Self-advocacy skills for adults with learning difficulties

NIACE welcomes the call by Downing Street of a full investigation into the situation at the Winterbourne View home for adults with learning disabilities, which was the subject of this week’s shocking BBC Panorama programme – Undercover Care: the Abuse Exposed. However, the documentary has messages for education and training providers right now. NIACE calls on every education and training provider making provision for adults with disabilities, learning difficulties or mental health problems, to consider their curriculum and to ensure that the skills of self-advocacy are not overlooked.

Lessons will be learned, perhaps, but the failures of the Winterbourne View home to properly staff, protect and provide good experiences for adults, will echo around the country. Not since the closure of scandal-ridden, long-stay hospitals, has there been such a spate of scandals about private care – some of which seem to have become as institutionalised and as damaging as the former long-stay units they replaced.

There are five things NIACE sees as important for education and training providers:

First, we support the excellent stance taken by Rob Greig, of the National Development Team for Inclusion, in their call for better advocacy work, which can be read in this press release. In it, Greig asks for “A requirement that external advocacy (including family advocacy if actively involved) must be in place and demonstrably involved for any individual placed in a hospital setting.” He also reminds us that Valuing People, the Government’s strategy on learning disability, has been neglected and left to founder.

Second, we need to learn from the alleged failures of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to investigate the abuse and to urge the Government to provide support for the CQC to do their job properly – and this means ensuring that when ‘activities’ take place they are of good quality and encourage learning – whether it’s in residential care for older people or for those with disabilities.

Third, we need education and training providers making provision for learners with disabilities, to look hard at the curriculum they offer. Self-advocacy and advocacy skills need to be learned and they can be taught. People need the skills to be able to speak out. All learners deserve a curriculum and a programme relevant to their lives.

Fourth, NIACE has heard too many stories from providers about how such education and training provision is sometimes skewed by inappropriate qualifications being offered. This is a mistaken view. The Skills Funding Agency does not require provision for students with learning disabilities to be related to a national qualification in order to be funded. What matters is that there is some rigorous recording and assessment of progress and achievement related to the individual and their own goals – and that doesn’t need a qualification to shape it. Let’s hope that the forthcoming Ofsted report on this provision will say as much. And clearly.

Fifth, teachers and trainers need to do their bit to promote equality and diversity and that includes helping learners to have their voice heard. Just as we will always need whistleblowers to be brave and forthright in their scrutiny in the workplace, so we will always need learners to have the self confidence and skills to say what they think and communicate their wishes. This means that self advocacy should be built into the fabric of all educational and training provision. There is much to be done to support teachers and care workers in this endeavour. NIACE has over the years produced much material that should help.

This latest scandal has provided shocking evidence which should lead to immediate improvement. However, it requires a more systemic solution. This must start with recognising that not all solutions can be left to the market or to local determination. We need a national response, respect for national strategies and a framework within which there is proper scrutiny to support that strategy. For a Big Society to work, we need a strong framework to protect those most vulnerable. Otherwise it’s all laissez faire and indifference. Part of any improvement for the future also requires proper attention to learning. Education and training providers will want to look closely at the Winterbourne View case in order to learn lessons for their work, but without any kind of overall strategy for disability, learning difficulties and mental ill health, the learning and skills sector and the Government has nothing to be smug about.

Peter Lavender is deputy chief executive of NIACE, which encourages all adults to engage in learning