Here's the offensive, unsigned letter from Adult Social Care that I referred to in my last post. This is in the public interest and may be of help to others who have suffered such complete disrespect from Social Care services, as I know many LGBT+ parents have experienced when unnecessarily harassed about the welfare of their children by homophobes. Nevertheless, I received this despite not being a parent. I'm not even a young adult and haven't been for at least the past decade, am a graduate and was a mature student when I was at uni.
This letter even has the nerve to claim it's trying to help me be safe in my home while undermining every home safety rule. Interestingly, it has no concern for improving my home security features. Quite the contrary, it aggressively breaks all the rules when it comes to home security, especially in relation to doorstep crime. For instance, she doesn't even say how many people, what their names and job titles are, what their ID should look like and what ID numbers to check for, provide any code words to check they are the right people. (Not that I would let them in even if she had provided all that. We've had numerous workmen, delivery men etc come to our home by our choice and at a mutually convenient time by prior appointment or by a booked delivery slot so it's ridiculous to behave as though our house is some mysterious place no-one has ever been. I even depicted delivery men coming to our home to deliver essentials during C-19 in my collage artwork!🤦, see my Instagram:)
She's encouraging the very mentality doorstep crime prevention tries to train people out of, such as blindly trusting ID (as though fake ID doesn't exist); not questioning who someone is simply because they look like an authority figure eg dress like they come from the Council (despite it being well-known that some con men pose as people from the Council or as policemen); trying to erode assertiveness, which Brighton and Hove Council educate their residents to realise is a vital skill to use against doorstep crime. They include handy phrases in their downloadable guide, such as: I have the right to decide who I admit to my home.... regardless of your attempts to manipulate me.
I have blocked out any details that are borough specific but left in the woman's name because it is not a private letter, she is in a public job by working for the Council and so this impacts on public trust in Council authorities and services. This is important since the Council pays for Adult Social Care by taxing residents, and routinely keeps raising the amount they tax us for it, by claiming there's an increase in the amount of people needing care and that they give vital help to the elderly, ill and disabled. Social Care is allocated over 60% of my borough's entire budget, on the basis that they are always doing good, life enhancing, necessary work with the multi-millions of pounds (around £80 million annually) they receive between residential and business tax. No mention of needing to increase how much tax they demand because they are wasting resources on trying to foist it onto someone like me: a fit, healthy, able woman in their 30's. Social Care is way ahead of any other category the budget is spent on in my borough: the environment and economy is down at under 20%; benefits, buildings, infrastructure and services are just over 10% while public health and wellbeing is under 5%. No wonder there was zero help in this borough during the pandemic - they were too busy misallocating time and money on abusing the huge Social Care budget on harassing certain residents instead of restricting it's usage to the disabled, frail and ill who need and want assistance. Where's the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan? Time to sort this borough out!
As I mentioned previously, I was never missing or 'not seen' out and about, nor was I unsafe or unwell at any point. This was just a fabricated story by a harasser (individual/group coordinating together) to trigger an harassment welfare police visit at my home, which is a tactic often used to try to disrupt the victim's life, mess with their reputation/ what's true about them and their life, as well as cause them shock and emotional distress. So there is no obligation or duty for a Council to follow up any such police visit with yet more unnecessary welfare checks. This is especially true since the government relaxed Social Care duties a couple of years ago (termed 'easements' since March 31st 2020, due to C-19), resulting in 69% of the people surveyed with learning disabilities having their care severely reduced or removed, according to Mencap. How about focusing on re-establishing Council duty towards giving them the care they need and want, not exaggerating your duties towards someone like me who doesn't need or want any social care!
Moreover, a key principle underpinning the entire 2014 Care Act is that of 'Empowerment' which entails consent, self-determination by acting through their own authority, asserting their autonomy and being involved in everything at every stage. So this letter flies in the face of the very principles behind the Care Act by doing nothing but disempowering me at every turn. It even tries to create the very sense of helplessness and lack of ability to assert oneself that the Care Act is meant to prevent even the most vulnerable people from feeling. And it applies this disempowerment to just about every area of life, from medical to financial. Both the police and this Council letter have a sudden fixation in July 2022 on influencing my choice of GP, which I find very strange. 🤔
Furthermore, consent from the person who could receive any such services from Social Care is a vital part of any Social Care process from the age of 16, including, for instance, those with learning disabilities who need it to transition from Child Social Care to Adult Social Care. So it is insulting to override my ability to consent throughout this letter! In addition, I've learnt that this Empowerment Principle behind the Care Act requires you to obtain the consent from the adult in question before reporting any safeguarding issues about them to local authorities or police. So none of this should have been allowed to take place behind my back and without my knowledge and consent. So why was this allowed by the very public institutions which people are meant to trust and rely on for justice and fairness in British society?
