In the Shadow of the Poor Law: Workforce Issues

Abstract

Alan Bennett’s Untold Stories (2005) opens with a vignette of discussions between Bennett, his father, and Mr Parr, the MWO. These took place in September 1966, in Settle, North Yorkshire, and concerned Bennett’s mother, who had been admitted to the Lancaster Moor Hospital, suffering from delusions (Bennett, 2005, p. 3). The description is a rare one, of discussions between a family and a representative of statutory services. Moreover it is illustrative of how the 1960s has often been seen in terms of mental health rather than learning disability MWOs dealt with both mental health and learning disability, but the two were often combined in policy documents, and, as today, it was often the former that assumed precedence over the latter. Key to the well-being of people with learning difficulties is the quality and commitment of the people who work with them. This is true whether people live in institutions or in their own homes in the community. Yet attention to the workforce has been extremely low profile in policy initiatives. Despite community care being a reality for several decades for a large number of people, there has not been a substantial investment in developing a workforce which is fit for the new roles community living requires.