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No-one should be denied human rights – scrap the DoLS

No-one should be denied human rights – scrap the DoLS

The Law Commission is a statutory, independent body set up to reform the law. We want to ensure that the law is as fair, modern, simple and cost-effective as possible. Three years ago, the Department of Health came to us with a problem. A few months before, a Supreme Court decision called Cheshire West had had a massive impact on what is called the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). Sometimes people with conditions like dementia or learning disabilities need to be confined or made subject to restrictions in a place like a care home when it is in their best interests. For example, a person with dementia may be kept in their care home to prevent them from wandering off,…
Dr Neil Thompson
March 23, 2017
Wrexham’s prison opens – A life changing oppportunity?

Wrexham’s prison opens – A life changing oppportunity?

This is our full film on the opening of Wrexham’s Prison, HMP Berwyn, explaining how things are being done differently locally. With the prison opening, many have voiced a range of opinions over the balance of retribution, incapacitation, deterrence and rehabilitation. In forthcoming legislation (the Prisons and Courts bill) rehabilitation is for the first time enshrined in law: “…a key purpose of prison is to reform and rehabilitate offenders, as well as punish them for the crimes they have committed.” We asked a range of questions, from how Governor Russ Trent feels about being in charge of the biggest and newest prison in the UK, about using certain language such as rooms not cells, and even about security around New…
Dr Neil Thompson
March 23, 2017
Neil Thompson’s Lesson for Living – Be clear about what you value

Neil Thompson’s Lesson for Living – Be clear about what you value

People who suffer from depression often feel as though nothing matters any more. It is as if life has become so difficult or painful that they just want to be cut off from it. And yet, ironically, it is generally because something we value – something that is really important to us – has been offended, undermined or even destroyed that people become depressed. This raises important issues about what we value, about what really matters to us. Values are often seen as abstract, and therefore disconnected from real life to a certain extent. However, seeing values that way is a big mistake, a very big mistake ... Click here to read more
Dr Neil Thompson
March 9, 2017
Social Work in 42 Objects (and more)

Social Work in 42 Objects (and more)

Can the story of social work be told through Objects? Might a collection of objects be more illuminating than a formal text book or a dry definition?  In this engaging, photographic book, Mark Doel curates a collection of 127 objects contributed by people from around the globe to evoke a sense of social work - past, present and future. Written as a Guide to an Exhibition of Social Work, this is the ideal book to introduce social work to newcomers, and to entertain those with long experience of the profession. The objects are presented by a diverse group of people with different perspectives on social work, but with a common imagination. The objects in this book are a gift to social…
Dr Neil Thompson
March 9, 2017
NHS tasks are creeping into social care without funding or legal clarity

NHS tasks are creeping into social care without funding or legal clarity

Discussions around what constitutes NHS healthcare and what constitutes social care can be traced back to the original post-war legislation that separated responsibilities for health (the NHS Act 1946) and (the National Assistance Act 1948). This statutory separation has been maintained ever since and in many ways it is artificial and not helpful to the person in need of care. Integration is regarded as the way forward. However, as we rush to align, co-locate or integrate, local authorities need to consider the issue of administration of medication by social care staff in the context of local authority-commissioned care for people in their own homes... Click here to read more
Dr Neil Thompson
March 9, 2017
Inequality Is Not Inevitable: Our New Guide for Activists

Inequality Is Not Inevitable: Our New Guide for Activists

The Equality Trust: "We are proud to launch our new activist pack: Inequality Is Not Inevitable. This guide aims to help inequality activists target key decision-makers, and those who influence them, so that action is taken to reduce inequality. In addition to our compelling and growing evidence base in favour of more equal societies, we have always believed in the necessity of a large social movement demanding a fairer, better UK. This guide aims to help people join that movement and to then take concrete action to tackle inequality. Please do read and share the guide with all the people and organisations that you know and work with!" Click here to read more
Dr Neil Thompson
March 9, 2017
Care homes can be lonely and cruel places. But they can also be inspiring too

Care homes can be lonely and cruel places. But they can also be inspiring too

My old man said follow the van, and don’t dilly-dally on the way.” We are seated in a circle, singing. The woman next to me is lusty, her voice clear and her hands tapping out the rhythm; the man opposite in his wheelchair looks slightly dazed but he mouths the words. People who might not be able to speak can often find language when it is set to music. Memory floods back. I am at a residential care home in Carterton, near Witney, Oxfordshire, run by the charity MHA, where two-thirds of the 68 people who live here have dementia. “I dillied, I dallied, I dallied and I dillied,” we sing, smiling, nodding, all joining in except the woman in…
Dr Neil Thompson
March 9, 2017
Neil Thompson’s Lesson for Living – Celebrate getting older

Neil Thompson’s Lesson for Living – Celebrate getting older

We live in a society that seems to value youth (although not necessarily young people!). A fortune is spent on various ways of trying to make us look and feel younger. Whether or not that is money well spent is questionable, of course. Is it mainly another way of consumer capitalism getting us to spend our money? Well, it certainly fits with the idea that, if you want to make a lot of money, sell people things that they have to keep coming back for more of. Trying to hold back ageing is like Canute trying to hold back the tide. Wouldn’t it make far more sense to just accept that every day we create a new yesterday and therefore…
Dr Neil Thompson
February 23, 2017