Abstract

GIVING THE KIDS THE KEY TO THE CANDY SHOP: THE DEVOLUTION OF COMMUNITY LIVING SERVICES GOVERNANCE IN BRITISH COLUMBIA

Tim Stainton

While the news from BC on the social welfare front has been rather gloomy of late, the Community Living Movement, concerned with supports and services for people with intellectual disabilities, has quietly been having remarkable success in winning long advocated for changes to policy, notably a generalized right to individualized funding and independent planning services; limiting the impact of budget reductions; and, most remarkably, concluding an agreement with the provincial government to turn over control of services and the 500mil.+ budget to a devolved governance authority managed by a board with a mandated majority of service users and families. All of this being accomplished in a remarkably short time frame. These changes are being hailed internationally as defining the new leading edge in policy and practice for this constituency.

This paper will present an 'insiders view' of the details of this dramatic policy shift. [the author has been part of the community coalition, the transition steering committee and the interim board of the new authority created in Nov. 2002]. A particular focus will be the unique separation of planning from funding and services in order to establish a rebalancing of power away from the funder (Government) and the service providers towards the people who depend on the supports and services for the exercise of their citizenship rights and autonomous functioning in society. It will also examine the community coalition building and advocacy process which led to these changes. The paper will then consider why this group has been successful in a climate generally recognized as being extremely hostile to progressive welfare policy and the broader implications for policy of devolving governance to those who are most reliant on the services and supports.

Bio

Tim Stainton, PhD (LSE) MSW (UofT) BSW (UWO)

Tim received his BSW from UWO and worked for many years as a service broker in Vancouver before returning to Ontario where he completed his MSW at U of T and then became director of policy and programmes for the Ontario Association for Community Living. He then completed his doctorate at the LSE in social policy and political theory looking at the rights of people with developmental disabilities and individualized funding. He has taught at McGill, University of Wales Swansea, where he was Director Social Work, and is currently at UBC as an Associate Professor of Disability Policy, Theory and Practice in the School of Social Work and Family Studies. He has published numerous books and articles on individualized funding, disability rights, history, ethics and theory including the highly regarded book Autonomy and Social Policy. His research ranges from disability policy, historical construction of intellectual disability, ethics and intellectual disability, models of individualized funding and service delivery and, disability rights. He is active in consultation and training on disability related issues. He was a member of the Community Living Transition Steering Committee for BC and Chaired the Working Group on Individualized Funding and Independent Planning. In November 2002 he was appointed as a parent representative on the Interim Board of Community Living British Columbia, the new governance authority for services and supports for people with an intellectual disability in BC.

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