Slides from a day-long workshop with My Place - a leading personalised support organisation in Perth, WA. The workshop explores the meaning of inclusion and citizenship and the threats and opportunities that lie ahead of us.

1. My Place in the World
exploring the true meaning of inclusion & citizenship

2. • What does citizenship really mean?
• What can we learn from UK’s welfare reform process?
• What hope does NDIS offer for true citizenship?
• What is the role of a ‘service provider’?
• How do citizens become connected to community?

3. What does citizenship really mean?

4. Wolf Wolfensberger on Social Role Valorisation (1998)
“The ideal service model i.e.
the one with the greatest model
coherency would be derived from
the real, primary, and urgent needs
of the people to be served, and all
of its process components would
match harmoniously with each other
and the content so as to facilitate
effective address of those needs”
Is this the right way to think about our purpose?

5. UN Declaration of Human Rights
Article 1 - All human beings are born free and equal in
dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and
conscience and should act towards one another in a
spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2 - Everyone is entitled to all the rights and
freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction
of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language,
religion, political or other opinion, national or social
origin, property, birth or other status…
Article 3 - Everyone has the right to life, liberty and
security of person.

7. The absence of freedom is the imposition of restraint on my
deliberation as to what I shall do, where I shall live, how much I
shall earn, the kinds of tasks I shall pursue. I am robbed of the
basic quality of humanness. When I cannot choose what I
shall do or where I shall live or how I shall survive, it
means in fact that some system has already made these
a priori decisions for me, and I am reduced to an animal.
I do not live; I merely exist. The only resemblances I have to
real life are the motor responses and function that are akin to
human-kind. I cannot adequately assume responsibility as a
person because I have been made party to a decision in which
I played no part in making.
Martin Luther King
Civil Rights, Citizenship and Freedom

11. Wendy Perez

12. 16

13. How we discover our citizenship
1. Finding our sense of purpose
2. Having the freedom to pursue it
3. Having enough money to be free
4. Having a home where we belong
5. Getting help from other people
6. Making life in community
7. Finding, sharing and giving love

18. Citizenship means being equal and different.
Citizens are respected and valued for all their
differences. Everybody doesn’t need to be the
same.
We each make our own unique contribution to
community life. It is being members of our
community that makes us equal.

19. Citizenship is important because it means
being treated with respect and dignity.
Citizens are equal AND different.
7

20. Citizenship means being part of everyday life -
not being stuck in a box.
Wendy Perez
8

21. Wendy Perez on Citizenship

22. 6

23. Citizens have rights, including the right to get
the help they need to be a citizen.
Citizens have duties, including the duty to help
others be a citizen.
Citizens are free. We live our own life, our own
way, but as part of a community.

24. What can we learn from UK’s welfare
reform process?

25. Welfare reform in the UK promised
• Simpler systems with better incentives to work
• More support for disabled people to find work
• Better targeted support for people with more
severe disabilities

26. In fact…
• Austerity is leading to severe cuts in disability
support and income security systems.
• Other policies, which are supposed to help people
into work have led to stigma, mental illness and
suicide.
• Policies of euthanasia and eugenics are becoming
increasingly accepted as inevitable.

30. In total, across England as a
whole, the WCA disability
reassessment process during
this period was associated with
an additional 590 suicides
(95% CI 220 to 950), 279,000
additional cases of self-
reported mental health
problems (95% CI
57,000 to 500,000) and the
prescribing of an additional
725,000 antidepressant items
(95% CI 406 000 to 1 045 000).
Barr B, et al. J Epidemiol
Community Health 2015;0:1–7.
doi:10.1136/jech-2015-206209

31. The Committee is seriously concerned about the
disproportionate adverse impact that austerity measures,
introduced since 2010, are having on the enjoyment of
economic, social and cultural rights by disadvantaged and
marginalised individuals and groups. The Committee is
concerned that the State party has not undertaken a
comprehensive assessment of the cumulative impact of such
measures on the realisation of economic, social and cultural
rights, in a way that is recognised by civil society and national
independent monitoring mechanisms (art. 2, para. 1).
UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights:
Concluding observations on the sixth periodic report of
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
24 June 2016
UN declares UK Government fails to respect human rights