Proportionality is another well-known principle underpinning the Care Act 2014, which requires the Social Care sector to use a subtle approach and be unintrustive into people's lives. Again, involving the adult in all decisions is known to be key to achieving proportionality, preventing unnecessary interference and avoiding harm.
Not to mention that my data should never be passed to a third party, such as the Fire Brigade, without my knowledge and consent. The importance of the Data Protection Act being abided by is made clear in the Social Care sector and it has a vital role within the Care Act. Besides, my home is very fire safe, complete with modern furniture which is made according to the latest fire safety regulations. And, for instance, we cook very safely and quite minimally; we always have shabbat candles in secure holders, they are never left unattended, are monitored long after their candle flame goes out and we don't use matches to light them so there are no sparks. The list goes on. So if there were to be a fire, it would be arson and sabotage because it's not possible in our home. How about focusing on educating my neighbours who light and cook barbecues under untreated wooden garden constructions right next to my fence line and others who periodically light bonfires in ad hoc bins by setting plywood alight with barbecue lighting fluid bottles and lighters, causing plumes of stinky smoke! This is not only unhealthy and unsafe but it also ruins our enjoyment of our wildlife gardens. Here's some of my photographic evidence of one of the open bonfires in an adjoining garden, these ones were taken Saturday 30th July 2022. I've chosen the photos which show the extent of the flames and smoke created near my back garden from the large bonfire, without showing any details of their garden or house:
That's an environmental problem the Council claim to disapprove of, not to mention a fire safety hazard. I wonder who's booked them in for a lesson on fire safety regulations without their consent? 🤔
And when it's not inappropriate police visits, or an abusive council, it's the neighbours once again: last night I overheard a neighbour boast to a few other neighbours that he'd "rung" someone and they were "on their way", as they were standing around in the street, pointing and gesturing aggressively at my home. The result? Someone arriving in a car briefly once it was dark, just to shove my dustbins around in my garden and leave them in disarray. This is despite very strict and clear signs to prevent trespassing. Such signs are a standard recommendation in the UK-wide prevention of what's termed doorstep crime - it is assumed that this helps guard against even con men, so who acts like this?! This is not a rough area of London by any stretch of the imagination, and it is recommended for young families looking for excellent schools. They are not some young lads mucking around outside their homes but older and much older males in traditional heterosexual families or older couples behaving outlandishly in a quiet, suburban residential street. 🤷
This obsession and fixation with me and getting into my garden and my home needs to stop.
And if it's not the police following up false reports, or the council running with it or another matter they shouldn't be dealing with, street harassment or neighborhood harassment, it's the evangelicals. Or at least they claim to be, although the English is somewhat grammatically inaccurate eg "How possible?" and the postal area might be incorrect for a letter that is apparently sent internally within my borough. Again, since it's not a private letter but apparently something she's advertising to everyone locally, I have blocked out the borough but not her name. The address she gave top left of the letter was not her home address but rather the Jehovah's Witness Church's address for this borough, which isn't even particularly close to where I live. So I have no idea why she's addressing me as her neighbour or referring to inviting their neighbours, because those who live near their church/ meeting house live in a different area of this borough from me. The email address server seems to be 'rcloud' which strikes me as odd because that's not a server people use for personal email accounts or even churches, businesses etc. It seems more tech and security orientated so a strange choice of email to provide.
She hasn't included the date in the letter, but the envelope it arrived in says it was sent 2nd class on the 1st July, which was the day me and my mother celebrated, along with the LGBTQIAPDenby+ community, the 50th Anniversary of Pride UK and Jehovah's Witnesses are known to be anti-LGBT+. Needless to say I didn't contact her or scan the code or attend any online meetings. But interesting that it arrived so shortly before the police welfare visit on the 6th July wondering why I hadn't been "seen" despite all the evidence proving to the contrary, that both my mother and I were well, visible and active, including in relation to our home address and local area, the whole time, both in person and online.
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