Our Manifesto
Mencap’s goal is to make the UK the best place in the world for people with a learning disability to lead happy and healthy lives.
The next UK government must put people with a learning disability at the heart of their legislative programme. The inequalities are recognised, the barriers and problems have been identified, and many of the solutions are known. The next UK government must work with people with a learning disability, their supporters, and
organisations
Organisations are groups like companies and businesses.
, to deliver change.
What is a Manifesto?
A manifesto is when you list a set of ideas and aims. A manifesto is usually made before an
election
An election is when people choose who should be in charge of something. This could be in charge of a group, an area, or the country. People choose by voting. The person with the most votes wins.
by a political party or candidate, but organisations make them too to set out their hopes for the next government.
Northern Ireland and Wales manifestos
We hope all political parties heed our call, so in addition to our manifesto for England, we have also outlined the actions that we want taken in manifesto Easy Reads for Northern Ireland and Wales.
What we're asking for
Follow the links for a summary of what we're asking for.
Bullying ➜
Social Care
People with a learning disability rely on social care for personal care, to access the
community
A community is the people and places in an area.
,
employment
Employment means having a job.
, and live their lives the way they want. However, the social care system is in crisis due to chronic underfunding, with a high vacancies workforce turnover. This is leaving people with a learning disability without support and needs unmet. The next UK government must commit to fixing social care as a priority.
Social care asks
- Immediate additional funding to stabilise the social care sector and commit to a long-term funding settlement.
- Remove social care charging for working-aged disabled adults (the Minimum Income Guarantee charging and Disability Related Expenditure).
- A minimum
salary
A salary is the money you get paid for doing your job.
for social care workers equivalent to band 3 of the
NHS
The NHS is the National Health Service. The NHS gives free healthcare to everyone in the UK and includes things like your GP (doctors) surgery and hospitals.
pay scale and a cap on agency spending. - A National Workforce
Strategy
A strategy is a plan to show what an organisation, or a person, wants to do and how they are going to do it.
for the social care sector.
Homes not hospitals
There are over 2,000 people with a learning disability and/ or autistic people currently locked away in mental health hospitals in England. Renewed commitment is needed to help stop the flow of people into these settings as well as ensure discharge. The NHS Long Term Plan target to reduce the number of people with a learning disability and/or autistic people in mental health hospitals by 50% by March 2024 has been missed.
He was held down on the floor and put into a straightjacket, for up to 14 hours a day. He had numerous broken bones, all over his body. They didn’t bath or shower him for 6 whole months. He went in at 14 stone, and he came out at 7.5 stone.
Homes Not Hospitals Asks
- Reform the Mental Health Act including ensuring people cannot be detained in mental health hospitals solely on the basis of having a learning disability or
autism
Autism is a disability. Autistic people find it difficult to understand what other people think and feel. They also find it difficult to tell people what they think and feel. Everyone with autism is different.
without a co-occurring mental health condition. - Invest in the right community support to stop the inappropriate detention of people with a learning disability and autistic people.
- Update and strengthen the Building the Right Support Action Plan and national target
Healthcare
People with a learning disability continue to face serious health inequalities, and issues accessing care. On average, males with a learning disability die 21 years younger than males from the general population, and females 23 years younger than females from the general population. The barriers people with a learning disability face when accessing healthcare include a lack of understanding of learning disability, poor access to specialist services such as dentists and eye care, a lack of learning disability nurses, and failing to be on their GP’s
learning disability register
The learning disability register is a list of people with a learning disability that the doctor’s surgery looks after.
.
Healthcare asks
- Work with NHS England to increase the number of people with a learning disability on the learning disability register, ensuring more people receive an
annual health check
An annual
health check
A health check is when you see a nurse or doctor so they can help you to stay well.
is when you see a nurse or doctor once a year so they can help you stay well. Everyone aged 14 or over who has a learning disability should be invited for an annual health check.
and a health action plan. - Ensure adequate resources at both national and local level for the successful roll out and desired impact of initiatives designed to combat health inequality for people with a learning disability, including the Reasonable Adjustment Flag and the revised
Accessible
Accessible means something is easy for people to use or join in with. For example: Accessible writing means the writing is easy to read and understand.
Information Standard. - Implement recommendations of the Race Observatory, Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) and Learning from Lives and Deaths of People with a Learning Disability (LeDeR) report to tackle avoidable deaths of people with a learning disability.
- Increasing the number of learning disability nurses working across the NHS, ensuring access to specialist support when needed, particularly within secondary care.
- Commit to funding the roll out of the Oliver McGowan
Mandatory
Mandatory means that something must be done.
Learning Disability and Autism training across health and social care
Employment
Mencap wants to see a future where people with a learning disability receive the right support to access and stay in work. We want employers to understand that many people with a learning disability can make a valuable contribution to the workplace when supported properly
Employment asks
- Launch a new supported employment programme for people with a learning disability, particularly for those over the age of 25, without an
Education
Education is when you learn things. When you fill in a form to get a job, education means you write where you went to school, college or university.
Health and Care Plan. - Provide long-term funding for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
- Remove people with a learning disability from the benefit sanctions regime.
- Undertake or commission a review of the adequacy of benefits.
Cost of Living
Around a third of disabled people live in poverty and disabled households already pay, on average, an additional £975 extra. Combined with fewer employment opportunities, increased risk of financial exclusion, and inadequate benefits, people with a learning disability have been disproportionately impacted by the cost of living crisis.
People with a learning disability and their families/carers will continue to be faced with making these desperate choices.
Cost of living asks
- Provide targeted energy support through existing mechanisms by reversing changes to the Warm Home Discount so it includes people in receipt of disability benefits once more.
- Commit to introducing a mandatory, progressively funded energy social tariff for disabled people and their carers.
- Provide long-term funding for the Household Support Fund.
- Coordinate and manage the introduction of a universal
Priority Services Register
The Priority Services Register
The Priority Services Register is a list of people who can get extra help with their gas, electricity and water.
is a list of people who can get extra help with their gas, electricity and water. Each company that supplies gas, electricity or water has their own Priority Services Register.
across essential services. - Ensure people with a learning disability have equitable access to financial services.
Bullying
People with a learning disability should be able to live their lives without fear of being bullied or subject to hate crimes. More must be done to ensure people with a learning disability are safe when online or out in their community.
Afterwards they started to make threatening
Threatening is when someone says they are going to do something bad to you or others. comments to me, saying they would send someone around to my house with a knife.
Bullying asks
- Support Ofcom on the implementation of the Online Safety Act and support an awareness
campaign
A campaign is when people work together to try to change something.
on the new regulations. - Implement recommendation 114(h) of the 2016 UN Convention on the
Rights
Rights are the things everyone should be allowed to do like have a say, or go to school.
of Disabled People Committee Inquiry report on tackling prejudice and negative attitudes towards disabled people. - Reform hate crime laws in line with the Law Commission’s recommendations.
Devolution Statement
Whilst we recognise that many of the issues highlighted in our manifesto are devolved in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, we believe it is important for political parties across the whole of the UK to listen to the voices of people with a learning disability and their family carers.