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Adults with Learning Disabilities

It is a year to the day since we published the report. It takes quite a while for these debates to work their way through the system, but that does not mean that this one is any less important. Human rights matter most to vulnerable people, and adults with learning disabilities are among the most vulnerable people in the UK. We began our inquiry two years ago, in the light of shocking revelations about the treatment of adults with learning disabilities, including years of abusive practices in Cornwall, neglect and institutional abuse in Sutton and Merton, and six deaths in NHS care, described by Mencap in its report "Death by indifference". Those tragic events suggested that the human rights of adults with learning disabilities are not well respected in the UK. Indeed, 10 years after the introduction of the Human Rights Act 1998, we still found it necessary to underline in our report the fact that adults with learning disabilities have exactly the same human rights as everyone else. Throughout our inquiry, I had mixed feelings of admiration, sadness and anger. I had admiration for the huge number of family carers, battling against the odds; admiration for the dedication of professional carers, such as the one we met at the Home Farm Trust, who helped to take someone with extremely profound learning difficulties on holiday to Spain; and admiration for the many people with learning difficulties achieving so much for themselves when given the chance to do so, despite consistently unfair low expectations. I was saddened by the story of the Lewisham college teenager who could not go out with her friends, because there was no one to take her and she was not allowed out alone, and by the story of the other student I met there, who had experienced the death of no fewer than five of his school friends during his school life. I felt anger at the many tales of avoidable discrimination, blatant hostility and neglect. We on the Committee learned a great deal ourselves—probably more than in any other inquiry in which I have been involved. We learned how people with learning disabilities have been dehumanised through stereotyping for centuries, suffering discrimination and ill treatment and seeing a lack of respect for their rights as part of everyday life. We learned how low expectations mean that people with learning disabilities are unlikely to have a job, are more likely to live in poverty, will not have normal social relationships and will continually suffer a lack of privacy and dignity. We were told, "No one is up in arms about how little choice we have over our everyday lives." We all need to recognise that people with learning disabilities have the same rights as everyone else and are entitled to equal treatment. Under my chairmanship, the Joint Committee on Human Rights has emphasised how the Human Rights Act can improve the lives of everyone in the UK. Too often, the Act has been derided as a charter for criminals, with nothing to offer ordinary people, or it is regarded by public bodies as another regulatory provision with which to comply, ending in a legal department tick-box exercise. We argue that the Human Rights Act has the power to transform the provision of public services for the benefit of all. By focusing first and foremost on the rights of service users, public services can be tailored to meet the needs of users, rather than those of providers. I shall give examples later of how the Human Rights Act could help the delivery of services to adults with learning disabilities.