Summer School 2022: Social Care and Human Rights
Summer School Programme
The 2022 Autonomy Summer School took place on 27th, 28th and 29th July
Wivenhoe House Hotel, University of Essex, Colchester Campus. You can view the programme here.
About the Summer School
After two years online, 2022 saw the return of the Face-to-Face Autonomy Summer School, now in its 12thyear. There was much to discuss! Our focus this year was be Social Care and Human Rights, and the Summer School was organised in close collaboration with the Essex Human Rights Centre and members of the University of Essex School of Health and Social Care.
The trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic shone a bright light on the human rights situation in social care settings; we shared Autonomy Project research findings and policy recommendations, and reflected on lessons learned.
There has been considerable advancement all over the world in law reform, with new legislation coming into effect in Ireland, Germany, Colombia and Peru; new legal strategies in South Korea; and innovative proposals emerging from the ongoing review in Scotland. We took stock.
One key lesson we learned through the recent crisis was about the need for mechanisms to realise human rights ideals in social care settings. In this year’s summer school we zeroed in on one mechanism in particular: Speech and Language Therapy. We were joined by academic experts and experienced practitioners in SLT, and reviewed both the established tools and some of the cutting edge research in this area. A key question we explored concerned the ways in which SLT can be put to work as an avenue for delivering support for the exercise of legal capacity for persons with disabilities, as required under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
In addition to the foregoing, we explored (among other things) the challenge of delivering care outside the framework of consent; the challenges associated with setting up institutional frameworks for supported decision-making; techniques of co-production and their limits … .
We were joined by a very distinguished and diverse set of keynote speakers and panellists to help us think through these matters. For more details see the draft programme and speaker bios, below. As usual, the summer school was organised to allow ample time for discussion and debate, both within the organised sessions and on the veranda of the Brasserie at the lovely Wivenhoe House Hotel and Conference Centre on the Colchester Campus of the University of Essex.
About the Autonomy Project
The Essex Autonomy Project is a research and public policy initiative, based at the University of Essex, and investigating the ideal of self-determination (autonomy) in the context of care (health care, social care, eldercare, psychiatric care, etc.). Led by Professor of Philosophy, Wayne Martin, it involves extensive intramural and extramural collaboration with jurists, clinicians, service users, activists, civil servants, and policy makers. It is affiliated with the Wellcome-funded Mental Health and Justice project and the award-winning Essex Human Rights Centre.
About the Essex Human Rights Centre
The Human Rights Centre at Essex boasts a global reputation for excellence in the promotion of world-leading interdisciplinary human rights education, research and practice. At the heart of our work is the interface between the theory and practice of human rights, conflict and acute crises.
Confirmed Speakers
Michael Bach (Institute for Research and Development on Inclusion and Society)
For over 25 years, Michael Bach has undertaken research and development in Canada and internationally on ways to advance the full inclusion and human rights of persons with disabilities. His research and publications cover disability theory, policy and practice in a range of areas including education, employment, and funding and delivery of community-based services. Michael’s particular area of expertise is in legal capacity of people with intellectual disabilities. Michael holds a Ph. D. in Sociology and Equity Studies from the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, where his dissertation focused on developing a more inclusive theory of personhood on which to challenge the usual equation between intellectual disability and legal incapacity. Michael is currently an Open Society Foundations Fellow, continuing his international comparative research on the right to legal capacity for people with significant intellectual and cognitive disabilities.
Peter Beresford
(University of East Anglia)
Peter Beresford is a British academic, writer, researcher and activist best known for his work in the field of citizen participation and user involvement, areas of study he helped to create and develop. He is currently visiting professor and senior research fellow in the School of Health & Social Sciences at the University of East Anglia, emeritus professor of citizen participation at the University of Essex and emeritus professor of social policy at Brunel University London. Much of his work has centred on including the viewpoints, lived experience and knowledge of disabled people, mental health and other long term service users in public policy, practice and learning, and working for a more participatory politics.
Victoria Joffe
(University of Essex)
Victoria is Professor in Speech and Language Therapy and Dean of the School of Health and Social Care at the University of Essex. Her areas of expertise include speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) in children and young people, the interface between education and speech and language therapy, training of teaching staff, language and literacy development, and the embedding of Evidence-Based Practice in routine clinical work. She works collaboratively with various health trusts, education authorities and third sector organisations devising and evaluating research into models of service delivery across the lifespan. She is chair of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists’ national clinical excellence network for older children and young adults with SLCN and is currently working on three NIHR-funded research projects looking into new and innovative interventions for children with social communication disorder, children who stammer and children with Down Syndrome.
