Southampton Centre for Independent Living

Ian Loynes and Robert Droy from SCIL recently attended the first session of the Hampshire Personalisation Commission. Throughout the day, we discussed with members of the audience how they felt about the Commission and their observations of the first session.

Firstly without wishing to be overly negative, the format and acoustics of the venue was not particularly accessible for many of the participants. There was no sign language interpreter at the session but we presume this would have been provided if an participant had requested it. We were also disappointed with the lack of diversity amongst both the commissioners, witnesses, and the audience in general. ‘White, middle aged, and middle class’ was one comment we heard.

Despite the session being entitled ‘People and Carers’, out of the 7 people who gave evidence, 3 people were actually ‘professionals’ who gave lengthy presentations which were followed up by questions. Their evidence, whilst useful, may have been better suited to a later session.

In contrast, the ‘people’ and ‘carers’ were asked to give very brief presentations with no opportunity for the commissioners to question them further. We feel this was a missed opportunity to really capture from the ‘users’ themselves why personalisation was so important. This part of the evidence was summed up by the Commission Chair as ‘moving’ and ‘uplifting’. Whilst these comments were well meaning, they were construed by many as slightly patronising and not viewing the evidence on an equal level as the evidence given by the other witnesses.

The round table discussions in the afternoon were found to be much more successful but unfortunately were only open to a ‘select’ group of invited guests. Some of the common themes have however been summarised in a document on the Hampshire Personalisation Commission website, along with much of the other evidence and presentations at each session.

The next session is on June 12 and you can apply for tickets for that session until May 20 by visiting the website or by calling 01962 833 040. Leave your name, telephone number and address and they will post an application form to you

Thanks to NCIL for passing on this information.

The Coalition on Charging is a group of organisations chaired by the National Centre for Independent Living (NCIL). The coalition was established to campaign against the current system of charging for community care services.

The Coalition members include: NCIL, Age Concern, Scope, the Multiple Sclerosis Society, Disability Alliance, Alzheimer’s Society, People First, Mind, Radar, the Alliance for Inclusive Education, Counsel and Care, United Kingdom Disabled Peoples Council (UKDPC), Action for Blind People, Royal National Institute for the Deaf, Arthritis Care, British Polio Fellowship, Carers UK, Equalities, Help the Aged, the Parkinson’s Disease Society, Mencap.

The Coalition is writing an up to date report, highlighting the current situation with charging for care, to ensure that the issue is on the government’s agenda when looking at the future of social care.

Our survey:

As part of the report we want to include feedback from people who are affected by charging. We have developed a survey that will be used to help the Coalition on Charging produce good information.

The report is aimed at the Department of Health and Government. A Government consultation (‘green’) paper on reform is due out sometime in 2008.  The Government has said that it ‘believes that there are real opportunities for reform within a system that shares the cost between the individual and the state’.

However, in our view, it is very important that they look at the effects on people of the current charging system and hear the views of people who are currently being charged for their support.

In order that we can include your views please can you respond to this survey by May 1 2008.

Please fill in the question on personal details. It is important for us to know your age as adult services are often provided for ‘adults’ and ‘older people’. We will not pass on any personal information and will make all responses anonymous in the report.

The Coalition has one set of survey questions for individual people who need support and their carers. There is a separate set of survey questions for organisations representing people who need support and representing carers. Please fill in the right survey.

You can download them here:

charging-survey-for-individuals

charging-survey-for-organisations

If you are involved in a forum or network, if you were able to discuss this issue that would be very useful.

The survey is for all adults in England who use (or have used) local authority social services for support in their own home. This includes people who use (or have used) direct payments. It does not include people who use residential care services.

This survey is aimed at all disabled and older people who use community care services.

We apologise for the short amount of time given to return the survey but we hope you will be able to give us your views.

Please send your completed survey by May 1 2008 to NCIL,  Fourth Floor, Hampton House, 20 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TJ or to policy@ncil.org.uk or fax to 0207 587 1663

Both Disabled People and Local Authorities were shocked by the Independent Living Funds’ decision to raise the amount that local authorities have to contribute towards a person’s support package before they are entitled to ILF funding.

From April 1 2008, new applicants will need to be receiving at least £320 per week of local authority input. This is an increase from the current threshold of £200 per week.

