‘I do like the subtle touch’: interactions between people with learning difficulties and their personal assistants

Disabled people have often been denied choice and control in their lives. Although direct payments promise to deliver autonomy for disabled people, much depends on the way direct payments employers and personal assistants handle their interactions. These matters are particularly important for people with learning difficulties, who have routinely been restricted and controlled by their support staff. This paper presents an analysis, based on video material, of interactions between people with learning difficulties and personal assistants. The paper examines how difficult tasks, such as giving advice, can be accomplished in ways that people with learning difficulties find acceptable. Successful interactions are built on sensitivity to the wishes of the person, on a moment by moment basis. It is important that both parties coordinate their body language, humour and timing to demonstrate a close and friendly relationship, which is both professional and on the terms of the direct payments employer.     

Disabled people,choices and collective organisation: examining the potential of cooperatives in future social support

Major shifts in funding, demography, personal expectations and the rise of a global disabled people’s movement require new and creative solutions to the choices and rights agenda into the twenty-first century. Direct payments and the individual employment of personal assistants is one clear and recognised path to independent living. However, there have been some reservations about the nature, process and impact of the broader personalisation agenda more generally within which direct payments and personal budgets are located. Some commentators point to the loss of the collective impulse in personalised approaches – ideas that were central to the development of the independent living movement and its founding principles. Some countries have seen the rise of collective responses to direct payment developments. This is explicable in terms of a suspicion of individualist underpinnings of personalisation coupled with a collective vision of social life. This article is based on an exploratory study of collective approaches in the field of direct payments where choice and social solidarity are being combined. Drawing on developments in Sweden, England and Wales, the article aims to inform possible future debates about direct payments and cooperative approaches and argues that greater user-control is not inimical to enhanced collective action.     

Personalisation as vision and toolkit. A case study

With the objective to eradicate disability related discrimination and promote choice, control, independence and inclusion for all individuals, the personalisation agenda paved the way for a transformation of social care and disability services in the UK. This paper explores personalisation both as a vision of care and support services and as a toolkit promoted by government policies in order to allow for such vision to translate into practice – the use of direct payments and personal budgets being an example. A qualitative case study analysis has been conducted in the context of care services for disabled young people and by means of in-depth interviews with professionals, parents and the young people themselves. Such analysis reconstructs the implementation of personalisation showing how the toolkit offered by government policies has been used and interpreted differently by the different actors in the field and how this has brought to a wide range of opportunities but also risks. What seems to emerge from the study is that the vision of personalisation risks being hampered by its toolkit and that alternatives might be needed in order to safeguard the potential of personalisation as a vision.     

Personal assistance—direct payments or alternative public service. Does it matter for the promotion of user control?

Personal assistance organised as direct payments is seen as an important means for securing user control and freeing disabled people from their reliance on welfare professionals and unpaid carers. The hypothesis put forward in the article is that just looking at whether personal assistance is organised as direct payments or as an alternative service represents an overly restricted approach to judge how the user’s preferences are taken care of. By comparing models of personal assistance in the US, the UK, Sweden and Norway it will show that several other factors influence user control. In the final part of the article the question is raised as to whether paternalism is always negative for welfare service users. Since the users constitute a broad group it might be questioned if the assumption of the service users as rational, well informed and competent to make the best choices is always valid.     

Barriers to employment: voices of physically disabled rural women in Thailand

Employment is an essential activity that can generate income for people with disabilities, but very little is known about the interplay between disabled women, family and paid jobs. This article, therefore, sets forth a qualitative method for examining barriers that affect the employment opportunities of physically disabled women. Findings drawn from face-to-face interviews with 20 physically disabled women who live in rural poverty in Thailand clearly indicate that physical barriers from built environment, personal limitations; attitudinal barriers from the non-disabled community, especially employers; and over-protection from families limit their employment opportunities. Despite showing their interests in the labour market, these women are still left behind and trapped in rural poverty. The author argues that this situation is due to the non-disabled community ignoring the potential of these women. The author also recommends that the government of Thailand, NGOs and disability organisations should introduce strong tailored interventions and a multifaceted approach to address the medical, social and legal aspects of restricted participation in the labour market in order to improve the employment prospects of women with physical disabilities.     

Personal Assistance for Students with Disabilities in HE: the experience of the University of East London

Access to higher education for students with disabilities has been improved through recent initiatives taken by the University Funding Councils but inclusion for students who require personal support remains problematic. This paper explores the experience of students using personal assistants at the University of East London. The issues explored were selected from questionnaire and interview feedback provided by students using the University service since 1993, and were used as the basis of in-depth interviews with six students who use personal assistants, by the University Co-ordinator of Services for Students with Disabilities. The personal assistants were asked to respond to the same questions but in a written, questionnaire format. Issues explored include: funding; the employer-employee role and employment matters; power and authority relationships; personal, family and professional relationships with assistants, other students, tutors, and staff, and access to non-academic activities and the management of assistants.     

