PPlog

I've had cause to slate the Equality and Human Rights Commission so often on PPlog that it's with pleasure and some relief to be able to post something positive from that organisation: in response to my short posting on April 10th (see below) I received this from ERHC yesterday: “Subject: Panorama Programme Hi Mike, Please see below the response I've received from our legal enforcement team for you: Thanks for bringing the Panorama programme to our attention. The programme raises some worrying issues about the state of home care services for the elderly in England. Each year we receive many allegations of discrimination and potential human rights breaches. When we receive such allegations, we make preliminary inquiries and gather information. When all the available evidence is to hand, we decide whether to pursue the issue using our enforcement powers. As we have not investigated the issue of elderly people and home care services ourselves, we are unable to say what action...

Robert Jones from the Isle of Wight has commented on my initial Naffolk posting. Rather than leave it buried in the comments section I’m copying it here. It would be excellent if we had comparisons from other LINks around the country and I would be happy to publish such a collection on ppeyes. Here is Robert’s contribution: I suppose it could be said that you at least had a strategy group in Norfolk. We didn't even have that on the Isle of Wight. Each LA has interpreted the transitional duty in its own, usually inadequate, way. And we, like you, now have a star chamber -elected in our case by a group of people who can't even be identified. Wonderful thing, democracy. Data protection, you know. Can't share the electoral roll with anyone. It's just about the worst start the LINk could have had. I haven't written it off yet, because it's a very recent development on the IW, but the early signs are discouraging; what is happening is that the semi-professional third ...

This is horrifying. It is beyond belief that the United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing (UKCC) can strike off a professional colleague for doing all she can to expose malpractice and uphold the rights of vulnerable patients. What sort of human values are they supposed to be espousing and what messages are they giving to practising nurses? As I wrote in ‘Whistleblowing in the Social Services - Public Accountability and Professional Practice’ (Arnold, 1998): “The Royal College of Nursing’s report entitled ‘Whistleblow: Nurses Speak Out’ states that ‘Under the terms of their professional code of conduct nurses can be struck off the professional register for failing to report concerns about standards of care...(UKCC) states in its Code of Professional Conduct: ‘ Each registered nurse, midwife and health visitor shall act, at all times, in such a manner as to: safeguard and promote the interests of individual patients and clients; ...

Tuesday afternoon I went to Loddon, the small rural town town 3 miles from where I live. I went because the timetable said the service I was interested would be there then. And there is was: in the public car park in the centre of the town was a motor home converted into a mobile showroom/surgery. It clearly announced its presence to the general public, having a prominent flag flying and bill boards around it. This was the Norfolk Deaf Association's “Listen Here” Mobile Clinic. Funded by, I was told, a grant of about £80,000 from the National Lottery this apparently service user run free service reaches out to twenty such small rural area towns, on a regular timetable covering the whole of Norfolk. People know about it not just by the Clinic's visibility but also in advance by the published timetables which are advertised clearly in GP surgeries, public libraries and community notices. In contrast, if I lived in the city of Norwich in the centre of Norfolk, I migh...

Those local authorities using the home care services organisations featured in the Panorama expose last night are clearly in breach of the Disability Discrimination Acts and should be prosecuted. The Disability Rights Commission would have done so. What action will the Equality and Human Right Commission be taking?

The ERK sent a protest comment on my last but one entry eulogising their togetherness and highlighting things they’d done (see the comments section on the entry). The concerns continue though. See: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-human-rights-battlefield-1662945.html The predilection of the government for breaking up organisations that are working well effectively - probably too effectively, if you get my meaning, like the Disability Rights Commission and now the Healthcare Commission, is, if you take the government’s point of view that rocking the boat too hard ships in too much mud and slime, is working. Hence the EHRC propaganda in their comment. If you take the ordinary citizen’s and service user’s point of view then the government have successfully destroyed bodies of great value to social justice, wasting millions in the process.

At the end of last year I posted an appeal on my Mesomoco blog (http://net.mesomoco.org.uk/mikecox/weblog) . I said: “ ...real activities in LINks are accelerating and I want to, once again, shout from the mountain tops (difficult in Norfolk!) that the system offers wonderful opportunities for service users and carers of all flavours and breeds - opportunities we have been fighting for for the last thirty to forty years. Real service user and carer involvement and influence is now making a tangible difference and in the latter part of 2008, facilities have begun to mushroom around the concept of the user as an equal expert in her/his own right in heath and social care....So, you lot. Get out and join your LINks - you can make a vast difference to service delivery, deficiences in service, inadequate practice and malpractice - IN THE NHS AND IN SOCIAL SERVICES.” I regret though, after praising it on PPlog (07.11.08), here in Norfolk we’ve now gone into 3D - Disappoint...