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Social work with people with learning difficulties

Making a difference

Susan Hunter and Denis Rowley

First published in Great Britain in 2015 by

Policy Press University of Bristol 1-9 Old Park Hill Bristol BS2 8BB UK Tel +44 (0)117 954 5940 e-mail

North American office: Policy Press c/o The University of Chicago Press 1427 East 60th Street Chicago, IL 60637, USA t: +1 773 702 7700 f: +1 773-702-9756 e:

Policy Press 2015

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested.

ISBN 978-1-4473-1242-0 ePub
ISBN 978-1-4473-1243-7 Kindle

The right of Susan Hunter and Denis Rowley to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved: no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of Policy Press.

The statements and opinions contained within this publication are solely those of the authors and not of the University of Bristol, Policy Press or the British Association of Social Workers. The University of Bristol, Policy Press and the British Association of Social Workers disclaim responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting from any material published in this publication.

Policy Press works to counter discrimination on grounds of gender, race, disability, age and sexuality.

Cover design by Policy Press
Front cover: image kindly supplied by www.alamy.com
Readers Guide
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List of tables and figures

Tables

Figures

Acknowledgements

With thanks to all those people with learning difficulties from whose generosity, understanding and friendship we have benefited over the years. Thanks also to Policy Press, and in particular to Viv Cree for her perseverance and support.

Introduction

For any social worker, the history and evolution of the ways in which social workers have tried to support people with learning difficulties make fascinating, challenging, and at times, chilling, reading. It is a story that is fascinating in its reflection of social history and the major public policy debates of the last 150 years. The story is not a straightforward one, however within it there are eddies, sometimes shock waves, and occasional triumphs.

• The Industrial Revolution and its fragmenting impact on communities and their vulnerable members.
• Theories of evolution and the legacy of the eugenics movement still reverberate in todays debates on genetic engineering and designer babies.
• There are ongoing struggles for human rights and for the recognition of minority rights for marginalised groups within our society.
• Fundamental and contentious issues remain, such as who controls the right to life and the right to die.
• There has been an increasing professionalisation of support, and technical, managerial solutions for social problems, and notably, the courage of individuals in the face of day-to-day adversity and the inspiration of their achievements so stunningly exemplified in the 2012 Paralympics.

For social workers, this history makes challenging reading because the professional values of social work aspire to anti-discrimination and advocacy, together with and on behalf of people in our society who are marginalised and devalued for a variety of reasons. The social justice and equality agenda in disability policy is central to social works declared professional mission and professional values (BASW, 2002), but is elusive to its collective grasp and problematic in individual day-to-day practice.

It is reading at times in that much of it is about well-intentioned efforts to support and rehabilitate individuals at risk of being marginalised in a rapidly industrialising society that is increasingly dependent on technical and cognitive skills. However, these were efforts that ultimately led to the enforced isolation, segregation and oppression of men, women, and not infrequently children with learning difficulties, in what were called mental handicap hospitals in the UK. The impoverishment and indeed misery of those who lived their lives in institutions that were created and run in the name of progress and expert care have found a contemporary voice in first-hand accounts by Jimmy McIntosh, Jimmy Laing (quoted in Laing and McQuarrie, 1992), the Lennox Castle Stories (2012) group, and more academic accounts by Blatt and Kaplan (1974), Atkinson (1997), Traustadottir and Sigurjonsdottir (2008) and others.

Former residents of Lennox Castle Hospital in Scotland named their account of life in hospital Lest we forget because of the continuing prevalence, even today, of scandalous behaviour towards people with learning difficulties, both in service settings and in the community. How can it be that a society that is increasingly professionalised and regulated continues to fail to protect vulnerable people? A failure to protect not only those in the new institutions, as described in the final report on Winterbourne View Hospital in Bristol (Flynn, 2012) and in our mainstream health services, as described in the Mencap reports Death by indifference (2007) and Death by indifference: 74 deaths and counting (2012), but also those living in our midst in the community, as described in the serious case review of the murder of Steven Hoskin (Flynn, 2007) and the killing of Francecca Hardwick by her mother Fiona Pilkington after years of torment and bullying by local young people (IPCC, 2011).

Although, in general, services and opportunities have become better for people with learning difficulties, and we have, over the last few decades in particular, moved from segregation in institutions to the notion of full and inclusive citizenship, much still needs to be done, and many committed professionals are working tirelessly in alliance with people with learning difficulties and their families to create better services and better lives. As before, however, the path of progress is not clean and linear. For example:

• While some people with learning difficulties are being listened to, are really involved and are being influential, others are being ignored, with their human rights disregarded and abused.
• UK policies have become more supportive of the visions outlined in the following aspirational policy documents The same as you? (Scottish Executive, 2000) and The keys to life (Scottish Government, 2013) in Scotland, Valuing People (DH, 2001a) and Valuing People Now (DH, 2009a) in England, Equal lives (Northern Ireland Executive, 2005) in Northern Ireland, and the

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