简论高职院校就业教育的内涵和作用

高职院校就业教育是为了帮助学生根据社会职业需要和自身情况,选择有利于发挥个人能力并且实现个人理想的职业。它帮助高职院校的毕业生根据国家出台的就业政策的导向,找到合适的用人单位,并且为就业后学生的发展以及创立事业提供指导和帮助,使高职毕业生能够最大限度地实现自己的价值。它的内涵体现在其特点上,同时具有明确的职业指向性,无论是对社会、学校还是高职院校的毕业生,都具有重大的理论和实际意义。     

Sheltered and Supported Employment in the 1990s: the experiences of disabled workers in the UK

Sheltered and supported employment are important areas of social policy provision for disabled people in the UK, but they have received little attention in the sociological literature on disability. This omission is addressed by developing a framework for understanding the state's employment policy for disabled people. It is argued that recent changes in sheltered and supported employment provision must be understood in the context of broader labour market restructuring. This argument is illustrated by an exploratory survey of workers in both programmes. The findings suggest that sheltered and supported employment tend to prioritise the needs of employers over those of disabled workers. In concluding, it is argued that an adequate approach to the employment needs of disabled people needs to go beyond micro-policy debates on the relative merits of existing employment programmes and, instead, engage at a broader level of societal change.     

Independent living and community care: a disempowering framework

The British disability movement has had significant achievements in its struggle for independent living. However, the current community care framework contains many barriers to independent living. This article sets out a conceptual framework for an understanding of independent living and provides an analysis of the barriers posed by the social care system. These range from financial incentives for placing disabled people in residential care, to a failure to address needs relating to employment, parenting and leisure. Disabling attitudes held by social services professionals about 'risk' and 'capacity' are also major barriers. It is clear that, unless the legislative framework is amended to include an entitlement to independent living, disabled people will continue to be denied their full human and civil rights.     

Old Dreams,New Means: an Exploration of Visions and Situated Knowledge in Information Technology

The aim of this article is to explore the tensions and ambivalences of new and old technology and political visions of keeping viable, quality care and services for elderly citizens through the use of new information technologies. The visions of politicians and social service managers of keeping alive the welfare state and retaining its ability to offer quality care and services for elderly citizens are compared with the experiences of female care assistants and their expectations of technology. A feminist figure — the cyborg — will be used in this exploration. We consider how care assistants are integrated in networks of socio‐technical relations between humans and non‐humans, and the extent to which gender or asymmetrical power relations between women and men intervene in their stories.     

Post-Qualifying Education for Social Workers: A Continuing Problem or a New Opportunity?

Between 1990 and 2012 there was a national system for regulating post-qualifying social work education in England. Since then social work has been expected to take a more flexible approach to continuing professional development (CPD) which recognises the contribution played by work-based and self-directed learning alongside higher education awards. While universities can continue to offer post-qualifying courses, it is envisaged that they will work more closely with employers in deciding what should be taught and how. This article is based on a scoping review of post-qualifying social work education in England which highlights the paucity of knowledge about the topic. Although achieving a post-qualifying award is associated with improved knowledge and confidence, little is known about the long-term effects on individuals, organisations and service users. There appears to be a complete absence of evidence on cost effectiveness. As yet, we know very little about the extent of self-directed CPD among social workers and current funding constraints are likely to limit the resources that organisations invest in CPD for their workforce. In a rapidly changing context, the article seeks to provide a baseline from which an agenda for future research into CPD among social workers can be shaped.     

On the Job: White Employers,Workers of Color,and Racial Triangulation Theory

This article offers that Claire Jean Kim's theory of racial triangulation provides an ideal framework to study workers of color, the racialization of their labor and the ways in which actual and potential employers neglect and discriminate against these workers. Specifically, the piece determines that racial triangulation theory bolsters analysis of race‐based power that employers exert in the construction and maintenance of racial inequality in regard to management of labor and employment possibilities for workers of color. A triangulated approach allows for a sharp focus on employer engineered labor market inequality as they oversee, hire, and refuse to be racially inclusive in hiring practices. Most significantly, racial triangulation theory addresses the forces of racial inequity within the meso‐level of U.S. social structure when applied to study of organizational dynamics such as workplaces. I open the article by assaying historical and contemporary studies on workers of color to illustrate white employer domination and the ways in which workers of color are referenced to each other as inferior and superior workers. Subsequently, the article looks to fresh analytical directions in which sociologists can evaluate racism as a triangulated, multidimensional social force in the workplace and other social contexts.     

Retiree medical plan design: determining the philosophy, communicating the need

Much has been written, both in benefit-related journals and in the general press, about the recent statement, FAS 106, issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). This statement requires most employers to begin accounting for retiree health care benefit costs for active employees as well as current retirees, creating a significant negative financial impact. Most of the attention has been focused on getting the numbers that will tell the extent of the impact resulting from FAS 106. The next step has been to review retiree medical coverage to see how the affected companies can change it to reduce their liability. Although the urge is strong to adopt a quick-fix solution, employers can greatly benefit by reviewing their benefit philosophies and making plan decisions that make sense for them. This article discusses key questions that can help focus the issue on company philosophies and lays out a framework for determining suitable plan designs that can also help companies manage the retiree medical liability.     