Caroline Bald
(University of Essex)
Caroline is a registered social worker qualifying at University of Glasgow (MSW) in Scotland, and is currently the Programme Lead for the MA Social Work at the University of Essex. Caroline’s current research explores brain injury social work, human rights and social work education curricula. Caroline is Director of the 2022 Autonomy Summer School.
Aaron Wyllie
(University of Essex)
Aaron trained as a social worker at Monash University (BA, PhD) in Australia, and is currently the Programme Lead for the BA Social Work at the University of Essex. Aaron’s current research explores older peoples’ experience of home in community and care home contexts.
Hannah Atkinson
(University of Essex)
Hannah is a qualified Speech & Language Therapist and a lecturer at the University of Essex. Hannah’s areas of expertise are acquired communication and swallowing disorders in adults. She has previously worked in a range of healthcare settings, including acute general wards, acute stroke units and community stroke rehabilitation. Hannah’s areas of interest include acute stroke management, dysphagia associated with neurological disorders, as well as the role of Speech & Language Therapists in facilitating mental capacity assessments for people with communication needs.
Karen Chumbley (North East Essex Integrated Care System)
Alex Ruck Keene
(39 Essex Chambers)
Alex is an experienced barrister, writer and educator. His practice is focused on mental capacity law (broadly defined) in which he is able to provide specialist advice and representation. He also writes extensively in the field, editing and contributing to leading textbooks and (amongst many other publications) the 39 Essex Chambers Mental Capacity Law Newsletter, the ‘bible’ for solicitors (and others) working in the area. Alex is a Visiting Lecturer and Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at Kings College London. He served as consultant to the Law Commission in their review of the deprivation of liberty safeguards and as legal counsel to the Wessely Review of the Mental Health Act.
Arun Chopra
(Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland)
Arun is Executive Director (medical) at the Mental Welfare Commission. He is an experienced consultant psychiatrist with a strong clinical background in general adult psychiatry, and an interest in medical law and ethics. He has worked in Scotland, England and New Zealand, and has published research on a range of issues, including the use of advance statements. Prior to his current role, he was employed part-time by the Commission as a consultant doctor overseeing the safeguards for medical treatment in the Mental Health Act.
John Adlam
(Independent Researcher; NHS)
John is a group psychotherapist and independent researcher and a founder member of the Association for Psycho-Social Studies. He lives in Brixton in South London and works for the most part in the National Health Service, where he is Consultant Adult Forensic Psychotherapist at Bethlem Royal Hospital and Principal Adult Psychotherapist at Springfield Hospital. Previously he worked for the Henderson Hospital Democratic Therapeutic Community for the last seven years of that community’s existence, before it was cynically closed in 2008. He also worked for many years for the Adult Eating Disorders Service at Springfield. His new book co-written with Christopher Scanlon – Psycho-social Explorations of Trauma, Exclusion and Violence: Un-housed minds and inhospitable environments – was published earlier this year. He is also co-editor of Violent States and Creative States: From the Global to the Individual (2018); Forensic Music Therapy (2012); and The Therapeutic Milieu Under Fire: Security and Insecurity in Forensic Mental Health (2012) – all published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Laura Wilson
(Autism Anglia)
Laura graduated from University of Essex in 2014 as a speech and language therapist (SLT). She is the Lead therapist and a Specialist SLT working within adult services. She has focused all her clinical training and work experiences within the field of autism. She is also trained to facilitate the Autism Diagnostic Observation schedule (ADOS) alongside other multidisciplinary professionals. Laura’s clinical background also includes working in specialist education with adolescents and in secure mental health services for adults with autism, learning disability and mental health conditions. Laura is passionate about inclusivity and ensuring autistic adults can access all information and opportunities available. She is also very interested in supporting individuals to access meaningful volunteering or paid employment, to support self-esteem and community participation.
Wayne Martin
(Essex Autonomy Project)
Wayne is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Essex, where he is a member of the Essex Human Rights Centre and Director of the Essex Autonomy Project, a research and public policy initiative focusing on the ideal of self-determination (autonomy) in the context of care (health care, social care, eldercare, psychiatric care, etc.). He also holds an honorary research position with the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. He is the author of numerous research articles and reports focusing on issues concerning decision-making and mental capacity in the context of mental health care, and has been involved in policy formation both in the UK and abroad. From 2014-16 he led a team that supported the UK Ministry of Justice in preparation for the review by the United Nations of UK compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In 2018 he served on the Equality and Human Rights topic group for the Wessely Review of the Mental Health Act.
