maintaining vision
TRANSCRIPT
Maintaining Vision
The challenge of maintaining a vision driven system in other western democratic countries.
Dr Simon Duffy ■ The Centre for Welfare Reform ■ 8th May 2013 ■ NASDDDS Directors Forum, Oklahoma City
Key variables include...•Funding levels
•Local government
•Culture - S. vs N.
•Religion - Cath. vs. Protestant
•Party politics - 2 Party vs. Multi-party
•Disability politics and self-advocacy
•Service structures - Intellectual disability or not...
•Peak bodies
•Cold war - W vs. E
•Welfare state models
...first impressions are not always reliable
Introductory remarksNorth America has had a big influence on UK thinking and on many other countries...
... and there is also a corresponding fear or suspicion.
The problem of filtration (or editing out the difficult bits)...
...and the problem of respecting our diversity in order to sharing our learning
Self-Directed Support
Person Centred Planning
Personalisation
Personal Budgets
BrokerageIndividua
l Budgets
Support Plans
Essential Lifestyle Planning
Personalised Support
Supported Living
Keys to Citizenship
InclusionCommunity Connecting
Individual Service Funds
Home Ownership
Self-determination
Supported Employment
MAPS & PATH
Normalisation
Social Role Valorisation
Social Model of Disability
Circles
Thoughts I want to shareVision is not about what you want to see, but being clear about what is really there.
The threats faced by people with intellectual disabilities are not receding.
Current strategies are necessary, but have some serious limitations.
New strategies need to be more philosophical, personal, political and peer-focused
The Official Storythrough rose tinted
spectacles“We realised that institutions were wrong and so we set about closing the institutions. At first people were moved into group homes and into day centres. But today people are increasingly able to control their own support, have real homes, real jobs and be in real relationships. We are entering an era of disability rights, where where families are properly supported and people with disabilities are seen as full and active citizens .”
Disturbing facts that do not fit the official story•Resistance is not futile - it is nearly 40
years since Christmas in Purgatory - i.e. two generations
•Funding is still primarily locked in segregated (community) services
•Eugenic practices are continuing or increasing: genetic testing, pro- abortion, neo-natal deaths
•Rights often exist on paper - but they lack substance
•Austerity has led to cuts that target disabled people (although not in Spain, I hear)
We’ve been here before...
What can we learn from our best achievements so far...
Social innovations develop...
•Through passionate engagement with real problems and aspirations
•Inspired by powerful values - making citizenship real
•Shared through peer networks
•Significant political implications, but problematic engagement with forces of power and commerce
Self-directed support...•USA and Canada - early progress...
•England - radical policy shift, emerging problems
•Scotland - early innovation, recent policy shift
•Finland - early pilots, de-institutionalisation on-going
•Australia - big new funding system - ‘Disability Care’ - major structural change
•Europe - various early experiments
The way we make good things happen (innovation) does not fit well with our normal strategies of implementation
and we don’t know how to be effectively political
Primary forms of strategic action:•Leaders - managing, guiding and controlling
•Money - funding, rewarding, constructing
•Experts - advising, informing and training
•Rules - laws, regulation and proceduresImportant, but not central to the
development of social innovations...
Do we need to live our values more fully?
Is it time to think more deeply?
The Unmaking of Man
by Simon Duffy
Can we work together as peers?
• Human rights at heart of system
• Minimum universal securities as rights
• Fair and integrated tax-benefit system
• Individual freedom for all
• Families and communities respected
Is it possible to be more politically savvy?
• Human rights at heart of system
• Minimum universal securities as rights
• Fair and integrated tax-benefit system
• Individual freedom for all
• Families and communities respected
Can we redefine welfare reform?
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