Mark Sheldon

Via DH Website

Dear colleague
National review of age discrimination in health and social care
The Secretary of State has asked us to undertake a review of the actions required to implement the provisions in the Equality Bill currently before Parliament relating to age discrimination in health and adult social care. In October we will publish our recommendations on the following areas:
• The timetable by which health and adult social care organisations will implement the ending of unjustifiable age discriminatory practice in the provision of services as set out in the Equality Bill.
• For which health and adult social care services it is beneficial and therefore objectively justifiable to retain age-based differentiation.
• How to support the health and social care system to implement the public sector equality duty in respect of all ages.
• The key actions that the health and adult social care system should take to make demonstrable progress in meeting their obligations as quickly as possible.
We will advise how health and social care organisations can support people to achieve a high quality of life, irrespective of their age. The review will look both at ending age discrimination and the promotion of the new duty on all public bodies to advance equality of opportunity in society and it will be informed by a number of key principles including

more http://budurl.com/bp43

This paper considers how, by paying attention to the divergent use of ‘stereotypes’ as a methodological tool, we concomitantly pay attention to the capacities of contemporary disability-criticism. First, the search for negative stereotypes is described in terms of how it enables the repeated citation of common examples. However, as some areas of disability-criticism have begun to acknowledge that ‘stereotypes’ are not exclusively a negative form, the second part of the paper uses the US cartoon series South Park to explore what sort of interpretations such a troublesome recognition allows. While critical discourse on disability is discussed as a whole, the ultimate aim is to draw some conclusions about the past, present and future of British disability-criticism. The paper concludes by suggesting that recognising the contingency of where we are on how we choose to read representations of disability strengthens debates about how we want to go on.

Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs

Interview with Scott Watkin

David Brindle,  The Guardian
The young, relative unknown Scott Watkin, who has gone from supermarket shelf-stacker to learning disabilities co-tsar, tells David Brindle that his advisory role on developing strong advocacy is anything but tokenistic.

More here http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/may/20/interview-scott-watkin

People with learning disabilities will gain a new champion in the Department of Health following the appointment of Scott Watkin as Co-National Director for Learning Disabilities.

Care Services Minister Phil Hope appointed Scott to lead work on making the Department’s learning disability strategy, Valuing People Now, a reality. He will work jointly with Anne Williams, the current National Director.

Scott is 27 and lives with his wife on the Isle of Wight. He is a Special Olympian, winning medals at the Special Olympic Games for the 200 metres and the standing long jump.

Prior to taking up this post, Scott co-chaired the Isle of Wight Learning Disability Partnership Board, where he played a key role in restructuring the board in anticipation of Valuing People Now and the increased personalisation of services.

Scott was also Vice Chair for the Isle of Wight Gateway Club which provides leisure activities for people with learning disabilities at evening and weekends. He has also volunteered on a programme to provide work-related services for people with learning disabilities.

Childhood mental health and life chances in post-war Britain
Insights from three national birth cohort studies

A report by Marcus Richards and Rosemary Abbott, in conjunction with
Guy Collis, Paul Hackett, Matthew Hotopf, Diana Kuh, Peter Jones, Barbara Maughan and Michael Parsonage

Published by the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health this report finds that mental health problems in children and teenagers have a significant impact on their chances of success in employment and family life as well as contact with the criminal justice system.

Download the report : Childhood mental health and
life chances in post-war Britain

The Department of Health has funded the Centre for Clinical and Academic Workforce Innovation (CCAWI) at the University of Lincoln to produce a learning resource to support mental health care co-ordinators. The resource is free and consists of a trainer’s manual, a trainee’s manual, PowerPoint presentations, a DVD and a work based assessment scheme. The package will support the delivery of flexible, localised, multi-disciplinary training programmes to support and update care co-ordinators on the refocused CPA policy.

The manuals can be downloaded from http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/ccawi/CPA.htm The DVD is available to trainers.

Trainee’s Manual – Individual units:
Introduction
Unit 1: Personalisation, values and the CPA
Unit 2: Refocusing the CPA
Unit 3: Role, authority & responsibilities of the care co-ordinator
Unit 4: Transition points in care
Unit 5: Comprehensive assessment
Unit 6: Managing risk effectively
Unit 7: Care planning
Unit 8: CPA and Whole Systems Working
Unit 9: Outcomes, evaluation and review – also includes:
Participant’s evaluation form
Reading and Links
Appendix 1: The competences of a care co-ordinator
Appendix 2: Glossary

http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/ccawi/CPA.htm

The NHS Evidence service

The principle aim of the NHS Evidence service is to provide easy access to a comprehensive evidence base for everyone in health and social care who takes decisions about treatments or the use of resources – including clinicians, public health professionals, commissioners and service managers – thus improving health and patient care. It will build on NICE’s significant international reputation for developing high quality evidence-based guidance. It provides access to a range of information types, including primary research literature, practical implementation tools, guidelines and policy documents.

http://www.evidence.nhs.uk

Via Routledge Website

Staff Support Groups in the Helping Professions
Principles, Practice and Pitfalls

Staff burnout and work-related stress in mental health professionals cost the National Health Service not only millions of pounds each year, but also impact upon the welfare of those being cared for. Staff Support Groups in the Helping Professions takes the lead from recent Department of Health initiatives, promoting the use of staff support groups to foster emotional resilience, deal with potential conflict and support reflective practice.

In this book Hartley, Kennard and their contributors explore the influences that help and hinder the setting up and running of staff support groups, and attempt to counter the often negative reactions that the term ‘staff support’ can evoke. They demonstrate that such support groups can be a sophisticated and valuable intervention that needs careful preparation and skilful management to succeed, and will in turn not only benefit the individual, but also the department as a whole and those that they care for.

Staff Support Groups in the Helping Professions
Principles, Practice and Pitfalls

Edited by Phil Hartley, David Kennard

Price: £19.99
ISBN: 978-0-415-44774-4

Former Home Office Minister Lord Bradley’s six month review of the barriers to diverting people with learning disabilities or mental health problems away from the prison system.

DH Website

The government’s response to the report can be found on the Ministry of Justice website

The Care Quality Commission has recently announced all the members of the final senior management team, they are;
* David Johnstone will be Director of Operations
* Kylie Kendrick has been appointed Director of Organisation Development and Human Resources
* John Lappin is to be Director of Finance and Corporate Services
* Jill Finney, Director of Engagement
* Richard Hamblin, Director of Intelligence
* Gary Needle, Director of Methods
* Jamie Rentoul, Director of Regulation & Strategy

Biographies of the above members can be found on CQC website