Budget impact on support for people with learning disabilities

GUEST POST: Anthea Sully is the Director of the Learning Disability Coalition. There are 14 member organisations and over 150 supporter organisations which campaign to ensure there is better funding for social care support for people with a learning disability. The budget focused heavily on the Chancellor’s plans for growing the economy and job creation, but there was very little which acknowledged the deepening crisis in social care support. The Learning Disability Coalition, formed in 2007 to fight against the cuts in social care, has often found that in times of crisis, it is the people who need the most support who suffer the most. In our current age of austerity, this has never been truer. In the last year, we have seen an unprecedented reduction in services and support for people with learning disabilities. These range from big cuts, such as the closure of day services and respite homes to arbitrary cuts of 10% or more to all support packages, to the small, seemingly harmless cuts such as the reduction the number of incontinence pads for which a child is eligible. Sometimes it is the smallest cuts which take away people’s dignity and are the hardest to fight against that do the most damage. It is hardly surprising then, that so many people with a learning disability, their parents and carers joined the March for the Alternative on 26th March. The recent report, Social Care – the Continuing Crisis by the Learning Disability Coalition, showed the struggle facing local councils to balance their budgets and provide adequate social care support for people with learning disabilities. 90% of councils who responded to the LDC survey stated that they have less funding than last year, with 20% already making cuts. People with learning disabilities and their families are very concerned for the future. One parent of a person with a learning disability has told us that, “they are proposing 50% cuts to the care budget [for my daughter], total removal of 1-to-1 support, and a threatened move, against our daughter’s will, to a cheaper provider.” Another summed up the importance of social care support to them, by saying: “services for disabled people are not extras or luxuries, but just help towards enabling [them] to achieve some kind of equality with the activities and lives of the rest of us.” In times when budgets are stretched, it is vital that local authorities must continue to prioritise social care and spend the money allocated on such support. However, this alone will not solve the social care crisis. There are long-term pressures, including the increase in the number of people who need support, and the higher costs of supporting people with higher needs. The Government insists that it has provided enough funding for social but it is very apparent that there needs to be significantly higher levels of funding in the system. That is why we will be continuing our campaign to ‘Protect the Frontline’.

Who care about Big Brother anyway?

Why are we so frightened of taking on the Tories and fighting their cuts? They have been in power now for almost nine months and in that time they have attacked our health service to such an extent the very existence of the NHS, as we know it, is threatened.

At the same time, they have guaranteed all the schools desperately in need of building renovations will need to live in squalor, whilst the middle classes luxuriate in their squeaky new academies. Younger kids will suffer too, as Sure Start programmes have their funds cut and childcare facilities dwindle.

Normally the Tories hold the needs of the military as sacred, but not any longer. Trainee pilots, along with a raft of other personnel, are heading to the job centre to join increasing numbers of people being forced to sign on.

Social care, police, climate change, transport and local services have all been ravaged because of the Tories love of the “smaller state” and a desperate need to keep spending to a minimum. So what have the unions done? Well, Unison ran a petition to collect one million names to defend services – last heard they were still collecting.

As for all the other unions? They have tub-thumped loudly enough, but in terms of real action … most of us are still holding our breath.

The Labour party hasn’t been much better. Ed Miliband has been largely ineffective at PMQs and his colleagues in the shadow cabinet might as well go and enjoy a winter break. No-one would notice if they went. At the recent student marches to defend EMA and oppose the hike in student fees, the number of Labour constituency banners were noticeable by their absence.

So its little wonder the general public isn’t angry. If the politicians can’t be bothered, then why should the electorate. On the whole the average Joe or Sally is too busy surviving on a day to day basis to worry about how to fight cuts.

I’ve been sat here today wondering why people aren’t getting more outraged each time they hear the news and I think I worked it out. What do you do if you think you are going to hear bad news? Well, one option is to fight, but if the likelihood is that nothing will change, then many will choose to opt for flight. Folk who go along this route try to escape the realities of their own misery by living out fantasies.

Many of these will have switched on daytime TV this morning and what are they greeted by? Programmes like “Wanted down under”, where viewers are shown lovely homes and sunny, happy lifestyles in Australia – a thriving future where everyone smiles and lives worried-free whilst enjoying barbies and good friends. Interestingly, they never showed any film of what life was like during the flooding.

Or, views might choose “Homes under the hammer” – a programme where ‘ordinary ‘ people buy cheap houses at auction and after some cosmetic changes, sell the house, making thousands of pounds profit. If they don’t sell, they might rent the property and live off the profit. Again the programme ignores why the house was on the market in the first place. In reality, it was probably because it was repossessed, leaving the original owner homeless.

If none of these programmes take your fancy, you can watch “Flog it”. A programme where ‘ordinary people take items they have found in their attic, or heirlooms that have just been hanging around. These unexpected little trinkets are then sold at auction. Not sure about readers to this blog, but in my attic there’s just a pile of old junk and rusty tools. No heirlooms here.

In the evenings viewers can watch Eastenders, Coronation Street or Home and Away – soaps that prove every time that no matter how hard life may seem, there is always someone worse off than you – so be grateful!

Don’t fancy the soaps? That’s OK, there’s always Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, NCIS or CSI – escapism at its finest.

We are being fed lies by the government, deceit by the politicians and the media help to perpetuate it. By offering us a diet of third rate nonsense, they allow the public the escapism they feel they need.

Remember George Orwell’s book “1984”? In it he described a totalitarian society where dissent was eliminated. In order to keep this harsh society intact, the Ministry of Truth offered every citizen an alterative reality. Well today, our ‘ministry’ sits in the corner and helps control our lives.

Just like Orwell’s world was controlled by Big Brother (BB), an idealized character that constantly watched over and supposedly protected everyone, so the government has become the new BB. As a result of their effective management of us through the media, we never argue or debate what they are doing – even when it is against our best interests.

In 1984, the society was controlled completely and lived according to two simple axioms. In 2010, it is no longer fiction and we have brought them into the real world. Today we are living them on a day-to-day basis:

Long live Big Brother
Ignorance is Strength

Rather than hating what is happening to us, the PR men and the media have convinced us there is always someone worse off. Instead of fighting back, we live in the security of known misery.

Anyway, you will have to excuse me. I would love to continue this argument and analyse how the cuts are affecting all of us, but “This Morning” is about to start ……