Skill: National Bureau for Students with Disabilities
Independence, well being and choice – the future of adult social care in England
Consultation response
Introduction
Skill: National Bureau for Students with Disabilities promotes opportunities to empower young people and adults with any kind of disability to realise their potential in further, continuing and higher education, training and employment throughout the United Kingdom. Skill works by providing information and advice to individuals, promoting good practice and influencing policy in partnership with disabled people, service providers and policy makers.
Education and social care
Skill largely welcomes the green paper and the commitment to improving adult social care. However we were disappointed that there was little mention of education and the role it plays in the delivery of social care. Social care does not operate in isolation, but with the support of various other agencies, including education. This needs to be emphasised more.
Skill recommends that there be more reference to the role of education in the delivery of social care.
For example, the role of education has been a point of focus in Valuing People, which acknowledges that person-centred planning should be used in learning as well as social care settings. Valuing People states that people with learning disabilities need to have ‘the same access as other people to opportunities for education and lifelong learning’.[1] In addition, the Department of Health should note that the LSC are currently undertaking a review of provision for learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, Chaired by Peter Little OBE. This review will produce its final report in September 2005, and it is likely to make recommendations about social services increasing its contribution to the funding package for students attending residential specialist colleges, where there is a care component involved.
Linking education and social services provision is not always easy, and conflicting priorities and funding can be a hindrance. Partnership working between education and social services will be essential if the needs of disabled people are to be met. Valuing People had similar difficulties, and has recently produced joint guidance with the Learning and Skills Council about how to best provide for the needs of learning disabled people in education provision.[2] This reaffirms the importance of developing good education opportunities as part of social care, and the essential role of education providers and the LSC in this process. Skill believes that there should be much more discussion of education in the green paper, to reflect its importance.
There will also a need for guidance on how to help meet the requirements of the social care priorities for education providers, when the plans are further developed.
The need for better information
Skill welcomes the recognition that there needs to be better information available. This information must also be available to disabled young people, for example through the Connexions Service.
Direct payments and individual budgets, page 33
Skill welcomes the discussion around direct payments and individual budgets for disabled people. Uptake of direct payments amongst disabled students has been relatively slow, although where they are used they have been very positive and have enabled students to lead a more independent life based on their own activities and timings. Scope have undertaken a very useful report on direct payments for young people, which identified that young people need better information about direct payments and more support in administering direct payments[3].
Skill recently undertook a research project to look at the experience of young people with learning difficulties from a South Asian background[4]. None of the young people who participated in the project had access to Direct Payments, although they would have been beneficial for several of them. There needs to be sensitivity to cultural requirements, for example the opportunity to employ support workers who are part of the culture and sympathetic to specific needs. The exclusion of family members from the Direct Payment scheme further compounds this difficulty.
Skill recommends that there be further discussion on the ways in which Direct Payments might be most effectively used for people with a learning difficulty from minority ethnic groups.
With regard to the possible expansion of direct payments and individual budgets, Skill thinks that there should be more discussion about how far the impact of individual budgets will reach. For example, will it have an impact upon transport and education?
Skill recommends that there be further detailed consideration of the impact of individualised budgets on other services, such as transport, education and leisure.
The role of the wider community, page 38
The green paper mentions the role of transport and leisure services as examples of the wider community contributing to adult social care. Skill is disappointed that there is no recognition of the role that learning providers play as well. Again, this has been recognised through the Valuing People work. Learning has also been shown to be a
factor in maintaining good health.
However, despite the importance of education in the social care agenda, Skill would not want further education colleges to become the ‘new day centres’ and learning providers must ensure that opportunities for coherent learning and progression are available.
Skill recently undertook a learner feedback survey as part of the LSC review of provision for learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities. A number of the learners we spoke to indicated how important education had been in increasing confidence, engaging participation and facilitating rehabilitation. This was across the full age range of learners. For example, Wigan and Leigh college has some exciting programmes working with people with mental health difficulties, to support them back into initial (often non-accredited) learning which can then lead on to accredited provision, training or employment.
One adult learner who had been involved in a major accident and therefore out of work, was pursuing an HND course. He came to the college because he wanted to do something stimulating while he recovered. He had previously tried distance learning, but that was not appropriate as he found being on his own brought on flashbacks and emotional difficulties. He saw the course as part of his emotional recovery from the accident and is glad of the mental challenge. Another younger learner with complex physical and communication difficulties was also benefiting from education. She was doing various discrete courses including learning about making choices, travelling, saying what you want etc.
Skill recommends that in developing the future strategy, there be more detail on partnership working with the Department of Health and education bodies, the Learning and Skills Council in particular.
There may be concerns related to this around government priorities for education. The current basic skills and NVQ Level 2 priorities have meant that provision in other areas, particularly non-accredited provision, has been cut. This will have big implications for people who undertake education for rehabilitative reasons, as non-accredited provision can be particularly important as it is used to increase participation in public life and as a stepping stone to accredited provision and/or employment.
Skill recommends that the Department of Health liaise with the Department for Education and Skills and the Learning and Skills Council to ensure that learning providers can provide appropriate learning programmes for learners with social care needs.
Transition planning, page 57
The Strategy Unit report recommended that all government departments should ensure that the evaluation of new models of service delivery address how well they meet the needs of disabled young people.[5]
Furthermore, there should be continuity of service provision at transition, as outlined by the Strategy Unit report. Children’s Trusts are being implemented to ensure continuity and partnership working throughout childhood and into adolescence, but there must also be coordination with adult social care to avoid the ‘cliff edge’ experience that young people feel when they move from child to adult services.
Skill believes that there needs to be more information on how the new arrangements will work in transition planning and particularly with the Children and Young People’s plan. Skill is concerned about how the Children and Young People’s Plan will work for young people, especially those in the 16-25 age group, as the Plans are likely to be focused on children. Skill welcomes the recognition that transition planning can be problematic and that there should be more responsibility at a high level to ensure people can move effectively between different services. This should include health, social services, mental health services, and related services of education and Information Advice and Guidance.
The transition to adult services should also take into account the Section 140 (of the Learning and Skills Act 2000) assessment, currently carried out by Connexions Services, which looks at the education and training needs of young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, and the provision required to meet those needs when they leave school. Where this assessment is most effective it also includes input from health, social services and mental health teams as well as education. It is clear that different agencies must work together to ensure that all the needs of young people, including education, health and social care needs, are met both in child and adult services. The Valuing People support team has done some work in this area.
Skill recommends that there be specified requirements relating to transition at strategic and operational level within social services and other related services.
Skill recommends that transition arrangements specifically include reference to the Section 140 assessment.
Skill policy team
June 2005
1
[1] Valuing People: A new strategy for learning disability for the 21st Century (2001), page 78
[2] Valuing People support team and Learning and Skills Council, Valuing People and post-16 education (2005)
[3] Scope The direct approach: young people’s experiences of direct payments,
[4] Skill (2003) Aasha: working with young people with a learning difficulty from a South Asian background
[5] Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, Improving the life chances of disabled people, January 2005 (recommendation 6.3,page 117)