By Paul Baldwin,
For me
inclusion is not about simply taking groups of disabled people out to do
disability related activities in a 'community' setting; these people are still
separate from the community. The 'box' may have been made transparent but the
'label' is still there. Inclusion is about disabled people being able to play
their part in society on the basis of acceptance and equality. To achieve full
inclusion for disabled people it requires the right kind of support; organised
on a person centred basis. Everyone will have different ambitions and different
support needs. The service that has been commissioned from Your Choice Barnet
would appear, on these terms, to be reverting back to the 'one size fits all'
mentality.
The BDISC art
and pottery groups were always intended to give those people who had been
institutionalised under the old medical model of disability the confidence to
know themselves well enough to recognise their abilities; and to know what
support they would require, as individuals, to be able to make the maximum use
of these abilities. This is the whole point of the Personalisation Agenda.
This is a
lesson that seems to have been forgotten by many 'professionals', particularly
local authority commissioners. They need to talk to the people who are living
the experience of disability; they know what they need. And even if they make
mistaken decisions they will learn from these, and they will be beginning to be
included. Services should be commissioned on a 'value for money' basis; not
just on what saves the most money.
For many
disabled people, and their families, the present importance of having a
building that they can identify with the services they receive is that it gives
them a sense of security which mitigates against their worries about the possible
problems that they fear might arise in, what for them is the difficult process
of, moving from exclusion to inclusion. This will need to be addressed if YCB
is to move forward successfully.
But I believe
that such a building will also be important into the future as a base, or hub,
for YCB services. This is because, to
feel included, people will also need to feel that they belong. Such a building will
be more likely to provide this sense of belonging; rather than living a
‘nomadic’ existence whilst having no base to identify with.
The failure
of Personalisation now would be a disaster for disabled people; but its
introduction cannot be ‘enforced’ overnight.
It must be taken forward step by step; with the consent of those people
that it is intended to benefit.
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Paul Baldwin is a Barnet Resident. Guest blogs are always welcome at the Barnet Eye
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