This report from the Learning Disability Task Force reviews progress of the ‘Valuing People’ initiative and looks at how the ‘person centred’ approach to supporting people with disabilities is being developed. It warns that the journey towards full citizenship is not complete and barriers continue to exist. There are 800,000 adults with learning disabilities in England, 2.2% of the adult population, and expenditure on services accounts for around £1.6bn, 3.4% of NHS expenditure and £2.25bn, 14.8%, of Local Authority Social Services expenditure. There is also major public expenditure in housing, education, employment services and through a range of specialist funding streams and yet the needs of people with learning disabilities are repeatedly given insufficient priority by statutory organisations.The report seeks to improve knowledge about the numbers and needs of people, uses of current financial expenditure, and the need for increased and more transparent expenditure in the future. It emphasises the need for unity of thinking around strategic intent, funding allocations and performance review.
Local councils are committed to making efficiency gains totalling 1.28 bn in the current financial year. This is higher than the government target of £1.03 bn. The figures are derived from an analysis of the Forward Look Annual Efficiency Statements. The savings are part of the response to the government’s overall drive to make significant efficiency and effectiveness gains recommended by Sir Peter Gershon last year. Over half of the efficiencies will come from individual service departments such as Social Services, and the remainder from activities either supporting or cutting across several direct services to the public.Sir Jeremy Beecham chair of the Efficiency Task Group in the Local Government Association said: “These figures do not reflect a sudden reaction on the part of councils to a Gershon agenda. Year after year local authorities have protected services and kept council tax down by both budgeting for, and delivering, increased efficiency. But one of the advantages of the national focus on this is that the central collection of these figures gives us the evidence we need to show our long-held commitment to cost effectiveness.
A group of heads and leading teachers who are experts in school discipline have held their first meeting to find ways to press home the drive to tackle pupil behaviour. The Expert Group is chaired by Sir Alan Steer of the Seven Kings High School, Ilford. Its task is to advise the Government on how effective school discipline reaches every classroom, how to improve parental responsibility for their children’s behaviour and deliver a culture of respect in all schools.The Group will draw on the approaches currently used by successful schools, including ways to build up effective collaboration between schools. They will consider whether teachers need further support through initial training or professional development in managing behaviour and whether a national code on behaviour setting out the responsibilities of schools, pupils and parents in promoting good behaviour would be helpful. They will also look at the scope for policy developments and new powers for head teachers which would help in enforcing school discipline. They will focus on practical proposals in those areas which are likely to have the most significant impact on behaviour in schools.