Lothian Centre for Inclusive Living

Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson made peer in House of Lords - Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, the winner of 11 Paralympic gold medals as a wheelchair racer, has been made a cross-bench peer in the House of Lords.

Source: The Telegraph

Fears remain on future of Attendance Allowance - The Government has once again indicated that Attendance Allowance may be rolled up into a national social care service, contributing to fears that the allowance may disappear.

Source: Disability Now

Alive to the dangers of legislation -  by Jim Elder-Woodward - The author Terry Pratchett last night called for “euthanasia tribunals” to enable people with life-limiting illnesses to get help to end their own lives.  His call comes after Margo MacDonald’s “End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill” was launched at the Scottish Government. Both may be welcomed by some as an attempt to clarify the issue around assisted suicide. But for many in the disabled people’s independent living movement, including those in the “Not Yet Dead” campaign, such proposed legislation smacks of discrimination.

Source:  The Herald

Direct payment surge made new contracts unviable, says council's chief executive - Edinburgh Council is set to halt a controversial retendering process for support services for disabled people after it was criticised in an independent report. The council angered disabled people in the city when it suspended awarding direct payments while it retendered for the contracts last year.

Source:  Community Care

Care fiasco 'must never be repeated' - Controversial plans to re-tender the care of nearly 800 of the Capital's most vulnerable residents have been abandoned amid fears that the wasted exercise has cost the taxpayer more than £250,000.

Source:  The Evening News

Care and Support Services: Overview Report - A special meeting of the Finance and Resources Committee of the City of Edinburgh Council is due to meet on Thursday 4th February.  The council has published a new report presenting the findings of the review of the Care and Support Services tendering process and proposals for the way forward.       

Source:  The City of Edinburgh Council

Council Convener should resign - The fight for a fair Direct Payment rate goes on - Edinburgh Care And Support Tender Dropped  - Today Edinburgh council dropped its plans to tender Care and Support services for almost 800 vulnerable people. A 'confidential” report by legal firm, Deloitte found that 'the execution in practice [of the tender award process] was not as sufficiently meticulous or as thorough as might have been expected.'

Source:  Learning Disability Alliance Scotland (LDAS).

Most MSPs oppose end-of-life bill - Most MSPs are opposed to plans to allow terminally ill people to seek help to die at a time of their choosing, a BBC Scotland survey has suggested. A survey of two-thirds of MSPs showed 17 supported the bill, 53 said they were against and 20 were undecided.

Source:  BBC Scotland

Mother 'not clever enough to raise child' has baby snatched by social workers after running away to Ireland to give birth  - A couple who fled to Ireland after social workers threatened to remove their baby at birth have had the newborn snatched after all. Kerry Robertson, 17, who has mild learning difficulties, and Mark McDougall, 25, went on the run after British social services said she was not clever enough to raise a child. 

Source:  The Daily Mail

Disabled Cartoonist Crippen looks at the reality of life in a residential home - Disabled activists, who campaign to raise awareness of those disabled people who are currently incarcerated in one of the many homes run and controlled by the big disability charities, are often asked, but surely in this day and age no one is kept in these places against their will?

Source:  Disability Arts Online

Dominic Lawson: Who are we to decide that a dependent life is a pointless life?

Other people's sympathies are with Frances Inglis. Mine are with her son. Three years ago this month, my wife's nephew sustained a dreadful brain injury by the banal process of falling downstairs. He was living with us at the time, on a trip from his adoptive country of Australia; so for the short period before his mother and father could make the long journey to be with him, we acted in loco parentis. We were told that the prognosis was grim.

Source: The Independent