Black Triangle Anti-Defamation Campaign in Defence of Disability Rights
I’m fucking livid!
A few people have asked the very valid question of when we are facing a pandemic why should the state provide anything more than essential needs. However, what is widely understood as essential social care does not match up with the legal definition. So here is a bit more information:
The Coronovirus Bill which is to be debated on Monday 24 March, suspends every duty in the Care Act, 2014, including the duty to meet the eligible needs of disabled people and their carers.
Under the CoronaVirus Bill, Local Authorities will only have to provide care ‘if they consider it necessary’ for the purposes of avoiding a breach of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR).
There is no human right to social care or positive obligation under the ECHR to meet care needs.
The Bill will effectively free local authorities of their duties to provide social care support under the Care Act 2014 and will only oblige local authorities to provide support in cases where the human rights of Disabled people will be breached.
For human rights to be breached in a social care context the situation has to be very critical or severe. For example, in 2014, the European court found that forcing an otherwise content woman to wear nappies and soil herself rather than provide carers so she could access her bathroom in a dignified manner, was not a breach of the European Convention of Human Rights [a]
The government’s plans for Disabled children and adults during the crisis come after years of chronic underfunding of social care which have resulted in a social care system already at breaking point. The government’s plans are to:
1. remove Disabled people’s rights to social care
2. change the duties to educate to meet children’s educational requirements to a ‘reasonable endeavours’ duty
3. change the Mental Health Act so people that are detained have fewer rights
4. severely undermine the civil liberties of Disabled people and erode their rights to support
This is an unprecedented and extremely challenging situation, but given the already broken social care system this Bill will almost inevitably leave many thousands of Disabled people without essential support or any rights to request this support.
“Rolling back our rights is not good for anyone and in the current circumstances will put many lives at risk. Rather than removing Disabled people’s right to social care the government must treat our essential social care service as key infrastructure, alongside the NHS, and as such it must immediately provide the necessary funding to keep this vital service running.”
Sources of information
[A] www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi…
See assessment from leading lawyers specialising in Social Care here: www.39essex.com/the-coronavirus-bill-schedule-11/
Watch @stevebroach, Public Law Barrister talk about the impact of the Bill here: www.specialneedsjungle.com/steve-broach-public-law…/
Full article here: www.inclusionlondon.org.uk/…/coronavirus-bill-cou…/…
Read this Twitter thread for more information: twitter.com/JamieBurton29/status/1240781535340568577
Statement from National User Survivor Network: www.nsun.org.uk/News/covid-19-and-human-rights 