Editorial

Abstract

Although this is The British Journal of Learning Disabilities we have an international readership and an increasing number of contributions from across the world. As editor I would like to encourage this and there is an international editorial board and a panel of peer reviewers from across the world to help with the process. The Journal seeks to bring together a range of different perspectives about learning disabilities that includes a global discussion. One of the difficulties with this approach is the differences in definition of learning disabilities as well as very different service models. There are however some similarities and one unfortunate one is the economic downturn and the likely effect it is to have on people with learning disabilities. In Britain there will be a general election some time this Spring. Indeed it may have taken place by the time you read this. Whoever wins the election we are told to brace ourselves for budget cuts. At least some of these cuts are likely to come in the area of social care and will affect services for people with learning disabilities and their families. Already the proposed cuts are becoming linked with the personalisation agenda. This link reminds me of the development of community care for people with learning disabilities thirty years ago when part of the push to close long stay institutions was to save money (erroneously as it turned out). This coincided with the philosophy of the day that lay behind smaller living units. I have no doubt that personalisation will lead to much improved lives for disabled people who can take control of their own support. I’m less sure that this will be a cheaper option. One of the papers in this issue explores a neglected aspect of personalisation. Williams and colleagues from the Norah Fry Centre at the University of Bristol consider the area of skills required for good personal assistants. This includes a list of desirable characteristics from the point of view of people with learning disabilities. This subject will become particularly important as the focus of services continues to move towards person centred approaches. There is also a paper about involving people with learning disabilities in research. This is designed as an accessible article and is written by a research team that includes learning disabled members based in Leeds. Garbutt and colleagues focus on the research that they have undertaken about sex and relationships for people with learning disabilities. The Journal is receiving an increasing number of papers written in an accessible way. Some of the submitted papers are written by, or with people with earning disabilities. This provides the production team some challenges in terms of print size and illustrations but there are also some difficult editorial decisions to be made. While wanting to encourage accessibility we also have an obligation to publish work that develops knowledge. Some of the manuscripts that are submitted report work that has been very useful for the research team but is similar to work that has already been published. Other work reports new findings but without the background that is needed for an academic journal. Participative research actively seeks to address the power disparity between different groups of people and a second paper from Campbell and Martin also addresses this theme albeit in a different way. Their paper on reducing health inequalities in Scotland considers ways of involving leaning disabled people as national health services reviewers. There is also a paper that reports on research that involves interviews with children on the autistic spectrum as well as their parents and carers. Children were generally happy with their lives at home but had mixed feelings about short breaks away with organised services. It is not surprising that some of the problems were associated with noise and changes in discipline. Boydon, Freeman and Offen report on the establishment of a loss and bereavement psychotherapy group in Birmingham. The authors hope that reporting on the success of this group will encourage others to start similar projects. Jones and colleagues also report on a practice development, in their case this is a multidisciplinary health screening clinic set up by a Community Learning Disability Team in Fife. Finally and to return to my original theme I am pleased to see that there is also a paper from the Netherlands. Tadema and Vlaskamp from the University of Groningen asked 133 parents about the basic care tasks that were involved in the care of their child. The parents suggested that professional support was very helpful to them and it is interesting to compare this with the level and type of support offered elsewhere.