Author: SocialAction

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] APART FROM ALL THE OTHER failures that government policy in response to Covid-19 is likely to be remembered for, its outcomes for social care service users are likely to endure as a national scandal. What we also have to hope is that they can serve as a unique opportunity to initiate progressive change. Social…

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Mark Harrison and Peter Beresford review gains made in recent years Finally there appears to be a breakthrough for co-production. Twenty years into the new century all the gains made in social theory in the latter part of the 20th century and the early years of this one are finally beginning to bear fruit….

Right-wing populism vs. participatory democracy Peter Beresford and Mark Harrison attempt to chart a way forward We can expect the inquests about the 2019 UK general election result to go on for a long time yet. According to our personal preferences, we will find all sorts of explanations. Whatever these may be though, the bottom…

WHEN I WROTE ON UNIVERSAL CREDIT (UC) in the November 2017 issue of Labour Briefing with Julie Kemmy, the early effects of this radical change to benefits were only just beginning to be felt by claimants and disabled people. Twenty months on the picture is becoming clearer. What has been revealed is that UC is…

FORTY YEARS AFTER THATCHER told us that the market and privatisation would make the consumer king and queen, her big lie is exposed for all to see. Instead of being a nation of home owners we are more and more at the mercy of an overpriced and inadequately regulated private rented sector. We see the…

When the chair of the UN disability committee described what has happened to disabled people in the UK as a “human catastrophe” the world was shocked.  Unfortunately our Government, who are responsible for creating this situation, characteristically denied everything and went on the attack saying they are world leaders in disability.  So what has led…

Mark Harrison and Julie Kemmy, both of whom work for Equal Lives, a user-led disabled people’s organisation (DPO) supporting people who face disabling barriers in Norfolk and Suffolk, explain the crisis facing Universal Credit   Universal Credit (UC) is potentially May’s Poll Tax. It could be her Thatcher moment. This pernicious assault on the rights…