ASL and members lobby MPs for greater community based support

“Lifeways fully supports the response of the ASL following the Panorama programme 'Undercover Care: The Abuse Exposed', which showed disturbing scenes of people with learning disabilities and autism being abused in a secure hospital - a place where they should have expected to feel safe.

Lifeways will not tolerate abuse in any form and we sincerely hope that the people affected by this terrible case are now safe and are being supported by people who will work to help them survive the trauma they have experienced”.

Paul Marriner, CEO, Lifeways Group

As an active member of the Association of Supported Living (ASL), Lifeways fully supports the ASL in their efforts to strengthen the case to MPs for greater community based support for people with learning disabilities and challenging behaviour.

Within a very short timescale, the ASL has already provided MPs with four case studies detailing the cost reductions involved.

Lifeways believes that the ASL is playing an important, unique and very practical role in articulating to MPs what good support can look like, based on real-life evidence, drawing on the skills and experience of its members including Lifeways.

As Kim Foo, Chief Executive of Heritage Care and Chair of the ASL comments: “We want to establish an interest in alternatives to institutional ‘care’ prior to the parliamentary recess”.

Foo continues, “Our intention is to remain in the forefront of the debate”.

As a result of an excellent response from members such as Lifeways, the ASL has been able to develop a library of 20+ case studies of really effective community based support for people with challenging behaviour. Invariably, the cost of this support is cheaper than its institutional alternative.

And the ASL’s efforts don’t stop there. This autumn, they will present MPs with a longer and more detailed study which will involve a much larger number of case studies and examine in more detail what makes community based support more effective than its institutional counterpart.

click here for more details or to contact Lifeways Community Care (Doncaster)