Got a copy of The Government's response to the Eleventh Report on Public Services (don't these things drag on until long after any public interest in them has gone?).
Have skipped though it. Actually, from what I clocked there is some level of savvy coming back from the Government. For example, on a couple of occasions, they have been quite honest and said there are service users who are wary of authority, in regards to valid scepticsim and mistrust.
They have also responded to concerns around accountability within the Third Sector. They quoted the 40% of organisations who have no clearly identifiable complaints procedure and believe that service users should have the right to complain and that Comissioners should be on the case when looking at what complaints procedures a Third Sector organisation has in place before funding is allocated out. It was also made clear that service users can go to an Ombudsman should they believe their complaints have not be dealt with effectively. However, it was not made clear who/what that Ombudsman is.
The most important shift...in regards to the latest (possibly) rhetoric from the Government is that Third Sector organisations will not automatically get funding. That there is a responsiblity on these organisations to provide evidence that they are best placed to provide a service, better placed than existing public services (such as the NHS) before Commissioners make the choice to give them the funding.
For anyone who doesn't know...although alot of us with prior experience of service user involvement will have had some kind of contact or communications with them....A Commissioner is the middle man with the government funding (tax payers money). They are the ones who decide if the money goes to an existing government organisation..such as the NHS....or more so how much money goes to the NHS and so they will be the ones with the responsibility for deciding how much of that money will go to the Third Sector, in future. Well, that is the theory. That is the rhetoric!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
They have also responded to concerns around accountability within the Third Sector. They quoted the 40% of organisations who have no clearly identifiable complaints procedure and believe that service users should have the right to complain and that Comissioners should be on the case when looking at what complaints procedures a Third Sector organisation has in place before funding is allocated out. It was also made clear that service users can go to an Ombudsman should they believe their complaints have not be dealt with effectively. However, it was not made clear who/what that Ombudsman is.
ReplyDeleteArrrrrrrrgh! I can't believe I'm reading this. Why aren't there riots in the user meetings?
This is just worse than the appalling system we have now!
How can this be possible?
Manders,
ReplyDeleteHope your Saturday went ok
All mental health services should just be privatised , I think , as the public and voluntary sector, at least in MH , have simply colluded against the interests of service users and the general public and neither can be trusted to do their jobs properly as Government, national or local, just wants to create mechanisms that bury criticism and dissent for political reasons and most MH voluntary sector orgs just shamelessly flit between conflicting 'representative' and 'service provider' roles milking MH for all they can get without doing anything to address core problems service users face - like actually getting a service - or ever promoting real patient choice within their own services or anyone elses - unless of course its a restricted choice back to a service they provide.
No private healthcare business would ever dare pretend it represented its service users or customers in this way and no Government would ever let it.
FTW
ReplyDeleteI will tell you why there aren't riots in user meetings?
Because most users are getting paid for their time..as in they are being bought off!!!
I don't mind that people get paid for their time and input...but far too easily it means they don't rock any boats.
And those oh so kind people who do it out of the goodness of their hearts. Bless them...tend to get so wrapped up in getting their paperwork right that they often miss the plot completely.
then there are those people who really shouldn't be there at all...
On the PPI (Patient and Public Involvement) Forum I was on there was a PPI member who worked for the Job Centre. If that isn't shifty then I don't know what is!!!
Norm
ReplyDeleteI think I agree...in that businesses are, in general, much more customer focussed...because businesses are competing with each other and if the customer isn't happy they take their custom elsewhere.
However, do you really think that a privatised health care system would bother with loonies on benefits. Where is the profit in us?
If I had to pay for my healthcare, I would be on 1 lorazepam a week and would be lucky to afford to see my support worker once a month.
If however, the government were to provide people with individual budgets (and best not forget is the tax payer who is going to pay for that) then I might take my custom (and more importantly MH needs) elsewhere..if the elsewhere was relevant to my needs and not another money making venture for some wanna be entrepeneur.
Is a tough call but for sure if I could access decent private healthcare (whilst living on benefits) I would. I kinda think tax paying Jo Public would have something to say about that. Something like "NO WAY"
Manders,
ReplyDeleteGood points!