Christopher Scanlon
(Tavistock Centre; University of Essex)
Dr Chris Scanlon (DPhil) is an independent psycho-social Researcher/Consultant; Training Group Analyst at the Institute of Group Analysis (UK) and at the Irish Group Analytic Society (Dublin); a senior associate at the Tavistock Institute for Human Relations (TIHR). He has worked for over 30 years as a practitioner and educator in NHS – including 15 years as an NHS Consultant Psychotherapist in general adult and forensic mental health– specialising in complex multiple exclusion, trauma-informed reflective practice and organisational consultancy – and has acted as expert advisor/consultant to a range of agencies including the NHS England, Department of Health, Ministry of Justice, Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), National Offender Management Services (NOMS), Irish Department of Education as well as a wide range of organisations and agencies working in the field. He has held numerous academic posts and is currently associate lecturer in Psycho-social studies, Integrated Professional Doctorate (IPD) programme at the Tavistock Centre/University of Essex and is a founder member and Board member of the Association for Psychosocial Studies (APS), an associate editor of ‘Journal of Psychosocial Studies’, ‘Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society’ and the ‘British Journal of Psychotherapy’ and is a scholar of the British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC) and a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA). He has published widely in the field and his most recent publication (with John Adlam) ‘Psychosocial explorations of trauma, exclusion and violence’ was published in 2022 https://www.routledge.com/Psycho-social-Explorations-of-Trauma-Exclusion-and-Violence-Un-housed/Scanlon-Adlam/p/book/9780367893316
Patricia Rickard Clarke (Former Commissioner, Law Reform Commission, Ireland)
Patricia Rickard-Clarke is a former Commissioner of the Law Reform Commission. She was the lead Commissioner in relation to the Commission’s work on: Vulnerable Adults and the Law: Capacity, Bioethics: Advance Health Care Directives and Legal Aspects of Professional Home Care. From 2012 to 2016 she was a member of the Council of the Hospice Foundation and of its Think Ahead Project Advisory Group of the Forum on End of Life. She was a member of the Council of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland from 2013 – 2017. She is currently Chair of Safeguarding Ireland clg and Deputy Chair of SAGE Advocacy clg. She was a member of the Multi-Disciplinary Group appointed by the Minister for Health to draft a code of practice on Advance Healthcare Directives, a member of the National Assisted Decision-Making Steering Group of the HSE and was a member of the National Disability Authority’s Expert Group that developed the non-healthcare codes for the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015.
Caoimhe Gleeson
(Health Service Executive, Ireland)
Caoimhe Gleeson leads the National Office for Human Rights and Equality Policy at the Health Service Executive (HSE) in Ireland. She is the HSE representative on the Government of Ireland’s Inter-departmental Steering Board for the commencement of the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act 2015. She led the drafting of codes of practice on supported decision making, assessing capacity and advance healthcare directives for health and social care practitioners. Caoimhe has national responsibility for oversight of the implementation of the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act 2015 in the HSE and of the HSE National Consent Policy which includes the DNA-CPR policy. She led the drafting of the Guidance Regarding Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and DNAR Decision-Making during COVID-19.She holds a Master’s Degree in Community Development, a Professional Diploma in Equality and Human Rights and is an accredited mediator. She is currently studying for an LLB.Caoimhe was a ministerial appointee to the National Research Ethics Committee for COVD-19 during its tenure from April to August 2020 and is a member of the National Research Ethics Committees (NREC) for Clinical Trials.Caoimhe co-edited a recent publication with Professor Mary Donnelly, School of Law, UCC in collaboration with the Decision Support Service titled The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015: Personal and Professional Reflections.
Jude Berraondo
(University of Essex)
Jude is a Speech and Language Therapist working in long term, community-based brain injury rehabilitation. Since 2010, she has worked in bespoke teams around a client, providing treatment whilst they have ongoing medico-legal cases. Prior to this, she has worked in 2 NHS trusts and 2 private in-patient settings.
She is also a Professional Doctorate student, here at the University of Essex. Her area of research is high dosage, high intensity rehabilitation for people with Cognitive-Communication Difficulties post brain injury.
