Exploring the challenges of achieving ordinary lives and citizenship for people with learning disabilities - talk to the annual conference of the Housing & Support Alliance (HSA)

1. Ordinary Lives
!
!
!
!
Citizenship for All
A talk by Simon Duffy and Gary Bourlet
at H&SA Conference, 21st November 2013

2. We know what we aim at. But we’re not
always sure how to talk about it.!
!
!
Ordinary lives is nice and simple - but is it
also a bit boring or empty?!
!
!
Citizenship sounds good - but is it a bit
too fancy or foreign?

3. what does citizenship mean?
1. Purpose - meaning
2. Freedom - control
3. Money - independence
4. Home - belonging
5. Help - involvement
6. Life - contribution
7. Love - connection
can we make ordinary interesting?

4. We’re not very far down the road!
3
big challenges ahead of us
No. 1 ourselves - personal change, courage and integrity!
No. 2 community - local control, diversity and innovation !
No. 3 politics - fairness, rights and democracy

5. citizenship has been lost
1
1. The UK is the third most unequal
developed country
2. High rates of low paid employment
3. Consumption not contribution
4. Time for citizenship and family
eroded

6. Are we living as citizens?
1. Purpose - Am I living a life of real purpose?
2. Freedom - Am I living with integrity - doing what’s right?
3. Money - Is money my servant or my master?
4. Home - Am I creating a home for myself and others?
5. Help - Do I let others lead, contribute and support me?
6. Life - Am I really listening to and helping others?
7. Love - Am I guided by love or by phoney goals?
citizenship must be ordinary

7. Ordinary life is becoming all too ordinary. We don’t
want to be employees; we don’t want to be service
users; we don’t want to be customers. We are
human beings, wonderfully diverse, and individual.
And we are each others equals: worthy of respect
and dignity. It’s not the time to be ordinary, it’s time
to be extraordinary.

8. One's sense of honour is the
only thing that does not grow
old, and the last pleasure,
when one is worn out by age, is
not, as the poet said, making
money, but having the respect
of one's fellow men.
Pericles

9. Carl Poll
1950-2013
•
Founder of KeyRing
•
Champion of plain English and
easy read
•
Genius behind marketing of
self-directed support
•
Introduced Small Sparks
project to UK
•
Introduced Manavodaya to UK
•
A real citizen and a champion of
other people’s citizenship

10. our communities are under attack
2
1. The UK is the 2nd most centralised
welfare state in the world
2. Local government controls little & is
under-valued
3. Facing biggest cuts in funding & power
4. Forced into bureaucratic tendering and
commissioning that erode communities

11. The biggest percentage cut in funding was for English Local
government.

12. 60% of real local government expenditure is for social care.

13. Central government creams funding from local government

14. community is where citizenship happens
1. Purpose - it’s where purposes find meaning
2. Freedom - it’s where we can be free
3. Money - it’s where real wealth is made
4. Home - it’s where we belong
5. Help - it’s where we are known and valued
6. Life - it’s where we can make a difference
7. Love - it’s where we can find love and give love
is this ordinary?

15. Bigger is not more beautiful. We will only discover
and share our gifts at the level of community.

16. Wards
Average Population
40
%
1,700
Over 65
376
22.1%
15 and under
308
18.1%
People seriously misusing drugs or alcohol
14
0.8%
People with limiting long-term illness
383
22.5%
7
0.4%
1,365
80.3%
People in poor health
181
10.6%
Deaths in a year
20
1.2%
Crimes
88
5.2%
‘Looked After Children’
2
0.1%
People entitled to social care
78
4.6%
Working age people on benefits
177
10.4%
Children SEN statements
People in homes in private ownership (incl. rental)

17. democracy is breaking down
3
1. The UK has more debt per person
than any other country.
2. Politicians are using shame and
stigma to win power.
3. Cuts have been targeted on the
most disadvantaged.
4. Only swing voters matter.

18. The real cause of the crisis was a collapse in banks who had
invested in an enormous unsustainable housing bubble.

19. We are seeing politicians pick on disabled people and use
government officials to prime negative headlines.

20. The government has targeted cuts that fall hardest on those
with the greatest needs - people with severe disabilities.

21. The cuts fall on people with disabilities and people in poverty
far harder than they fall on any other groups.

22. What went
wrong?

23. We fell asleep. We forgot that they don’t take care
of us, we take care of each other. We forgot that it’s
the rich who need the poor, not the poor who need
the rich. We forgot that politicians work for us, we
don’t work for them. We forgot that government
doesn’t innovate, people do. We forgot that
government doesn’t create wealth, people do. We
forgot that government doesn’t know best, people
do. We forgot about citizenship, we forgot about
families, we forgot about community. We confused
good with big. We confused achievement with
wealth. We confused love with control. We forgot
that the welfare state was made by us, that it
belongs to us and it needs to work for us. It’s time
to wake up.

24. It’s time to
wake up

25. 3
suggestions
1. Work together
2. Get political
3. Support advocacy

26. • For
too long we’ve relied on
government for leadership
• We’ve
relied on government for
funding
• We’ve
relied on government for
advocacy

27. Please support
development
of People First
England

28. Gary Bourlet
•
Self-advocate since 1982
•
Founder of People First Movement
in the UK 1984
•
First person with a learning
disability who was a TV presenter
•
First worker for People First London,
after stepping down as President
•
Worked for different groups across
the country
•
Now organising the creation of
People First England

29. Why we need People First England
•
One national voice for people with learning disabilities
•
An umbrella organisation to representing all self-advocacy groups,
not just those called People First.
•
Support to develop new local groups and restart groups that have
folded - good financial advice
•
A way of becoming more self-sufficient, finding different sources of
funding, helping people share support
•
Capacity-building support and advice
•
Run by and for people with learning disabilities.
•
Connect internationally - this is an international movement
•
In a strong position to campaign - and direct action

30. United we
stand,
divided we
fall

31. Please fill
in your
card