Ask your MP to support #homesnothospitals Early Day Motion

BASW England is urging social workers to contact their MP’s to ask them to sign the Early Day Motion #2533 hosted by Helen Hayes MP

BASW England is urging social workers to contact their MP’s to ask them to sign the Early Day Motion #2533 hosted by Helen Hayes MP.

The motion calls upon the government to provide homes and not hospitals for autistic people and those with learning disabilities. The motion calls for urgent investment in community provision to replace inpatient units and a detailed plan for the completion of NHS England’s Transforming Care programme. We all have the right to live in a home not a hospital.

We need as many MP’s to sign the Early Day Motion as possible – please use the template email below to contact your MP by email and ask for their support.

---

Dear [Insert MPs name]

PLEASE SIGN UP TO THE #HOMES NOT HOSPITALS EDM #2533
I am writing to you as your constituent, to ask you to sign up to the Early Day Motion #2533, following the #HomesNotHospitals MP drop-in in Westminster on 26th June.

TRANSFORMING CARE’S DEVASTATING FAILURE
Eight years after BBC Panorama’s Winterbourne View documentary, Panorama again exposed the ongoing abuse of children, young people and adults with learning disability and autism living in inpatient care. NHS England’s Transforming Care Programme was meant to end these human rights abuses, by closing these inpatient institutions in favour of homes in the community. However, Transforming Care has failed, as 2,245 people with learning disabilities and autistic people remain in inpatient units.

On 26th June, people and families with lived experience met with MPs in Parliament to discuss the devastating impact of this wrong model of care. At this #HomesNotHospitals MP drop-in, people with learning disabilities, autistic people and their families showed MPs that, with the right support, in the right place, at the right time, people can and do live safe and happy lives in the community with their human rights respected.

You can help to end these human rights abuses

The #HomesNotHospitals EDM states:

“That this House recognises the inadequacy of in-patient settings for autistic people and people with learning disability; condemns the appalling abuse that was uncovered at Whorlton Hall Hospital by BBC Panorama; notes with concern that this took place eight years after a similar scandal at Winterbourne View; further notes the failure of the Government's Transforming Care programme which has left 2,245 people with learning disability and autistic people still living in in-patient units and has seen the number of children in in-patient units double since 2015; supports the calls of autistic people, people with learning disabilities, parents, carers and voluntary sector organisations for homes not hospitals; and calls on the Government urgently to invest in fully regulated, high quality community provision to replace in-patient settings for autistic people and people with learning disability and publish a detailed plan for the completion of Transforming Care.”

The link to the EDM can be found here.

I hope that you will support this EDM to end one of the biggest domestic human rights abuse scandals of our time.

Yours sincerely,
[Your name]

---

You can find who your MP is and their email address here. 

For further information about BASW England’s work around social work with autistic adults and adults who have learning disabilities please contact england@basw.co.uk