32. …there is reliable evidence that the threshold of grave or
systematic violations of the rights of persons with
disabilities has been met in the State party… The core
elements of the rights to independent living and being
included in the community, an adequate standard of living and
social protection and their right to employment have been
affected… freedom of choice and control over their daily
activities restricted, the extra cost of disability has been set
aside and income protection has been curtailed as a result of
benefit cuts, while the expected policy goal of achieving
decent and stable employment is far from being attained
UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities:
Inquiry concerning the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland carried out by the Committee under article 6 of
the Optional Protocol to the Convention
6th October 2016
UN declares UK Government fails to respect disability rights

33. It’s not just disabled people. Other people face
similar injustices
• Migrants, refugees and asylum seekers find
themselves directly excluded from citizenship
• People in poverty, people with chronic illnesses
and mental illness are increasingly stigmatised and
managed
• We can all become detached, disenchanted and or
excluded from community and political life

39. The Scotsman reported on 3rd February 2012:
High-earning migrants and promising student
entrepreneurs will find it easier to work in Britain as the
coalition aims to ensure only “the right people are
coming here,” the Immigration Minister has
said. Damian Green, a Conservative MP, said middle
managers, unskilled labourers and benefit seekers
would be kept out as the coalition seeks only migrants
who “add to the quality of life in Britain.”
If only ‘those’ kind of people add to the quality of
life in Britain - what about the rest of us?

40. “Today we frankly recognise that
democracy can be no more than
an aspiration, and have rule not
so much by the people as by
the cleverest people; not an
aristocracy of birth, not a
plutocracy of wealth, but a true
meritocracy of talent.” [1958]
Yesterday’s satire feels
like today’s tragedy

42. When people lose their way
Charities flourish and self-righteousness grows.
When we value cleverness and business acumen
We unleash hypocrisy and trickery.
When families fall apart
Family values are the order of the day.
As societies fall apart
They fill up with loyal patriots.
Lao Tzu - Tao Te Ching

44. Myth 1 Inequality is good for the economy
High inequality High inequality
Low inequality

45. Myth 2 Growth is good for everyone
In relative terms 80% of families are worse off than they would have been in 1977

46. Myth 3 The welfare state benefits the poorest
Comparing the impact of tax and benefit policy in 1977 to 2014 we can see
that the positive impact has been targeted almost entirely on middle-income
groups, not the poorest. Effectively government policy has been compensating
middle income groups for the relative decline in their incomes since 1977.

49. It seems likely that these factors are important
• Decline of trade unionism
• End of communist threat
• Progressive electoral focus on median earners
• Global economic development
• Increasing social atomism, decline of community
organisations, church etc.
• Technological and meritocratic assumptions

52. What hope does NDIS offer for true
citizenship?

54. 1. A Federally controlled agency will deliver a care management service.
2. There is no overall budget for the agency to work within.
3. There is no significant strategic role for States, except perhaps as
service providers.
4. Budgets will be assigned by paid facilitators who will develop a plan
with the person with disabilities.
5. Funds will be released in accordance with that plan, either to citizens
or services.
6. The plan is the central control mechanism and people must work to
the plan. Their success at achieving any agreed outcomes will be
monitored.
7. All of this will be delivered through a new national computer system
and into which everybody must be linked.
8. This centralised system will be defined by detailed legislation.

55. 1. The current design does not reflect international or Australian learning about best practice in
individualised funding systems.
2. The resistance to acknowledging human rights and real entitlements will undermine both the quality
and sustainability of the model.
3. The resistance to accepting the reality of rationing will have the perverse consequence of promoting
the worst kinds of indirect rationing.
4. In principle, the concept of insurance could be very helpful, but it is not currently being used
effectively to guide the design of the NDIS.
5. The current design is in conflict with human rights and lacks any basic trust in the competency of
Australians with disabilities to make their own decisions.
6. The proposed model does not do enough to harness the efficiencies that come from shifting
responsibility to citizens and making resources flexible.
7. The model is hyper-centralised and risks eroding the responsibilities of States, communities, services
and families.
8. The current model is designed in a way which will create significant inflationary pressure and will
damage social capital at every level.
9. The proposed design involves an unnecessarily expensive and centralised bureaucratic infrastructure.
10.The current design is not innovative, but bureaucratic, and it leaves no room for social innovation at
any level.

