hate crime offences recorded by police and 1,009 prosecutions (prosecutions making up 18.7 per cent of offences), compared with 11,719 offences and 306 prosecutions in 2023-24 (just 2.6 per cent of offences).
Both CPS and the National Police Chiefs’ Council have been promising to improve their performance on providing justice for victims of disability hate crime since 2022.
Dr David Wilkin, a disabled activist, researcher, author** and support worker for victims of disability hate crime, said: “Unfortunately, whilst there has been a slight downturn in hate crime occurrences in England and Wales, this seems to fly in the face of the behaviours that we have witnessed over the summer of 2024 which have caused distress to many of us who are considered to be in a minority or vulnerable.
“The continuing concern is the small number of cases being referred to the CPS for summons or charge.
“There may be many reasons for this, including a lack of evidence, no witnesses to the incident or the CPS judging the case not to be in the public interest to pursue.
“It also might be indicative of the amount of time and preparation undertaken by the police to present that case to the CPS.
“Whichever the reason, the victim, having used courage and taken the time to report the hate crime, is seemingly not being allowed to travel further along the road to justice.
“We need to find out why.”
As part of Hate Crime Awareness Week, Inclusion London released an open letter to the prime minister this week, calling on him to “foster ‘respect and equality for all’ by ensuring justice for Disabled victims of hate crime”.
The letter calls for disabled people to be included in the “development and implementation of more neighbourhood policing, tougher sentencing, and reform of the UK’s hate crime legislation during this parliamentary term”.
Organisations can add their names to the letter.
Louise Holden, senior policy officer on disability and crime for Inclusion London, said: “It has been a cause of major concern to our work that the low conviction rates have not improved despite our continuing efforts.”
She said there was “a sense of the whole system at the brink of collapse”.
She added: “We know that the official figures for hate crime against disabled people do not reflect our daily experience.
“Despite agencies working to improve reports and prosecutions, we are seeing a fall in reported figures for the first time.
“I am certain that disability hate crime has not fallen. The system is failing us, what has been tried is not working.
“We are in an increasing hostile and volatile society, where hate crimes are rising overall.
“The perpetrators of hateful acts operate in a society that allows disabled people to be demonised and inhumanly treated.
“We need more than a tweak to the law. We need a national plan, and resources to address the systemic issues that allow hate crimes against disabled individuals to persist.”
CPS refused – as it did last year – to suggest an explanation for the failure to increase the number of prosecutions for disability hate crime.
But a CPS spokesperson said in a statement: “Hate crimes against disabled people are despicable.
“We bring charges in nearly eight out of every 10 cases referred to us by the police and more than three quarters of these prosecutions result in a conviction.
“We do not hesitate to prosecute where there is enough evidence to do so, and we encourage anyone who has been a victim of a hate crime to report incidents to the police.”
But CPS said it would soon publish a guide on disability hate crime, for prosecutors and police officers, which will include advice on recognising, responding to, investigating and prosecuting disability hate crimes.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council refused to comment, as it did last year.
*See Prosecution Crime Type Data Tables, tables 8.4 and 9.1
**Disability Hate Crime: Perspectives for Change, was published by Routledge last month
17 October 2024
‘Urgent need’ for rapid turnaround in how care regulator is run, after review finds significant failings
A review ordered by the last government has found “significant failings” within England’s care and health regulator.
The final report into the effectiveness of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) was published this week, and it found an “urgent need” for a rapid turnaround in the way CQC operates.
Analysis of the commission’s own figures by the review found that, over the last five years, the proportion of health and care settings that had never received a rating had risen from 13 per cent to 19 per cent.
And the average age of a rating (the time since it was published) had almost doubled, from two years in 2020 to three years and 11 months in 2024.
By the end of July this year, it was taking on average 132 days for social care settings to be re-inspected after receiving a rating of “inadequate”.
In 2023, there were just 6,700 inspections and assessments, compared with nearly 15,800 in 2019.
The concerns about CQC have focused on a new strategy – announced three years ago – which led to the implementation of a new assessment framework.
The framework was intended to “make the assessment process simpler and more insight driven by drawing on a wide range of data about quality of care, with the ability to prioritise assessments and inspections”.
But the review found that many people within CQC tried to raise concerns about the new framework and other changes, but “did not feel listened to” by the regulator.
The review found seven concerns with the new framework.
