More people with learning disabilities are in prison than previously recognised, according to the Prison Reform Trust. They often find it difficult to cope and get little support.
The Foundation was asked, with two other organisations, to review how well six prisons and Young Offender Institutions provide health and other types of support for prisoners with learning disabilities. So far we have found a lot of variation: some departments try hard to make their services more accessible, but some seem to make little effort to adapt.
Our work on support for families showed the importance of planning ahead for emergencies. A family emergency such as the illness of a parent, can lead to someone going to stay somewhere they don’t know rather than being supported by people in their existing network. We helped the London Borough of Barnet to develop a way of doing this. Launched in April, it includes:
-
whoever knows the family best helps them to draw up a plan (for example, a short breaks or community support worker)
-
the plan covers options for support in an emergency
-
funding is agreed in advance, so it can be given quickly when it is needed.
The Valuing People Team asked us to develop guidance for Partnership Boards about planning ahead for emergencies. This will include using Individual Budgets and the additional money in the Carers’ Grant for ‘support in emergencies’. The guidance will be sent to Partnership Boards in the summer.
Creative approaches to short breaks are an important part of personalised support. We are supporting Cornwall Council to develop options that offer more choice, reduce reliance on residential services and that improve continuity for young people as they move to adult services. Based on stronger person centred planning, the ideas include:
-
offering a mix of residential and other breaks (for example, a support worker might accompany a person and their family on holiday)
-
using money released from an unsuitable residential service for individual budgets
-
sharing information about what people enjoy doing and good places to go
-
looking at how to allocate short breaks resources fairly
-
focusing residential breaks more on outcomes for the individual.
Our work on person centred approaches to quality includes:
-
helping a service provider to devise a robust quality and performance management system, putting outcomes for people at the centre of this
-
developing local capacity to help a wide variety of organisations improve the quality of their services – ‘Plymouth Promoting Quality’ is now led by families, with self advocates and service staff
-
organising a lively event, Promoting Quality Services for People with Learning Disabilities, in the South West to highlight good practice in quality (based on a survey completed by service providers and Partnership Boards) and using this to launch a regional quality network to share ideas and learning.
Health services do not always serve people with learning disabilities well, yet we also see some excellent practice. So we are glad to be working with commissioners in 3 areas (in England and Wales) to look at what health services should be in place.
For example, families in one area said the acute liaison nurse had made a real difference to care in hospital. In another area GPs offering health checks had had no support to make invitations accessible – so not many people came. The results confirm how important it is for commissioners to ensure that learning disability specialists support mainstream health services.
Back to top
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
