Presentation to Inclusion Europe to lead a discussion on new paths to independent living and inclusion following the crisis

1. Not letting a serious crisis go to
waste
Neil Crowther, October 2013

2. ‘You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And
what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do
things you think you could not do before.’
Rahm Emanuel

3. Crisis, which crisis?
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Crisis facing EU countries not only economic
Crisis of old assumptions and ways of doing
things
Crisis of failing to adjust to demographic
change
Crisis of failing to accept new place in the
world
Crisis of European social model and post war
welfare states
Crisis of trust in institutions, politicians
Crisis of social solidarity and resilience – space
for extremism

4. But is it a crisis for disability rights, or an
opportunity that we must not waste?

5. “It is perhaps ironic that many of us spent the 1970s criticising
the welfare state, only to find that these arguments were built
upon and taken much further by a government determined to
reduce state expenditure. Consequently we spent the 1980s
defending what we had previously attacked. In sum, we defended
the indefensible and I do not propose to spend the 1990s doing
the same”
Mike Oliver
Is not a crisis for disability rights because most of our ideas have
yet to be realised…
…we are defending something we don’t want and largely failing
without securing an alternative

6. ‘Our duty to take part in the
building of society’
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“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of
thinking we used when we created them” - Albert
Einstein
“it’s no good continuing to fight our battles within the
context of the intellectual and political space which the
disability movement has very effectively carved out over
the last 20-30 years. Instead we have to carry those
concepts and ideas into the wider arena of not only
social policy but also economic policy” – Jenny Morris

7. “As disabled persons have equal rights, they
also have equal obligations. It is their duty
to take part in the building of society” –
UN World Programme of Action on
Disability 1981

8. The fundamental problem
“public policy remains entrenched in the 1960s-era all-ornothing approach to serving people with disabilities, in
which a person must demonstrate inability to be productive
to be deemed eligible for critically important supports.”
US National Disability Council 2011

9. From social welfare state to
social investment state?
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A nations social & economic wealth is its people
Need to use resources to invest in ‘wealth creation’
Opportunity to posit supported decision
making, independent living and inclusive education as
investments in developing the capabilities and
contributions of disabled people
Getting more out of the resources we have
Building blocks of an inclusive and sustainable
recovery

10. Rethinking independent living
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Not ‘every man is an island’
About ‘being in the world’
Freedom for a person to interact with and within their
community on equal terms, for it is that interaction that
sustains inclusion, prevents isolation, and though which
our will and preferences can find expression.
Focus on opening up communities, not closing down
institutions

11. To do so we need to….
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Focus on how to use resources most productively by
measuring and demonstrating value
Promote an asset-based rather than deficit-based
approach supporting people to ‘be & do’
Enable people to assume responsibility & direct their
own support
Develop the ‘choice and control’ architecture as part of
an overall shift to supported decision-making
Release the cap on innovative solutions by focusing on
outcomes not processes & trusting people to take
control
Remove costly red-tape and bureaucracy

12. To do so we need to….
Integrate health, social care, benefits and employment support
in assessments and personal budgets to create an access to
living scheme
 Shift from liability culture of safeguarding to ‘supported risk
taking’
 Seek out, draw upon, nurture, develop and protect naturally
occurring ‘ecosystems’ of support
 Genuine social inclusion demands efforts to knit people into
communities….
 …to create inclusive communities
 ….a bedrock of which is….
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13. ….Inclusive education
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Inclusive education is a journey, not a place
Inclusive education is part of process of knitting people
into their communities
About nurturing receptiveness to the rights of persons
with disabilities
And about equipping disabled people with the tools for
life
A social and economic investment

14. We need to project the future we want by
celebrating the progress we have made

16. Man with Downs Syndrome
elected local councillor