Maintaining Vision

The challenge of maintaining a vision driven system in other western democratic countries.

Dr Simon Duffy ￭ The Centre for Welfare Reform ￭ 8th May 2013 ￭ NASDDDS Directors Forum, Oklahoma City

Key variables include...•Funding levels

•Local government

•Culture - S. vs N.

•Religion - Cath. vs. Protestant

•Party politics - 2 Party vs. Multi-party

•Disability politics and self-advocacy

•Service structures - Intellectual disability or not...

•Peak bodies

•Cold war - W vs. E

•Welfare state models

...first impressions are not always reliable

Introductory remarksNorth America has had a big influence on UK thinking and on many other countries...

... and there is also a corresponding fear or suspicion.

The problem of filtration (or editing out the difficult bits)...

...and the problem of respecting our diversity in order to sharing our learning

Self-Directed Support

Person Centred Planning

Personalisation

Personal Budgets

BrokerageIndividua

l Budgets

Support Plans

Essential Lifestyle Planning

Personalised Support

Supported Living

Keys to Citizenship

InclusionCommunity Connecting

Individual Service Funds

Home Ownership

Self-determination

Supported Employment

MAPS & PATH

Normalisation

Social Role Valorisation

Social Model of Disability

Circles

Thoughts I want to shareVision is not about what you want to see, but being clear about what is really there.

The threats faced by people with intellectual disabilities are not receding.

Current strategies are necessary, but have some serious limitations.

New strategies need to be more philosophical, personal, political and peer-focused

The Official Storythrough rose tinted

spectacles“We realised that institutions were wrong and so we set about closing the institutions. At first people were moved into group homes and into day centres. But today people are increasingly able to control their own support, have real homes, real jobs and be in real relationships. We are entering an era of disability rights, where where families are properly supported and people with disabilities are seen as full and active citizens .”

Disturbing facts that do not fit the official story•Resistance is not futile - it is nearly 40

years since Christmas in Purgatory - i.e. two generations

•Funding is still primarily locked in segregated (community) services

•Eugenic practices are continuing or increasing: genetic testing, pro- abortion, neo-natal deaths

•Rights often exist on paper - but they lack substance

•Austerity has led to cuts that target disabled people (although not in Spain, I hear)

We’ve been here before...

What can we learn from our best achievements so far...

Social innovations develop...

•Through passionate engagement with real problems and aspirations

•Inspired by powerful values - making citizenship real

•Shared through peer networks

•Significant political implications, but problematic engagement with forces of power and commerce

Self-directed support...•USA and Canada - early progress...

•England - radical policy shift, emerging problems

•Scotland - early innovation, recent policy shift

•Finland - early pilots, de-institutionalisation on-going

•Australia - big new funding system - ‘Disability Care’ - major structural change

•Europe - various early experiments

The way we make good things happen (innovation) does not fit well with our normal strategies of implementation

and we don’t know how to be effectively political

Primary forms of strategic action:•Leaders - managing, guiding and controlling

•Money - funding, rewarding, constructing

•Experts - advising, informing and training

•Rules - laws, regulation and proceduresImportant, but not central to the

development of social innovations...

Do we need to live our values more fully?

Is it time to think more deeply?

The Unmaking of Man

by Simon Duffy

Can we work together as peers?

• Human rights at heart of system

• Minimum universal securities as rights

• Fair and integrated tax-benefit system

• Individual freedom for all

• Families and communities respected

Is it possible to be more politically savvy?

• Human rights at heart of system

• Minimum universal securities as rights

• Fair and integrated tax-benefit system

• Individual freedom for all

• Families and communities respected

Can we redefine welfare reform?

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