56. 1. Create a sustainable system that supports active citizenship
2. Generate clear and meaningful entitlements
3. Ration resources intelligently and directly
4. Ensure citizens have the right responsibilities and incentives
5. Enable citizens to run their own lives
6. Allow the maximum flexibility in how resources are used
7. Increase local control within a national framework of rights
8. Avoid triggering inflationary demands from services
9. Minimise the cost of the system's infrastructure
10. Ensure that the system can continue to innovate and evolve

58. Not, “I told you so;” but “so what?”
You fought for a federal bureaucratic
system and this is the inevitable result.
The challenge now is to make it work to
support innovation and citizenship.
This was always going to take work.

60. We must beware
the drift of ideas
rooted in rights
and citizenship
into the emptiness
of consumerism

61. Origin of “Consumer” early 15c., "one who squanders or
wastes," agent noun from consume. In economic sense,
"one who uses up goods or articles" (opposite of
producer) from 1745.

66. What is the role of a ‘service provider’?

67. TY Tim Keilty
Service
providers:
coming to
a galaxy
near you
soon
How did we
convert
community
organisations
into service
providers?

68. Who are we?
• The era of eugenics and institutionalisation saw
organisations grow up around buildings and professional
identities in order to capture and control the lives of people
with disabilities.
• The post-war era led to family, disability, faith and
community groups organising to challenge and overturn
these patterns of control.
• Today an array of organisations now exists in complex
relationships of dependence with the welfare state:
professionals, service providers, advocacy organisations -
the service system.

69. Why are we?
• Institutions emerged from an era where charity had been
converted into purposeful social exclusion. Eugenics built on
prejudice to offer an end to unwanted differences.
• The horrors of the Holocaust, revolution and World War woke
people to the need for social rights and measures to fight
social injustice.
• Welfare states converted social rights into services,
commissioned, controlled and regulated by the state.
• Social services are now questioned and are being converted
into individual entitlements or marketised consumer options.

70. What next?
• Social role valorisation, normalisation and the search for
the ideal service don’t provide helpful frameworks for
future developments.
• The choice before us is either to allow the emergence of
commodified and controlled lives, combined with
consumer sensitive solutions.
• Or to build a capacity for people to become citizens: in
their own lives, in their obligations to other and in the
forms of social life we cherish.

71. Providers must…
• Stop being providers. There is nothing to provide.
• Start to be allies for people in their lives as citizens.
• Start to be networks to enable people to be better
citizens.
• Start to reclaim the service landscape for citizens: reclaim
community, undermine the market and take your place in
the movement to advance social justice for all

74. How do citizens become connected to
community?

75. “There is a revolution going on.
We are beginning to realise that
everyone, every human being is
important. We are beginning to
see that every human being is
beautiful.
“At the heart of this revolution
are not the powerful, the wealthy
or intelligent. It is people with
disabilities who are showing us
what is important - love,
community and the freedom to
be ourselves.”
Jean Vanier

76. What’s our dream for those we love?
Money? Power? Fame?
or
a life of citizenship
freedom, meaning,
contribution

77. an ordinary life is not enough

78. 21

80. 26

82. 31

84. 36

86. 41

88. 46

90. 51

93. Can we become a stronger global
community?

96. we don’t need to
give our power away

98. Your injustice is my injustice

99. Prejudice against people with
disabilities is not so different from…
• Stigmatising the poor
• Exploiting workers
• Racism
• Ageism
• Sexual violence
• Colonialism
• Anti-semitism
• Sexism
• Homophobia
• Nationalism

100. Justice is in our hands

101. Let’s do what citizens do…
work together for a better world