I admire people who volunteer to help others but in MH more often than not the well intentioned just get used, abused and shat upon by the professionals who ' employ ' them or, if their principles dont quite live up to their original intentions, sucked into being part of the problem as a means of getting better services and a greater sense of self worth for themselves. Like a certain service user rep who once advised me to join the PPI to get a better service.
do you really think that a privatised health care system would bother with loonies on benefits. Where is the profit in us?
ReplyDeleteThe profit is the hundreds of millions being spent by Government on MH Tzars, NIMHE, more managers, glossy leaflets, manipulating outcomes and everything else but providing an adequate and appropriate range and choice of quality mental health services in peoples localities.
Agree Norm..there is plenty of money being made out of us.
ReplyDeletePity, not much of it makes any difference to us.
Mandy,
ReplyDeleteI've been out for a brisk walk and am now off to the Green Man for my regular free Sunday lunch and I'm sorry but all this soul searching about the future of services goes way over my head.I'm happy to leave it to the experts as that is what they are paid to do.
With a bit of luck the bar spread will be the Christmas menu as the day centre party has been cancelled due to staffing issues. Selma sent us all a Christmas card with a little explanation and apology note enclosed that wished us all a Happy New Year. For some reason I got Maureen's card but I imagine that they were hastilly written and despatched to reach us in time. It's the thought that counts though I say.
Oh and my son David was forced to cancel his pre-Christmas visit too. He was going to pop down Friday and stay overnight. I waited up late with his present , a wee dram and a box of crackers but he didnt show . I must have fallen asleep as this morning I checked the answerphone and he'd phoned at half past midnight to say the conference had gone on much longer than he imagined . He sounded very tired but not to worry , this time the present I've got him will keep to the New Year.
Hope all's well you you
Wallace.
wallace
ReplyDeleteYOU ARE THE BIGGEST JOKER!!
1 am absolutely certain that there is no pub in the land that provides free sunday lunches. they are all going bust and closing down around here.
I think with your strange sense of humour you are trying to tell us that that is what MIND should be doing as you have made it clear that your local MIND treats you like shit.
You also know that the so-called experts know bugger all about how to treat us beyond giving us pills which may be helpful to some but for many don't work at all or have unbearable unpleasant side-effects.
MANDY
you are so right about the sham and disgrace that 'user-involvement' is.
hugs and lots of love.
keep on hanging on in there despite all that you face in the way of problems.
margaret j
Wallace
ReplyDeleteI have sussed you are Father Christmas.
Saves me writing you a letter. I want a little black dress (Gucci) with matching handbag and heels.
Oh! and a massive box of Furious Rockets (those posh chocs the amassador always has at his parties).
:>)
Hi Margaret
ReplyDeleteAm alive here. There is a post festering in me in regards to grieving whilst someone is still alive.
Some people have the misfortune to have to go through that once in their life but I am clocking that I am going through that again.
Don't think I have much choice really. In fact, my vote doesn't count for fekk all.
Am still alive. Still got some marbles in the same bag. Hoping that will change with Wallace's crimbo present. As in I will have a choice of which bag to keep them in.
x
Mandy
ReplyDeleteThink I had one too many Old Peculiars at lunchtime as the new bartender Sidney refused to serve me another and called me a taxi after my Kareoke stint not realising I only lived a few doors again. I'll go back tomorrow and pick up my trousers.
And Margaret, you youngsters need to spread your wings a bit , the Teddy Boy rave clubs you probably frequent may not lay on free food but the Sunday Pub Lunch is a time honoured tradition in this neck of the woods and I wont hear a word said against Mind. They are passionate about improving services for people with MH issues and spend millions of pounds annually on fund raising activities and promoting themselves on our behalf. I like that new chappie who runs Mind too. He's very business-like and very obviously committed to empowering members of his organisation.
On the MH front, I e-mailed my care worker again earlier as she didnt get back to me as promised on Friday. I'm sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation why but I am a bit concerned as she said she had sorted my housing benefit problems out in August but last Thursday I received yet another letter from Lewes County Court informing me that a date had been set for the eviction hearing. I'm sure it will all get sorted out but not before Christmas now as my care workers auto response message says she's on annual leave from tomorrow to 23rd January.
I wonder if its hot in Lagos at this time of year?
Anyway , I am going to go and have a little lie down.
Sorry you are feeling a bit under the weather.
Wallace
Wallace
ReplyDeleteMore like, you won't hear a word from MIND.
Better get to the Metropolis pronto, I want my goodies by 25 December.