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 | You and Yours - Transcript ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 4 |
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| TX: 16.10.03 – DISABLED PEOPLE CAN NOW USE DIRECT PAYMENTS FOR ASSISTANCE DOGS |
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| PRESENTER: JOHN WAITE AND WINIFRED ROBINSON WAITE Surrey County Council's social services has a new employee this morning. He's a highly trained domestic carer who helps with dressing, getting in and out of bed, shopping, he's even happy to pop down to the cashpoint to top up the domestic coffers. And he's prepared to do all that for just £8.50 a week. But before public service unions start crying exploitation they should know that this latest recruit to home care services is a dog and the money is simply to cover food and vet bills. Indie, the Labrador, belongs to Wendy Plues, who needs daily home care and having Indie means she doesn't need so much care from the human members of the Surrey social services team. But until now Surrey, along with other councils, have refused to recognise dogs as carers. Now Surrey has relented, a victory for the government scheme of direct care payments, which assess people's individual needs, pays them accordingly and allows them to spend it more or less as they wish. And a victory for common sense. So Indie is now part of Wendy's official care package and the savings for Surrey social services could be as much as £23,000 a year. We went to meet Wendy and Indie on a shopping trip in Woking. ACTUALITY Come on Indie, come on we're crossing the road now, are you going to press the button for me …. WENDY PLUES You wouldn't believe how much help these dogs can give. He can unload the washing machine for me, he pays for shopping, he picks things up on command - as in the telephone, he'll get me the telephone, purse, he gets me the purse - he presses lift buttons, crossing buttons. ACTUALITY …switch, good boy, good lad, well done. WENDY PLUES He gets me undressed at night. He can tell me when I need my tablets, he's learnt how to nuzzle me to tell me to roll over, he's learnt how to rub spasms out of my arms and legs and licks spasms and cramps. He's dependent on me, I'm dependent on him, it's incredible. ACTUALITY … okay then, we're going to go off to the cashpoint machine, okay? And then we've got to go into Boots and get some bits in there. Are you going to be able to pay today for me because my hands are very bad today. WENDY PLUES It's almost a case of listing what Indie can't do rather than what he can do. ACTUALITY Okay Indie [indistinct words], get the £20, good boy, bring it here, good boy. Give. Thank you darling well done. Yeah I've got hold of me purse okay darling, good boy, well done. Now we've got the money we can go off and spend it. Let's go, good boy. WENDY PLUES I always tell him what to do, it's so funny, I've gone along the street and people think I'm mad because here I am talking to the dog. But he understands exactly what I'm saying and where we're going and it's one of those comfort things as well, that he's there with me, I know that if I have problems he's there to sort them out. At long last they've recognised that these dogs do a valuable job. If it wasn't for Indie I wouldn't have half the independence that I have now. We'll go off and see Joel now, he's just coming home for his lunch from school. Indie's made such a difference to his life as well because he's no longer having to care for me as much as he did. He's happier in himself, he's progressing at school more, he's just a wonderful little boy and he can have his childhood back. ACTUALITY - JOEL AND WENDY Hi mum. Hi Joel. Good boy. Ready, get my coat off, good dog. Good boy. Come the other side darling. JOEL PLUES Hi I'm Joel, I'm 10 years old. ACTUALITY Good dog, that's it pull the sleeve, give, good boy. JOEL PLUES And he's really changed mine and my mum's life and he's made my life easier because Indie's like a brother sometimes to me because he's so playful and fun. And when my mum's not very well, normally I would worry a lot and sometimes she had to get me up and it was really worrying but now I know Indie's there to care for her. At school I know my mum's alright. WENDY PLUES I'm in pain 24 hours a day but I'm a fun loving happy person. One of the major things he does is give me the love and the confidence and the peace of mind. If more people knew about these dogs and could have these dogs it would be fantastic. If I didn't have Indie I would probably have to end up in a care home, which obviously would mean that my son wouldn't be able to be with me. I'm an independent person, I'm living with my son and Indie's done that for me, he's changed my life, he's turned it around, I'm completely different - I'm a person again, I'm alive again. ROBINSON Wendy Plues talking about the dog she received through a company called Canine Partners for Independence. And Pauline Hamblin from that company is here. Pauline how difficult is it to get to this stage with a dog? HAMBLIN It takes training, it takes 18 months to two years training, a lot of effort, a lot of love and reward - we reward the dogs all the time, they're not chastised, so they like it and they learn new tasks. ROBINSON What are the economics of all this - how much does it cost and where does the money come from. HAMBLIN Well the cost of the dog is about £10,000 and the money comes from the public, we rely on public donations and they support us very well, which is nice. ROBINSON So although you're a company really this operates … HAMBLIN We're a charity. ROBINSON Oh you're a charity in fact. How do you match a dog with a person because