The disability News Service ran an article on the 26th September 2012 cleverly entitled “restricting disabled people to the fringes of the fringe”. The writer was attending a fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrat Conference in Brighton, this meeting was organised by the Care and Support Alliance a consortium of 50 organisations that “represent and support disabled people”. The topic for this meeting was health and social care reform, on the panel, were representatives from Mencap (for the alliance), the cancer charity Anthony Nolan, the Royal College of Midwives, and the Medical Protection Society, and ironically those most affected by health and social care reform, service users were not represented.
These organizations were I presume there to represent their own interests, which the writer points out were not always the same as the interests of disabled people and other service users. Disability has become big business and in many cases where money is the driving force the most vulnerable will as in this case be relegated to the fringes of the fringe.
To read the Disabilty News Service Article please click here