Disability rights in practice: the relationship between human rights and social rights in contemporary social care

Using the contemporary arena of social care as an example, this article challenges the either/or dichotomy set up by some disability writers and activists between the favoured civil and human rights on the one hand and discredited social rights on the other. Rather, the article concludes, claims to these differing types of right are mutually reinforcing and can be mobilised strategically in disabled people's struggles for greater social justice. In particular, there is the potential for expanding disabled people's social rights to both direct services and direct payments by enforcing the positive obligations on public authorities conferred by human rights legislation and challenging rationing regimes.     

Battles through and about statistics in French pay equity bargaining: The politics of quantification at workplace level

This article proposes to study the discreet ‘battles of numbers’ at workplace level, particularly exacerbated on pay equity, in relation to its potential additional costs for employers. Figures are at once a framework, an object and a resource for power struggles between social partners. This approach is inspired by ‘statactivism’, a research perspective that studies the ways and contexts in which statistics can become tools for social mobilization. In a European context where bargaining is increasingly decentralized to company level, we argue that researchers should pay attention to statistical resources and quantification skills of negotiators, both on the management and unions side. They should also include in their analytical framework the influence of experts and specialists who advise social partners on how to strategically produce and use gender‐sensitive statistics. In this article, two case studies allow us to open the ‘black box’ of equality bargaining, revealing challenges and controversies of gender pay reporting.     

Education and training for direct care workers

Approximately 80% of social care workers have no formal qualifications or training and efforts to encourage the take up of training for qualifications have only had limited success. This paper reports on the training needs and attitudes towards training of residential workers and home care workers who took part in a major study of statutory social services employees by the National Institute for Social Work (NISW). The paper describes a diverse workforce with a high level of interest in training to improve skills and the quality of the service, although not all workers were interested in obtaining qualifications. Factors associated with taking part in training are examined including gender, age, occupation, personal circumstances, information and access to training, and learning needs and preferred ways of learning. Government initiatives to improve levels of training and qualification, including a new regulatory framework for social care workers, make this an opportune time for employers in the statutory and independent sectors to encourage workers to develop their skills by creating a positive learning culture. The paper concludes that to do this training strategies will have to address the diverse training needs of the workers.     

Goodbye DIPSW: trends in student satisfaction and employment outcomes. some implications for the new social work award

During the last decade, the University of East London conducted a series of surveys of newly qualified social workers in the UK for CCETSW and the Department of Health. Headed by Dr Karen Lyons and Mary Wallis Jones, the research was carried out in the years 1993–97, 2000 and 2002. The purpose of the surveys was to identify whether qualifying social workers were meeting the needs of employers and whether social work education was meeting the needs of students. This article gives an overview of the results of the surveys which have much to tell us about satisfaction rates of new social workers, gaps in social work education, the relevance of their completed diplomas and their prospective employment options upon completion, over the last decade. This research therefore has much to teach us regarding the policy development of the forthcoming three‐year degree.     

Working with Deaf People

Whilst 17% of the population experience some degree of hearing loss, sociology has largely neglected the study of services to this group. This article attempts to move the debate from a sociology of the deaf community to a sociology of deafness that includes an examination of how professionals define the needs of hearing impaired people. Despite differences between different constructions, deafness workers offer a combination of social work, information, and interpreting services. Practice rules have been developed by deafness workers to control workloads, and to work in their preferred way. This article is based on a multi-layered approach with a contextual analysis, a survey of 123 deafness workers, 32 semi-structured interviews, and my own personal experience of deafness work.     

Privacy,technology, and conflict: Emerging issues and action in workplace privacy

IV. Conclusion Growing employee awareness of the degree to which their personal privacy is compromised in the workplace, particularly with regards to information/telecommunicatton-system use and work monitoring, has created an organizational and political climate that may yield significant restrictions on employee monitoring and on how employers maintain and distribute employees’ personal information. While both federal and state governments have generally deferred to the right of the employer-as-owner to set conditions of employment that may include intrusions into employee privacy (Grodin, 1991), a number of statutory restrictions have been promulgated or proposed that will significantly expand employee privacy rights in the workplace. Additionally, it is probable that unions will aggressively assert employee privacy rights within the context of collective bargaining, potentially using employee dissatisfaction with privacy intrusions as a basis for organizing nonunion firms.     

Social security reform ideas in Japan

Japan has a complex social security system. This article discusses the demographic and economic situation in Japan as background for understanding the setting in which the social security system functions. Japan has a three-pillar system for retirement income. The first pillar is the social security pension plan; the second pillar is the voluntary occupational pension plan; and the third pillar is personal savings, including the personal pension plan. The most important part of the retirement income system is the social security pension plan, which paid benefits accounting for 64% of the total income of elderly households in 1998. The five Employees' Pension Plans are established on a compulsory social insurance basis. Most large Japanese employers have a mandatory retirement age. Over 90% of all employees, including public sector ones, must retire from their career jobs at age 60.