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England - Know Your Rights

Recent Government policy has emphasised equality & inclusion: people with disabilities have the same rights to be fully included within society. However translating policy into practice has created some challenges and it has been acknowledged that people with complex needs, including those with severe learning disabilities and challenging behaviour, have not benefited as much as they should have.

The following section lists the key ‘tools’ that can be used to develop the kind of individualised supports that people with complex needs require.

1. Valuing People: A New Strategy for Learning Disability for the 21st Century (Dept of Health, 2001).

‘Valuing People’ sets out the Government’s strategy for learning disability services, and identified four key principles: rights, independence, choice and inclusion.

A key tool for improving the lives of people with learning disabilities identified within Valuing People is a Person Centred Plan (PCP). Person-centred planning means starting with the individual and putting the supports around them that will enable them to have the life that they want. If you are not familiar with person-centred planning do take time to find out more as this approach can be the key to your son/daughter’s needs being met. (See section 'know the processes' for further information)

2. Our Health, Our Care, Our Say: A New Direction for Community Services (Dept of Health, 2006)

This Adult Social Care White Paper sets out a vision to provide people with good quality social care and NHS services in the communities where they live. It places greater choice and control in the hands of people who use the services. ‘Our Health, Our Care, Our Say’ states that everybody who needs support should be able to have self-directed services and individualised budgets. Self-directed services are directly controlled by the individual from funding received via a direct payment. This is money paid by the local authority directly to a person whom it has assessed as needing community care services. The person then uses the payment to purchase the relevant services required to meet their assessed needs. (See section 'Understanding the Funding' for further information)

3. Learning for Living and Work – Learning and Skills Council (LSC)

The Learning and Skills Council is responsible for funding all post-16 education (apart from universities), and education for young people with disabilities up to the age of 25. In a recent report on education opportunities for people with learning disabilities, ‘Learning for Living and Work’, the LSC stated that provision for learners with disabilities should challenge them, provide a sense of achievement, increase personal autonomy and deliver progression to new opportunities and experiences. The LSC will invest new funds to improve education and training for people with learning disabilities and you should ask what action is being taken in your area. (Telephone 0870 900 6800 or visit www.lsc.gov.uk)

4. The Special Educational Needs (SEN): Code of Practice (2001).

This document promotes a consistency of approach to meeting children’s special educational needs and places the rights of children with special educational needs at the heart of the process, allowing them to be heard and to take part in decisions about their education. The SEN Code of Practice states that all young people with special educational needs should have a transition planning meeting in Year 9 (age 13-14) of school and every year subsequently. The Code of Practice also states that parents should be treated as partners throughout the transition planning process and the young people themselves should be involved in making decisions and exercising choices.

5. Employment

There is no one specific piece of legislation regarding employment for people with severe learning disabilities, however the Department of Work and Pensions has published a recent report ‘Giving People with Disabilities the Chance to Work’ and acknowledges that they need to do more to help people with disabilities get jobs. The Disability Discrimination Act (1995) informs employers that they have to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to accommodate people with disabilities including learning disabilities – this applies throughout the recruitment process as well as once a person is in post. The Jobcentre has schemes to help support people to find employment, and other local and national organisations such as Mencap also run schemes to help people find and maintain employment. To find out more on this see the Department of Work and Pensions website www.dwp.gov.uk or telephone 0845 60 60 234 or the Equality & Human Rights Commission website www.equalityhumanrights.com or telephone 0845 604 6610.