People with learning disabilities may experience discrimination which prevents them from exercising choice and control over their right to participate in democratic processes. Design/Methodology/Approach Taking data collected by social workers during a campaign from the 2015 UK General Election, this paper analyses the variables associated with higher rates of democratic participation by people with learning disabilities. Findings The present authors undertook secondary analysis on data collected by social workers supporting adults with learning disabilities who were living in community housing units. 1,019 people with learning disabilities who were living in 124 community housing units in one English county gave consent to participate. 84% were registered to vote and 26% cast a vote on polling day. People were significantly more likely to cast a vote if they lived in a housing unit where they understood their rights (Wald 2 =4.896, p=0.027). Practical Implications Our analyses are consistent with the hypothesis that supporting people with learning disabilities to understand their right to participate in elections increases the likelihood they will cast a vote on a polling day. There are practical implications from this finding for commissioning practices, support planning, and education of health and social care practitioners. Originality Value This is the first study of this size which examines data from people with learning disabilities on their experience of democratic participation and the role of social work.
In 2016, the Department of Health in England announced that it would pilot the role of Named Social Worker. We chose to be part of the pilot because we regularly witness too many people's lives being defined by restrictions imposed by professionals. Erroneous associations between the concepts of risk and danger have become the norm in how learning disabled people's decision-making is perceived and managed. However, we believe social workers educated in the social model of disability and grounded more generally in disability studies offer an alternative perspective. The pilot is an opportunity to test our hypothesis that social work practice rooted in social model thinking can successfully challenge oppressive practice and disabling barriers, thus providing the opportunity for social workers to genuinely be 'servants not masters' in the lives of disabled people.
Public Health England estimates approximately 2% of the population of England have learning disabilities, as defined in ICD-10. Less than a quarter of this group (23%) are, however, identified as having a learning disability by health and welfare systems (Hatton et al., 2016). Previous research has shown that people with learning disabilities do not always receive reasonable adjustments within healthcare, with much of the disparity in health between people with and without learning disabilities accounted for by the greater adversities experienced by people with learning disabilities (Emerson and Hatton, 2013). As a result, people with learning disabilities are over represented in hospital admissions, accounting for 8% of all inpatient admission stays (NHS England, 2016). An estimated 3000 people were living in specialist inpatient hospitals as of 30 th September 2015 (NHS Digital, 2015). Healthcare policy over the last 25 years in England has consistently aimed to improve the quality of care and support experienced by people with learning disabilities and reduce overreliance on inpatient admissions. The impetus for the most recent policy drive, which has become known as the Transforming Care programme (NHS England, 2015a), was the exposure by the British Broadcasting Corporation in 2011 of institutionalised, wilful neglect and abuse at Winterbourne View Hospital for adults with learning disabilities. Transforming Care (NHS England, 2015a) and associated guidance, especially Building the Right Support (NHSE 2015b), projected that, by March 2019, a minimum of a 35% reduction could be achieved in the number of specialist inpatient beds commissioned by the NHS in England. Paragraph 3.13 of Building the Right Support states that "with the right set of services in place in the community, the need for inpatient care will significantly reduce, and commissioners will need to have in place far less hospital capacity." (p.27). Following
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