Rachael Dodgson responds to the King’s opening speech

Dimensions welcomes plans in the King’s Speech to establish a Fair Pay Agreement in the adult social care sector within an Employment Rights Bill. Support workers are skilled professionals, and they require the pay and conditions to match. We are calling for support worker pay to be funded and aligned to NHS Band 3 as a minimum, a benchmark which reflects the skills and responsibilities of the role. This would help to ease recruitment and retention issues which beset the sector.

After years of campaigning, we welcome reform of the Mental Health Act to limit the extent to which people with a learning disability and/or autistic people can be detained and treated under it. The emphasis on “individuals to live fulfilling lives in their community” is positive. For many people with learning disabilities and autistic people, community-based provision is difficult to access. For this reason, many people become distressed and reach crisis point. Proposed changes to legislation would require commissioners to “have a duty to improve understanding of the risk of crisis amongst people with a learning disability and/or autistic people in their local area and to ensure an adequate supply of community services to prevent inappropriate admissions and detentions.”