Tag Archives: carers

The basic rights of people with a learning disability are threatened by welfare cuts

‘I fear we are about to go backwards on decades of hard-fought victories which secured disabled people’s rights and inclusion in society’ … Brian Rix, president of the Royal Mencap society. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

Campaigners fought for more than 60 years so people with a learning disability can make their own choices in life and be part of mainstream society. However, I fear we are about to go backwards on decades of hard-fought victories which secured disabled people’s rights and inclusion in society.

I have seen great strides since the 1950s, when I was advised to “put away and forget” my late daughter, Shelley, who had Down’s syndrome. However, expected £12bn cuts to social security, combined with huge reductions in funding for local government, and therefore social care, are causing fear and anxiety among the 1.4 million people with a learning disability in the UK, and their families.

Elderly ‘being trapped’ in hospital, says Age UK

Elderly people are “trapped” in English hospitals in ever greater numbers as there is nowhere else for them to go, the charity Age UK has warned.

Its analysis shows patients spent a total of nearly 2.5 million days stuck in a hospital over the past five years.

Age UK said it was bad for patients’ health, a waste of NHS resources and a huge cost to taxpayers.

Warning of ‘looming catastrophe’ with Norfolk County Council’s £26m IT project

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

A “catastrophe looming’.
A £26m project to transform Norfolk County Council’s information technology system has been branded as a “looming catastrophe”, after delays and problems sent it £1.25m over budget.

The Digital Norfolk Ambition project – a tie-up between the council and technology giants Hewlett Packard, Microsoft and Vodafone – was hailed as “ground-breaking” when the deal was agreed in December 2013.