The Improving the Life Chance of Disabled People, Jan 2005 sets out a vision for improving the life of disabled people: 'By 2025, disabled people in Britain should have full opportunities and choices to improve their quality of life and will be respected and included as equal members of society'. Future strategy for disabled people should seek to realise this vision through practical measures in four key areas.
- Helping disabled people to achieve independent living
- Improving support for families with young disabled children
- Facilitating a smooth transition into adulthood
- Improving support and incentives for getting and staying in employment
Putting people first: a shared vision and commitment to the transformation of adult social care. Dec 2007 outlines aims for creating a personalised, high quality, accessible and responsive to individuals' needs Adult Social Care system through partnerships between various statutory agencies and private sector providers.
Direct payments guidance: community care, services for carers and children's services (direct payments) guidance England, 2003 was produced to assist local councils in making direct payments in order to give recipients control over their own life. Giving people flexibility to look beyond services provided by local councils for certain housing, employment, education and leisure activities as well as for personal assistance to meet their assessed needs. This will help increase opportunities for independence, social inclusion and enhanced self-esteem.
Supporting People is the government's long-term policy to enable local authorities to plan, commission and provide housing-related support services that help vulnerable people to live independently. In Newcastle, Supporting People is managed by a partnership between Newcastle City Council, the Probation Service for Northumbria and North of Tyne Primary Care Trust. The partnership commissions services for people of all ages and with a wide range of different support needs, to help them live independently in the community.
Supporting People Five year strategy 2005/6 - 2009/10 Newcastle City Council 2005
Visual Impairment
- The UK Vision Strategy led by RNIB has been developed in response to the World Health Assembly VISION2020 resolution to reduce avoidable blindness by the year 2020 and improve support and services for blind and partially sighted people. The strategy which aims to:
- improve the eye health of the people of the UK
- eliminate avoidable sight loss and deliver excellent support to those with a sight problem
- enhance the inclusion, participation and independence of blind and partially sighted people
- The RNIB's Good Practice in Sight guide (Oct 2008) is designed to assist Local Authorities and their Adult Social Services departments in England achieve best levels of service delivery for blind and partially sighted adults. Key areas of service delivery covered include:
- counselling and emotional support
- referrals to low vision and rehabilitation services
- information, advice and advocacy to assist client decision-making
- assessment of needs
- availability of specialist equipment
- training in the use of equipment
- empowering the service user
- complaints procedures and inter-agency working.
Deaf blindness
- In March 2001 the Department of Health issued Social Care for Deafblind Children and Adults - LAC (2001) 8 under Section 7 of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970. This was cancelled in 2006, however the DOH expect councils to continue to apply the principles of good practice that were enshrined in the guidance.
Hearing impairment
Visual Impairment
- Equal Access: a New Deal 2004, was commissioned to find the problems visually impaired people in Newcastle face and to develop recommended actions to help solve the problems in accordance with the ADSS guidelines. The main recommendations to be covered in an Action Plan were:
- Follow-up after diagnosis or impairment deterioration or change in situation.
- Visits/regular contact: The need for this is currently only partially met.
- A Benefits /local welfare rights officer specialising in supporting visually impaired people.
- Home care: More consistency and continuity in and levels of training.
- Multi agency collaboration for supporting visually impaired people and their families.
- Access to information: standardised minimum criteria across Newcastle for text and all forms of communication to be accessible.
- Transport: direct consultation between disabled people and transport providers; disability equality training for bus and taxi drivers and transport information and bus timetables available in accessible formats, is needed.
- Training of disability equality across all service providers.
- Community groups/ workers to be given training in visual impairment awareness and equipping them to signpost people to services and benefits
- Newcastle's Sensory Support Team's 'Sight Impairment Service Plan for 2008/09' identifies the following aims and strategies:
- Training to be delivered to council staff on making information accessible to the Visually Impaired.
- To work with Newcastle College to develop an accredited course for sight impaired people to be trained as sight impairment awareness trainers.
- To run the Visual Impairment Supporters' Awareness course (VISA) twice more this year.
- To work with Newcastle College to develop and produce Wylie cards which illustrate effects of different eyes conditions.
- To deliver Empowerment training to visually impaired people
- To explore opportunities to offer counselling to visually impaired people from people trained in visual impairment awareness
- To get the Employment and Post 16 action planning group more established and to seek input from other agencies, eventually holding a large Conference on Employment and Post 16 Education for Visually Impaired people.
- To continue our efforts to engage with BME community development workers to promote awareness of our service
- To implement a multi-agency Hearing Impairment Awareness course
- Newcastle City Council Social Services Directorate on how Newcastle plans to meet the standards set out in the ADSS (Association of Directors of Social Services) report, "Progress in sight: National standards of social care for Visually Impaired adults"