Gary Bourlet, Co-Founder of Learning Disability England
Services should be fit for purpose in every Local
Authority across England; we shouldn’t have certain areas falling behind in
this day and age!
I did a role that was like a quality checker when I
lived in Swindon, and checked services in Gloucestershire.
You find out what’s good and what’s not working and
just put down your findings. It’s all about research.
It is important that people with learning
disabilities and family members do this. It’s important that they play a part
in making sure these services are of a high standard and give people the
support they really want.
Services must be fit for the 21st Century. They need to support people to have homes, jobs and
relationships and everything else that life offers.
There is a lot that needs to be done.
All services in England need to be checked to make
sure they are top standard. It
shouldn’t matter where you live – you should be able to expect a high quality
service wherever you are.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) should listen to
people and families. They should
be led by People who use services and their families, because they will have
the knowledge of what is expected from people who use these services.
There are already Experts by Experience and Quality Checkers all over the country but there needs to be more of them and
professionals need to really listen to them.
If it was done by providers or social workers they
could be biased and will not learn anything.
Quality checkers should be independent and what
they find out should be shared with the public. This will be more than just tick boxes and the
public will have the right to know.
These reports should be easy to find – anyone
should be able to find them and look at them. They need to be accessible with
no jargon.
Quality checking needs to go beyond public services, we need to look at all
services that people with learning disabilities and their families use. We must
look at Charity and Private services and the effects they have on the lives of
people who use them.
A great service is a service that is designed for
people with learning disabilities and also designed by people with learning
disabilities.
People with learning disabilities deserve the best.
By Gary Bourlet
