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The Learning Disabilities Elf

Disability harassment is commonplace and the response of public authorities is poor

John Northfield

The Equality and Human Rights Commission have just published the report of their enquiry into disability-related harassment – “Hidden in Plain Sight”

The report shows harassment as a commonplace experience for disabled people and uncovers a culture of disbelief and systemic institutional failures which prevent it from being tackled effectively.

The report includes a series of case studies to illustrate the issues and a number of recommendations to public authorities to help them deal with the problems uncovered.

Hidden in Plain Sight report (pdf)

EHRC enquiry website

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After qualifying as a social worker, John worked in community learning disability teams before getting involved in a number of long-stay hospital closure programmes, working to develop individual plans for people moving into their own homes. He worked for BILD, helping to develop the Quality Network and was editorial lead for the NHS electronic library learning disabilities specialist collection. This led him to found the Learning Disabilities Elf site with Andre Tomlin as a way of making the evidence accessible to practitioners in health and social care. Most recently he has worked as part of Mencap's national quality team and also been involved in a number of national website developments, including the General Medical Council's learning disabilities site.

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