it isn't every dog, is it, that you could bear to have about you doing some of the tasks that Wendy described? HAMBLIN We see the person's needs first and we make records of what they want, and what they're ambitions are and what sort of activities they have for work and then we see the dogs likes and dislikes, because dogs have likes and dislikes, some don't like travelling in a car particularly, others like lots of exercise. So we make records of both and then put them together over a period of time - the trainers are very good at it. ROBINSON Well Pauline Hamblin stay with us if you will but thank you just for now. WAITE Well Andy Butler is policy and development management for social inclusion at Surrey County Council and Stephen Ladyman is the health minister with responsibility for community care. Andy Butler from Surrey County Council first of all, what convinced you about this, why did you decide this was a good idea? BUTLER Well I think it has to be seen in the whole context of us wanting to promote people's independence and enable them to live with as much autonomy and choice as possible and we're a great believer that the person themselves is in the best possible position to choose what's the right service for them. In Wendy's case she already had Indie, it was clear that Indie was providing a level of care and services that otherwise we would have to be providing and so it wasn't a difficult decision. WAITE There must have been people though who would have thought this is a novel idea but had no idea just what a dog could do. BUTLER Well it was novel without a doubt but when you unpack it and look at the nature of the service it wasn't controversial at all. And although some people raised an eyebrow just because of ignorance perhaps it didn't take long for them to be persuaded. WAITE Stephen Ladyman, as the health minister with responsibility for community care, what do you think of this idea? LADYMAN Well I'm delighted by it, it's exactly the sort of innovative development we wanted to see when we first introduced the idea of direct payments. And as Andy said we wanted to create a situation where people are in control of their own care because nobody knows better than the individual what care they need. And so by introducing direct payments and actually requiring councils to give them the cash, instead of the care, if that's what they want to do, we intended to free people up to buy their own care and deliver that care in whichever way suited them best. And so this is exactly the sort of scheme we wanted to see happening, so we're very pleased. WAITE Had you any idea minister that dogs were quite as amazing at caring, in a sense, as they are? LADYMAN None whatever but that's the sort of thing that happens when you free up people's own innovative skills and imagination to figure out what's best for them, to care for them in their own personal needs, it's so blindingly obviously that the individual who has care needs is going to know better how to deliver those care needs than all of us experts, whether we're at the local council or we're sitting up here in Whitehall. How can we possibly know what's best for them? So by making direct payments available we free them up to use their imagination to fulfil their own care needs. WAITE So do you want to see this idea picked up by other local authorities? LADYMAN I certainly would like to see all councils keeping this as one of a package of measures that they have behind their ear when they're discussing people's care needs with them, so that they're aware of just what can be achieved with animals like this, it's a wonderful initiative. WAITE Aren't you, some would say, as interested as you are in this because it is a sure fire way of saving a great deal of money? LADYMAN Well I mean that might be a side effect of it and if that's the case well great, who's going to complain about that? WAITE Stephen Ladyman, the community care minister, and Andy Butler from Surrey Social Services thank you. ROBINSON Well Pauline Hamblin from Canine Partners - the charity that trains these dogs - is still here. You must be encouraged by what the minister had to say. HAMBLIN Absolutely delighted. In the course of my work, going round talking to disabled people, I kept coming across this barrier, I'd love to have one of your dogs but I can't afford the food and vet bills. So I thought it was possibly an opportunity to take it further, so I went to my MP, Edward Davey, and Michael Howard and we had some meetings at Portcullis House introducing the charity to other MPs and Lords in the House and I was delighted that it moved forward and the minister took it up and has agreed for it to go forward. But we just want the information to get out to the rest of the country. ROBINSON And how far are you geared up now for the sort of demand that might follow? HAMBLIN The demand - we've just moved into new premises, which has been wonderful and we're developing it but we would take the demand as it comes but very slowly and build up along the way with increasing our dogs. ROBINSON How many people have got your dogs now? HAMBLIN At the moment there are 65 … ROBINSON So it's very small actually. HAMBLIN Yes, but there are other dog charities as well. ROBINSON And how many dogs like Indie are you in the process of training? HAMBLIN Well in the training there's a course today with six dogs going through, so they'll be another six coming online hopefully. ROBINSON Pauline Hamblin from Canine Partners good luck and thank you. Back to the You and Yours homepage The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ is not responsible for external websites |
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