Existing applicants will not be affected unless they request an increase in their support needs. In this case the ILF will expect the local authority to increase their input to at least £320 per week. Existing applicants will be able to request an increase due to an increase in the cost of the support e.g. a change in the hourly rate without being subject to the new £320 per week threshold.

The ILF are also tightening up their rules on backdating payments as well as prioritising applicants in paid employment and applicants on Income Support, Job Seekers Allowance and Pension Credit Guarantee.

 Of course, many Disabled People are asking why the ILF has made this sudden decision. According to the ILF, since summer 2006, there has been a 27% rise in applications and therefore a change in policy was necessary, The ILF also claim that 53% of current applications already meet the new £320 per week threshold. They also point out that the threshold of £200 per week has remained the same for the past 15 years. 

Local authorities have been sent reeling from the news and some local authorities have prioritised new ILF applications in the hope of beating the April 1 deadline.

This post was written by Ian Loynes, SCIL’s Chief Executive.

At its joint AGM in September, SCIL and the Hampshire Coalition of Disabled People (HCODP) agreed the proposal that both organisations should work more closely together in the future. This article explains why we want to do this and what we hope to achieve.

SCIL & HCODP were formed separately, in 1984 & 1990 with different but linked aims. However (like many organisations) SCIL & HCODP have both found it difficult to attract resources, MC members and other volunteers.  As a result, both organisations increasingly share people (for example, staff with one organisation are commonly MC members on the other). In addition, both organisations share many other things like: members, premises, personnel, funding sources, similar projects etc.  We worried that this might lead to confusion, duplication, tension, burn-out or conflict which we wanted to avoid.

An initial joint meeting agreed the need to work more closely together, but felt a full merger would be inappropriate. Since then DAIN and DOVE have all agreed that the issues apply equally to them as well. Jointly we submitted a funding proposal to enable the appointment of a joint worker to take these ideas forward and to enable all the organisations to survive and thrive in the future.

What should we achieve by working closely together:

• Streamline our structures and core costs
• Reduce number of hats we all wear
• Investigate joint memberships and joint MCs
• Work together on joint funding
• Develop a common strategy
• Eliminate duplication to free up resources
• Be more effective as a result

However, there are a number of things we also want to avoid:

• Losing our individual identities
• Compromise funding opportunities
• Weaken governance of organisations
• Confuse personnel or line management
• Do anything that is not in the interests of our aims or the rights of Disabled People
• Weaken our democratic accountability to Disabled People 

So, what do you think?…If you have any views or ideas, please email me on ian@southamptoncil.co.uk or phone or post your views to the usual address.

As previously reported, Hampshire Adult Services with the support of Children’s Services is undertaking a review of Direct Payments. Hampshire state the the purpose of the review is to ‘make it easier for people to obtain and use Direct Payments, while at the same time making sure that Hampshire County Council meets its duty of care for individuals and its legal obligation to account for the way in which public money (Direct Payments) is used.’

Hampshire believe that the proposed changes presented in the consultation document are the best way of improving Direct Payments.These proposed changes relate to Self Assessment, Direct Payments Risk Assessment, Support Agency Role and Outcome based care planning. 

The full consultation document and questionnaire can be found here. 

Following a number of concerns raised by SCIL, HCIL and Carers Together regarding the accessibility of the document and questionnaire, Hampshire have organised 3 workshops around Hampshire for users to give their views.

According to the website, ‘The workshops will provide people with information about the proposals and an opportunity to discuss them in small working groups. The information will be explained and people will be able to ask questions so that that can get a clear understanding of the proposals. People will also have time to talk about their personal views during small group sessions and be able to put these forward via the group or by completing the questionnaire.’

The workshops are from 10am to 1pm on the following days:

Tuesday 16 October at Horndean Centre (Horndean Technology College)

Wednesday 17 October at The Maltings Centre – Centennial Room in Alton

Friday 18 October at Wells Place Centre in Eastleigh

Places are limited to 60 people per venue so you must book in advance by emailing the Adult Services Department or contacting the Direct Payments telephone helpline 01962 833039 

HCIL and HCODP are also hoping to host a joint meeting regarding the consultation in early November – details to be confirmed.

The consultation runs until Friday 14 December.