Winston Churchill

We make a living

by what we get !we make a life !

by what we give

1. Citizenship should be our goal

2. Work is essential to citizenship

3. Employment is an important form of work

4. Self-directed support is for citizenship

5. It offers new options to enable work

6. But, we’re living in crazy times

7. We must hold our nerve and work together

1. The goal is citizenship

• How should we live together, given all our many differences?

• How do we avoid the stigma and prejudice that threatens the lives of so many?

• What kind of help should we offer one another?

Hannah Arendt

Aristotle explains that a community is not made out of equals, but on the contrary of people who are different and unequal. The community comes into being through equalising,'isathenai.' ![Nich. Ethics 1133 a 14]

• The name for a community of equals - people who accept and welcome their differences - is a community of citizens.

• A citizen is someone who is different and equal - uniquely themselves, and also one of us - treated with respect ‘as an equal’.

• It’s got nothing to do with passport-citizenship - it’s how we stop people from becoming outcasts.

• For people with disabilities our dark inheritance is not citizenship nor community inclusion.

• Our inheritance is eugenics, Nazi mass murder, sterilisation, institutions, segregated services, stigma and shame.

• We are not standing on the shoulders of giants.

Sir Francis Galton: Eugenics = race improvement

A cousin of Darwin, Galton was treated as one of the great minds of his time.

Suzanne Evans

Not only did most of the men and women involved in committing the euthanasia murders escape justice, but the atrocities committed against disabled people in Germany, Austria, Poland, the former Soviet Union, and other regions during the Nazi era have gone largely unrecognised and uncompensated. Because of the neglect by historians, as well as the political powerlessness and economic deprivation of people with disabilities, no memorial centre or museum specifically for survivors with disabilities exists anywhere in the world today.

We only have only just begun to learn how to undo the damage done by decades of harmful scapegoating.

We need a sense of humility and

the ability to work together and

learn from each other if we are

going to build a better world.

This shows spending in one part of England after the institutions were closed:

• The journey away from the institution has been long and closing down long-stay hospitals was only a beginning.

• We have had to develop a range of different innovations and theories in order to help guide us away from our dark past.

• We have still got a long way to go.

Citizenship is very practical. We can use the idea of citizenship to think about how to help someone.

–Johnny Appleseed

If we are not supporting people to be citizens what are we actually trying to do?

2. Work is essential to citizenship

• Work of love - bringing up our children

• Work of community - building a better world

• Work of service - helping others for free

• Work of employment - helping others for reward

We must respect all work

Work builds citizenship1. We can express our gifts -

we can grow as a person 2. We can exercise some

control 3. We can earn some money 4. We can strengthen our

home life 5. We can offer others the

chance to help 6. We can make a difference

- get stuck in 7. We can find new friends

Maimonides

There are eight degrees of charity, one higher than the other. The highest degree, exceeded by none, is that of the person who assists a poor Jew by providing him with a gift or loan or by accepting him into a business partnership or by helping him find employment - in a word, by putting him where he can dispense with other people's aid. With reference to such aid, it is said, “You shall strengthen him, be he a stranger or a settler, he shall live with you” [Lev. 25:35], which means strengthen him in such manner that his falling into want is prevented.

3. Employment is part of work• Employment is the when we work for another

person or for an organisation

• But there’s also self-employment

• Social enterprise!

• Micro-employment and other options

• Can offer an important degree of economic independence

Employment is good especially when:1. It fits who we are

2. It allows some freedom

3. It provides a good income

4. It fits with our home life

5. It is supportive

6. If it is fruitful and adds real value

7. It helps us form friendships

Obviously quality employment matters.

Havamal (The Sayings of the Vikings)

The lame rides a horse!the maimed drives the herd!the deaf is brave in battle.!A man is better!blind than buried.!A dead man is deft at nothing.

4. Self-directed support was developed to enable citizenship

• There are many different systems

• The quality of implementation varies enormously

• We know something about what better systems

• Scotland is exploring these options today

Spending people’s money, on things !

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!

!

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!

