Startseite 10 ‘We don’t deal with people, we deal with bricks and mortar’: a lived experience perspective on UK health and housing policy
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10 ‘We don’t deal with people, we deal with bricks and mortar’: a lived experience perspective on UK health and housing policy

  • Alison Cameron
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Social Policy First Hand
Ein Kapitel aus dem Buch Social Policy First Hand

Abstract

The statement in the title by a Housing Officer in my local borough said so much. The focus on the provision of at best a house rather than a home ignores the impact lack of suitable housing can have on the human beings who are so often the recipients of the results of decisions made about them without them. Having made the transition from homelessness to now having a social housing tenancy and a further transition from long-term dependency on benefits, I have come to redefine my understanding of Squalor – one of the ‘giant evils’ Beveridge defined in his then groundbreaking report.

I believe he meant it in a ‘bricks and mortar’ sense. Having people living in squalid conditions was clearly the key challenge in those times. I have come to see it these days as having deeper connotations.

An archaic definition of ‘stigma’ is a brand on the skin. I see squalor as also being about mud that sticks. People forced to rely on benefits, and if lucky housed in social housing, are increasingly viewed as being of lesser worth – the ‘undeserving poor’, the ‘feckless’, and so on. I noted with horror the building of so-called ‘affordable housing’ in private developments with separate entrances for those lesser mortals. The creation of ‘poor doors’ with markedly less attractive fixtures and fittings and even segregated bins to make sure even the rubbish of the lesser is kept away from the throwaways of the privileged.

The UK Care Act 2014 defines housing as one of nine areas of ‘wellbeing’ which local authorities must promote and give proper attention to ‘the suitability of living accommodation’ (HM Government, 2014)

In 2015 the Building Research Establishment more than doubled its 2010 estimate of cost to the UK National Health Service (NHS) of poor housing from £600 million to £1.5 billion.

Abstract

The statement in the title by a Housing Officer in my local borough said so much. The focus on the provision of at best a house rather than a home ignores the impact lack of suitable housing can have on the human beings who are so often the recipients of the results of decisions made about them without them. Having made the transition from homelessness to now having a social housing tenancy and a further transition from long-term dependency on benefits, I have come to redefine my understanding of Squalor – one of the ‘giant evils’ Beveridge defined in his then groundbreaking report.

I believe he meant it in a ‘bricks and mortar’ sense. Having people living in squalid conditions was clearly the key challenge in those times. I have come to see it these days as having deeper connotations.

An archaic definition of ‘stigma’ is a brand on the skin. I see squalor as also being about mud that sticks. People forced to rely on benefits, and if lucky housed in social housing, are increasingly viewed as being of lesser worth – the ‘undeserving poor’, the ‘feckless’, and so on. I noted with horror the building of so-called ‘affordable housing’ in private developments with separate entrances for those lesser mortals. The creation of ‘poor doors’ with markedly less attractive fixtures and fittings and even segregated bins to make sure even the rubbish of the lesser is kept away from the throwaways of the privileged.

The UK Care Act 2014 defines housing as one of nine areas of ‘wellbeing’ which local authorities must promote and give proper attention to ‘the suitability of living accommodation’ (HM Government, 2014)

In 2015 the Building Research Establishment more than doubled its 2010 estimate of cost to the UK National Health Service (NHS) of poor housing from £600 million to £1.5 billion.

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Front Matter i
  2. Contents iii
  3. List of figures and tables vii
  4. Foreword viii
  5. Introduction 1
  6. Service users and social policy: an introduction
  7. Challenging injustice: the importance of collective ownership of social policy 14
  8. Participation and solidarity in a changing welfare state 22
  9. Social policy in developing countries: a post-colonial critique and participatory inquiry 33
  10. Advancing sustainability: developing participatory social policy in the context of environmental disasters 43
  11. Social policy and disability 51
  12. A case study of children’s participation in health policy and practice 62
  13. Who owns co-production? 74
  14. Critiquing and reconceiving Beveridge’s ‘five giant evils’: key areas of British post-war social policy from a lived experience perspective
  15. Rethinking disabled people’s rights to work and contribute 86
  16. Talking policy as a patient 95
  17. ‘We don’t deal with people, we deal with bricks and mortar’: a lived experience perspective on UK health and housing policy 98
  18. Education (ignorance) addressing inclusive education: the issues and its importance from a participatory perspective 103
  19. “For work, we came here to find work”: migrant Roma employment and the labour of language 107
  20. The contribution of service user knowledges
  21. Disability policy and lived experience: reflections from regional Australia 120
  22. Renewing epistemologies: service user knowledge 132
  23. Pornography, feminist epistemology and changing public policy 142
  24. Making social policy internationally: a participatory research perspective 147
  25. An inclusive life course and developmental approach to social policy
  26. Disabled children’s lives: an inclusive life course and developmental approach to social policy 163
  27. Troubled youth and troubling social policy: mental health from a Mad Studies perspective 172
  28. Disability: an inclusive life course and developmental approach to social policy 181
  29. Independent living from a Black Disabled Woman’s perspective 188
  30. Food poverty and the policy context in Ireland 195
  31. Implementing race equality policies in British health and social care: a perspective from experience 205
  32. Participatory approaches to social policy in relation to ageing 211
  33. Death, dying and digital stories 223
  34. Transforming social policy
  35. People acting collectively can be powerful 233
  36. Their participation and ours: competing visions of empowerment 243
  37. A participatory approach to professional practice 251
  38. Dreams of justice 257
  39. Sustainable-participatory social policy 262
  40. Participatory social policy in a large EU research project 277
  41. Campaigning and change
  42. Approaches to activism
  43. ‘What is strong, not what is wrong’ 292
  44. Participatory social policy and social change: exploring the role of social entrepreneurship linked to forms of social and micro enterprises in the field of social care 297
  45. Public duty, whistleblowing and scandal: influences on public policy 306
  46. ‘Informed gender practice in acute mental health’: when policy makes sense 311
  47. Making the case for single sex wards 314
  48. #JusticeforLB: in search of truth, accountability and justice 319
  49. The role of online platforms and social media
  50. Guerilla policy: new platforms for making policy from below 323
  51. A Magna Carta for learning disabled people 327
  52. Pat’s Petition: The emerging role of social media and the internet 332
  53. Breaking down barriers
  54. Inclusion and difference in the formulation and operation of social policy
  55. “LGBT History Month is a thing!” The story of an equal rights campaign 338
  56. Progressing gender recognition and trans rights in the UK 343
  57. User-led approaches to social policy
  58. Transforming professional training and education – a gap mending approach: the PowerUs European partnership 349
  59. Grassroots tackling policy: the making of the ‘Spartacus Report’ 355
  60. Involvement for influence: developing the 4Pi Involvement Standards 362
  61. Participatory research and evaluation
  62. From expert to service user: challenging how lived experience is demeaned 369
  63. Participatory methodologies involving marginalised perspectives 376
  64. Developing the evidence to challenge ‘welfare reform’: the road to ‘Cash Not Care’ 389
  65. Service user-controlled research for evidence-based policymaking 394
  66. Participatory citizenship, gender and human trafficking in Nepal 406
  67. Experiential knowledge in mental health policy and legislation: can we ever change the agenda? 418
  68. Conclusion 427
  69. Notes on contributors 435
  70. Index 447
Heruntergeladen am 2.10.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.56687/9781447332558-013/html
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