Sound Therapy

May 8th 2007:Did anyone else see the recent report that the Care Services Minister Ivan Lewis has admitted that the government is losing the battle to improve the lives of people with learning disabilities?

He has told the Association of Directors Adults Social Services spring seminar that because of the struggle with achieving the Valuing People goals there’ll now be a refresher document produced by a cross-government group later this year. The refresher document will aim to “re-energise” the implementation of Valuing People which has “slowed down in many areas”. Apparently the document will contain a cross-government target to improve the life chances of adults with learning disabilities.

Can a document have that much influence? If it’s true, as the minister said, that a lot of learning disability partnerships have ground to a halt could there be other reasons for this? David Congdon, the Mencap director of public affairs, has said that the government’s vision for people with learning disabilities is fine “but there’s no impetus behind it. When the chips are down, when funding is tight, these principles go out of the window.”

This suggests that the problem isn’t to do with a will to succeed -it’s to do with coming up against huge obstacles or lack of funding.

On a more optimistic note on May 16th, during their conference, Community Care will be launching a campaign A Life Like Any Other lobbying for people with learning disabilities to enjoy the same opportunities as other people.For more details go to their website.

For more information, please visit www.decoda.org