Twenty social workers who serve as directors and coordinators of services for individuals with intellectual and development disabilities (IDD) went to the United Kingdom for a study tour in June. The social workers, who are employed at the social welfare and social services departments of local and regional authorities, went on the tour with representatives of the Shalem Foundation, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Services and the Federation of Local Authorities. This is the second time that the Shalem Foundation has sent a study mission overseas. The previous study tour in 2013 took the participants to Stockholm.
The tradition of the Shalem Foundation’s overseas study tours began five years ago, upon the success of the Traveling Study Day tour that the Foundation has been running in Israel for more than a decade. The goal of the overseas study tour is to enable professionals working in the field to learn about the services provided elsewhere in the world for individuals with IDD and to gain inspiration from their interactions with others in the field.
Riva Muskal, Executive Director of the Shalem Foundation, who headed the mission, says: “We organized the first study tour to Stockholm three years ago. The participants still talk about that tour even today, and about how the meetings and trips gave them the inspiration that spurred them to act and institute innovations in their work here in Israel.
“At the Shalem Foundation, we believe that knowledge equals power. This is why we constantly aspire to learn about a wide range of success stories and models that have proven themselves. We do this in order to start new projects in the field among those who are involved in the Shalem Foundation’s work here in Israel.”
So what is actually happening in the UK?
In the UK, social services for children and education for children are the responsibility of the Department for Education (DfE). All social service departments, the school system and the health services network are required to cooperate with one another.
Social and education services are provided by the local authorities, which are defined by geographical region. Children and adolescents receive services via the specially designated departments that operate in the local authorities. These services can be provided by private-sector organizations, voluntary associations or non-profit organizations.
Services for adults are provided primarily in accordance with of two principal laws.
The first is the Care/Treatment Act of 2014, which is considered the most significant reform legislation made in the U.K for over 60 years, primarily because caregivers and patients have been provided with the opportunity to control and make decisions about their care and treatment and support. The act’s principles, which are the basis for care and support, place greater emphasis on prevention and on encouraging people to adopt a positive and healthy lifestyle that can reduce, prevent or delay the need for care.
The second is the Mental Capacity Act of 2015, which provides a framework for the empowerment and protection of individuals who are incapable of making decisions for themselves. The act defines who is authorized to make decisions for such individuals and under what circumstances, and the requirements that they must meet.
Beginning the journey
The study tour, which was organized in cooperation with Lumos (a charitable organization established by J.K. Rowling, creator of the Harry Potter series), began with a background meeting with professionals in the field of disabilities.
The study tour included, inter alia, a visit to and meetings with the representatives of the following organizations:
1. LUMOS, a charitable organization that provides services and programs to various population groups consisting of people with special needs
2. CHANGE, an organization that employs individuals with learning difficulties and pays them a regular salary
3. Rothwell Day Centre, a daycare center and non-profit social project, which provides supportive and care services and a treatment framework for individuals with various disabilities
4. Paperworks, a business-oriented social project that offers services of a social value and uses revenues from commerce in order to provide financial support
5. The National Health Service (NHS) and the Department of Health, which are responsible for national healthcare
6. The Shared Lives Plus housing scheme, a social project promoting communal living
7. Foodworks, a coffee shop that is part of the Supportworks organization and that supplies a wide range of activities and opportunities in housing, occupational training, employment and integration within the community
8. Lough Road, a center that provides short-term family support for children and young people with severe and complex disabilities
9. Springboard Opportunity Group, whose programs provide support for children with special needs and with disabilities from birth to age 5 and for their parents
10. St. Quintin’s Children Centre, a center that supports handicapped children and youth and their families
11. Norwood Services – Kennedy Leigh Family Centre, a Jewish charity founded over two centuries ago
We were particularly impressed by our individual meetings with the Messengers, individuals with intellectual and other disabilities who work with the Department of Health as advisers and instructors and receive a regular salary. The Messengers help make employers more aware of people with IDD and help IDD individuals to integrate into the open job market.
Voices from the field
Giving social workers who operate in the field the chance to be part of such a delegation is a significant professional statement to the workers themselves and to the local authorities that employ them. The topic of care and assistance to people with intellectual disabilities (ID) and their families is a challenging field that demands professional and human resources. Bringing together representatives of various social sectors in a single mission was a unique learning experience and an opportunity to see projects and professionals in the field from up close. The participation of both the director of the Social Affairs Ministry, the Social Services’ Department of Services for Persons with Developmental Disabilities in the Community, and the director of Social Welfare Services in the Federation of Local Authorities made an important contribution to the mission’s success. The participants got inspiration from their exposure to the downsizing of bureaucracy; from their opportunity to see the variety of solutions in the field, the relatively small frameworks, the aesthetically pleasing buildings and the integration of individuals with IDD in the community; to hear about the shift from institutions to housing in the community, a shift that is also relevant for us; and primarily to understand that, despite the innovativeness and range of services that we saw in the UK, Israel can be proud of the services it provides people with IDD and their families.
“We will be happy,” says Muskal, “to host a study mission from abroad that will come to see the various services we provide and the challenges we face here in Israel. We believe its participants will see that the State of Israel is beautiful and well-developed. They will see in Israel the example of a country that managed, soon after its establishment, to create a network of settings and provide solutions in the community for people with complex disabilities while coping with countless security and social challenges.”
Our expression of thanks and appreciation
“The study tour was planned and organized to the minutest detail,” Muskal says. The success of the study tour was made possible thanks to the efforts of the professional team of the Federation of Local Authorities’ Division for External Relations, headed by Ruth Wasserman-Landa, who, together with Shiri Steinhart-Sel, worked diligently on the complex job of coordinating the program with the Israeli Embassy in the UK.
Special thanks are due Haim Gaash, Chairperson of the Shalem Foundation and Mayor of Pardess Hannah-Karkur, and to the senior management of the Foundation for their dedication to the subject of continual learning and for enabling this study tour to take place.
The Shalem Foundation never rests on its laurels, though, and looks forward to the next study tour.
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At the entrance to the center: Lough road center with special buses purchased by parents
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A fascinating meeting with the organization "change" and some employees who spread the knowledge of self-advocacy all over the world