Among its other conclusions, the review found that “poor operational performance is impacting CQC’s ability to ensure that health and social care services provide people with safe, effective and compassionate care, negatively impacting the opportunity to improve health and social care services, and, in some cases, for providers to deliver services at all”.
It also concluded that the Department of Health and Social Care, the government department that monitors CQC’s work, “could do more to ensure that CQC is sponsored effectively”.
Dr Penny Dash, who led the independent review, said she had spoken to hundreds of people in the sector and nearly all raised “considerable concerns about the functioning of the organisation”.
Her review concluded: “The review has found significant failings in the internal workings of CQC, which have led to a substantial loss of credibility within the health and social care sectors, a deterioration in the ability of CQC to identify poor performance and support a drive to improve quality – and a direct impact on the capacity and capability of both the social care and the healthcare sectors to deliver much-needed improvements in care.”
It offered seven key recommendations for improvement, including action to improve the “quality and timeliness of reports”; to rebuild “expertise” within the organisation; and to make the results of inspections more transparent.
Health and social secretary Wes Streeting said he supported the seven recommendations.
He said: “Patient safety is the bedrock of a healthy NHS and social care system.
“That’s why we are taking steps to reform the CQC, to root out poor performance and ensure patients can have confidence in its ratings once again.”
CQC welcomed the review and accepted its recommendations.
Among the steps it is taking, it will appoint “at least” three chief inspectors to lead on regulation and improvement of hospitals, primary care, and adult social care services.
It will also “modify” its new assessment framework to “make it simpler and ensure it is relevant to each sector”.
Ian Dilks, CQC’s chair, said: “We welcome the final part of Dr Penny Dash’s review – we accept the findings and we will address the recommendations with urgency.
“We are committed to rebuilding trust in CQC’s regulation and are taking action to make sure we have the right structure, processes, and technology in place to help us fulfil our vital role of helping people get good care and supporting providers to improve.”
The concerns over how CQC operates have been long-standing.
Five years ago – before the pandemic – Disability News Service obtained freedom of information figures which showed that nearly one in five adult social care settings had not been inspected by the care regulator in the previous two years.
The figures had been requested after it emerged that a care home run by the National Autistic Society – Mendip House, in Somerset – where autistic people were taunted, abused and ill-treated by staff, had itself not been inspected by CQC for more than two years when whistleblowers came forward and exposed the abusive regime in 2016.
17 October 2024
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week
A cut in the number of personal assistants (PAs) in the adult social care workforce is a “significant concern”, a sector body has said. The Social Care Institute for Excellence issued the warning after Skills for Care’s annual report on the workforce showed the number of PAs working in England fell from 130,000 to 123,000 (a 5.4 per cent fall) from 2022-23 to 2023-24, the largest decrease of any role over this time: https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2024/10/14/cut-in-number-of-personal-assistants-a-significant-concern-warns-sector-body/
The government has announced an independent review into carer’s allowance overpayments, after families were forced to pay back thousands of pounds which pushed many into debt and financial distress. Earlier this year it was revealed the government was seeking to recover money from more than 134,000 carers in the UK: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20jln81w72o
Last month’s surprise fall in UK inflation lands with bad timing for millions of people who receive state benefits linked to the figure, who can now expect their payments to rise by just 1.7 per cent next April. A number of benefits, including universal credit, are increased each tax year in line with the cost of living figure for the previous September: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/oct/16/surprise-fall-inflation-badly-timed-uk-benefit-recipients
A coroner is to call for action after an inquest heard an autistic man died from head injuries after banging his head repeatedly over three days. Declan Morrison had been placed at the 136 suite at Fulbourn Hospital, in Cambridge, after being sectioned under the Mental Health Act. His inquest found he repeatedly hit his head and fell over before being discovered unresponsive in the early hours of 18 March 2022: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5ywq2e188go?s=03
Britain’s only specialist respite holiday provider for disabled people and their carers is to close because of financial difficulties, in an example of the UK’s growing social care crisis. Revitalise, a charity that runs unique state-of-the-art respite stays, offering 24-hour care at two adapted hotels, said local authority cuts, combined with increased running costs and a fall in donations, meant it was no longer viable: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/oct/11/uk-charity-revitalise-respite-holidays-severely-disabled-people-carers-closure
Too many young disabled people are being “written off” and told they can never succeed, a parliamentary report has found. Young disabled people were fully capable of thriving in work with appropriate support, the House of Lords public services committee said. The report found disabled people faced continuous barriers to securing long-term employment, which began when they started nursery school: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9842k027ygo
17 October 2024
News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com