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people wouldn’t buy for themselves

it is developing around the world

but it is still early days

Quality always goes up Costs can go up, down or stay the same Demand increases Citizenship can increase a lot

It is not about increasing choice It is not about markets and consumerism It is about life, community and citizenship

1. Rights - Is my budget really mine - an entitlement?

2. Control - Is control as close to me as possible?

3. Clarity - Is it clear what I have?

4. Flexible - Can I use my budget as I think best?

5. Ease of use - Can I limit the bureaucracy?

6. Pro-community - Are we strengthening community?

7. Sustainable - Is the system affordable & innovative?

moving from a gift to an entitlement

It can’t always be the government’s money !

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!

!

The government have to get it from us.

finding the right point of control

Individual Service Fund (ISF)

Knowing - upfront

real wealth

flexibility is the key to value

Give useful informationINFO

£

Connect to another individual or family

Refer to community organisations

Recommend appropriate providers

making it easy to use

dynamic implementation

5. New opportunities emerge•No longer just about supported employment competing with day services

•People can be employers, employees, micro-businesses, social entrepreneurs, family businesses

•People can start from their networks, family, friends, peers, e.g. PFG

•Employers can engage directly, e.g. Project Search •Schools can get real about employment, e.g. Personalised Transition

•Local communities can take back control from the system

Wards 40 %

Average Population 1,700

Over 65 376 22.1%

15 and under 308 18.1%

People seriously misusing drugs or alcohol 14 0.8%

People with limiting long-term illness 383 22.5%

Children SEN statements 7 0.4%

People in homes in private ownership (incl. rental) 1,365 80.3%

People in poor health 181 10.6%

Deaths in a year 20 1.2%

Crimes 88 5.2%

‘Looked After Children’ 2 0.1%

People entitled to social care 78 4.6%

Working age people on benefits 177 10.4%

moving resources into community

6. Policy madness

• Wicked and unjust cuts

• Crazy systems that don’t work

• Intentional scapegoating

• A Work Programme - that doesn’t get people work

• Employment and Support Allowance for people who are not in employment

• Job Seekers Allowance for the poorest

• Universal Credit system which they don’t have the computers for

• Atos instead of disabled people and family doctors

• Work Related Activities Group (?) split from the Support Group (?)

• Workfare - forced labour - which is bad for the labour market

• Negative incentives - conditionality and punishment - sanctions for the poorest in society

• UK is the 3rd most unequal developed society

• UK is the 2nd most centralised welfare state (after new Zealand)

7. Going forward

• Time to think differently

• Time to challenge incoherent policies

• Time to act

• Time to collaborate

This is in turn leading to new more radical and political expressions of the need for change.

1. Close down the DWP - Integrate tax and benefits

2. End Newspeak - The nonsense of ‘Job Seekers Allowances’ or ‘Employment and Support Allowances’ etc.

3. Focus on Basic Income - In the long-run it is the basic income level that is the most important foundation of any decent system.

4. Justifiable Supplements - There may be an argument for supplementing a basic income if people are always likely to be disadvantaged by disability.

5. Welcome innovation - We already know a lot about what really helps, not the Work Programme but…

6. Support the Local - We keep asking central government to solve problems that can only be tackled at the local level.

1.Are you thinking of citizenship as the goal?

2.Does your support encourage work?

3.Can people find employment?

4.Are you offering self-directed support?

5.Have you explored all your options?

6.Are you awake to the crazy times?

7.What are you going to do?

Pericles

One's sense of honour is the only thing that does not grow old, and the last pleasure,

when one is worn out by age, is not, as the poet said, making money, but having the respect

of one's fellow men.

For more information: Web: www.centreforwelfarereform.org !Twitter: @CforWR and @simonjduffy !Blog: www.simonduffy.info !Facebook: centreforwelfarereform !Campaign: www.campaignforafairsociety.org !Petition: WOWpetition.com

© Simon Duffy. Rights Reserved. Full copyright details at www.centreforwelfarereform.org

Presentation by Dr Simon Duffy for Values Into Action Scotland and In Control Scotland on 4th November 2013 in Glasgow.