Disabled People Negotiate Gender, Sexual Identity & Self-Directed Social Care Support in England: how does choice and control operate?

David Abbott; Ned Coleman-Fountain; Harvey Humphrey

doi:10.1332/20498608Y2024D000000043

Disabled People Negotiate Gender, Sexual Identity & Self-Directed Social Care Support in England: how does choice and control operate?

David Abbott, Ned Coleman-Fountain, Harvey Humphrey

Sociology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Putting disabled people in charge of their own support was a central component of the UK personalisation agenda. Austerity, staff recruitment difficulties and local authority retrenchment, has meant that the experience for disabled people has not always lived up to the rhetorical promise. In this context, disabled people with marginalised sexual and/or gender identities face difficult choices in everyday interactions of support which trouble the idea that control routinely sits with them. In this paper we draw on two research studies with disabled people who use self-directed support in which they discuss navigating gender and sexual identity. In both studies, there are opportunities for disabled people to draw on support which is empowering, but we also hear about 'bad bargains’ they are sometimes forced to make. We argue that the hard-won goals of choice and control are being degraded and confronting LGBTQI+ and non-binary disabled people with sometimes impossible dilemmas.

Original language	English
Number of pages	17
Journal	Critical and Radical Social Work
Early online date	2 Sept 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1332/20498608Y2024D000000043
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 2 Sept 2024

Bibliographical note

Keywords

disabled people
Sexuality and gender
Social Care
Personalisation
control

Access to Document

10.1332/20498608Y2024D000000043Licence: CC BY

crsw-article-10.1332-20498608Y2024D000000043
© Authors 2024
Final published version, 321 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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