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Welcome to the latest Independent Living news roundup.
07.08.19 Contents:
Rights for disabled employees
Spend on DFG
Ombudsman review of complaints
Implicit and explicit ableism
Abacus baths on the road
Latest - 500,000 benefit transfers; Purple Alert
1. Rights for disabled employees

I wrote recently of the apparent ignorance of many businesses about their obligations to make reasonable adjustments to meet the needs of customers with disabilities.

A spotlight has now been turned on employers, who appear to be all at sea when it comes to protecting the rights of disabled employees...

Read more here

 

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2. Spend on DFG

Disabled Facilities Grants are an excellent means of helping people with disabilities to live independently at home. 

Research suggests that DFG funded adaptations can delay the time when someone needs to move into residential care by four years – a significant cost saving and increase in independence.

Now there is new data about spending on these grants, based on FOI requests to councils in England.

More details here

 

And Foundations has just launched their latest round of DFG Champions Roadshowsfind out more and book your place here

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3. Ombudsman review of complaints

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has recently published the annual review of local government complaints. More than a third of them were about education services and adult social care.

In nearly 60 percent of cases investigated, the complaint was upheld, and 99.4 percent of the results were accepted by the local authority concerned.

Read more here

 

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4. Implicit and explicit ableism

The largest study of its kind, carried out at the University of Michigan, has shown a curious pattern in attitudes towards people with disabilities.

It found that negative attitudes towards those with disabilities - ableism - tended to increase with age and time, but people were more reluctant to express those attitudes explicitly.

Read more here

 

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5. Abacus baths on the road

Abacus Specialist Bathroom Solutions are well respected manufacturers and suppliers of assistive baths, and it's now going to be even easier for OTs to learn more about their bathing solutions.

They have a new demonstration vehicle which will be taking to the road for their popular Lunch & Learn sessions and full home demonstrations and assessments for clients.

Read more here

 

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6. Latest - 500,000 benefit transfers; Purple Alert

A couple of Scottish updates to end with.

Scotland is increasingly diverging from practice south of the border when it comes to support for people with disabilities.

One of the ways in which the Scottish government is trying to build a fairer social security system for the planned 500,000 benefit transfers is by establishing experience panels of people who receive benefits, or have done in the past. More details here.

 

And I was interested to hear about the Purple Alert, a mobile phone app which can be used to find people with dementia who go missing. A great pity that it only operates in Scotland. 

So far, it has had a 100 percent success rate, finding vulnerable individuals within four hours. Find out more here.

 

Don't forget that you can apply to join the Independent Living Facebook group, if you would like to spend more time discussing these themes with other interested people. 

There are various ways you can get in touch with us: email me; visit our Facebook page and leave a message there; or if it's short and sweet, Tweet!

Previous newsletters are archived here.

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Until next time, best wishes,

Frances

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Frances Leckie
Editor

e: editor @ independentliving.co.uk
t: +44 (0) 208 133 0628
Skype: francesleckie
w: www.independentliving.co.uk
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