They are the experts on what is best for them and how they want to be included in society and they should be closely consulted about any kind of systemic changes. So unless the commissioner is learning disabled, I would suggest scrapping the idea completely. In all aspects of life, people with learning disabilities should be making choices, sharing knowledge and participating at every level to ensure that they have control over their own destiny. By working harder to listen to the experiences of the learning disabled, a better understanding for health promotion and disability may emerge. For example, people with learning disabilities experience health inequalities and have worse health, on average, because of difficulties using the health service. If a commissioner was to be appointed, it makes sense that someone with learning disabilities should take that role. This indicates that people with learning disabilities are not the problem but the solution. They are able – when things are made accessible – to fully participate in the decision-making that affects their lives. They are people who are fully engaged with their own lives, who understand how to make choices and have expertise in politics. My own research suggests that people with learning disabilities are not helpless individuals. Instead, they need to be in full control of what happens to them. People with learning disabilities do not need a government appointed commissioner. While Bubb’s report aims to highlight the challenges people with learning disabilities face, they themselves do not appear to be at the heart of the decision-making that is likely to take place on their behalf. Despite the Care Quality Commission receiving a series of warnings about mistreatment at Winterbourne, the complaints received were never followed up. The scandal there was first exposed in 2011 by an undercover reporter who revealed the psychological and physical abuse people with learning disabilities were facing. The report followed a string of scandals that emerged from Winterbourne View, a publicly-funded private hospital in Gloucestershire. Bubb authored the 2014 NHS England report – Winterbourne View: Time for Change – which explored the shortcomings in care and support for people with learning disabilities in the UK. The calls are being led by Stephen Bubb, who believes a commissioner could be charged with monitoring, and holding to account, all services which look after people with learning disabilities. Instead of being left out of the process, people with learning disabilities should be at the heart of the solution. But unless the government plans to give this job to a person who is actually learning disabled, then I believe this would be another dead end. Now there is talk of installing a commissioner to “uphold the rights” of people with learning disabilities. Shaw, 34, was diagnosed with terminal cancer last year after spending nine years in secure hospitals where his condition wasn’t spotted. Calls to appoint a commissioner to look after the interests of people with learning disabilities have been growing louder since the shocking story of Ian Shaw became national news.
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