Stronger, Louder, Together!
The coronation of Charles III and Queen consort, Camilla is taking place on Saturday 6th May 2023, at Westminster Abbey.
Learning Disability England was invited to attend an accessibility expert panel ahead of the coronation.
Wendy Burt, member of Learning Disability England and former member of the rep body attended as representative.
She has written a blog about her experience.
Simon Cramp
Last Friday, 4 people were convicted for the crimes they committed working at Whorlton Hall.
You can read about the convictions here.
The quote above is from Simon, a lifetime member of Learning Disability England.
He spoke about what any of us can say or do as we are reminded of yet another way people with learning disabilities and autistic people are being failed or actively harmed.
“We need the right support at the right time from the right people, close to home”
Kate Chate – Rep and Family member
The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel have just published their second report about residential care settings in Doncaster run by the Hesley Group.
The reports found that in these homes between the 1st January 2018 and March 21st 2021 many children experienced neglect, abuse and were not having their needs met.
You can read both reports here.
Learning Disability England endorses the joint statement made by Dr Margaret Flynn, Dame Christine Lenehan and Dr Sheila Fish and held by the Coalition for Change.
By Ramandeep Kaur – Mum to Harry (15) who has Down’s syndrome
As a parent of a young lad with learning disabilities, I am hugely disappointed that the government have decided not to implement the proposed Small Payments Scheme for parents/carers and young people who wish to access their Child Trust Funds.
I opened my son Harry’s account when he was born and I was not informed at any point that I would need to go through the Court of Protection to access his money when he turned 18. There was no information in the packs sent out to parents and I feel that I was ill informed. Had I been aware of this, I would most likely not have opened the account for him. He has £7000 sitting in an account which I will now have to pay up to £1000 in court fees to be able to access. The forms are long and quite complicated and I am having to ask others to help me complete them. As someone who has lots of experience in filling out forms, even I have been struggling to fill them out, so I worry that many people will find themselves in the same situation. If we ask a lawyer to support us, this will cost even more money.
Read more “Response to the government consultation on the Small Payments Scheme”
The results of the Mental Capacity Act small payments scheme announced.
This news piece will talk about what this means for families and carers of people with learning disabilities and autistic people.
The consultation paper ‘Mental capacity Act small payments scheme’ was published on 16 November 2021.
It invited people to give their views on the possibility of a small payments scheme.
If agreed, the scheme would have made it easier to access small amounts of money (less than £2,500) of people who lack capacity but do not have a Court of protection Order (CoP) or Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA).
This would have been beneficial, especially for family members and carers of people with learning disabilities and autistic people.
Members of Learning Disability England contributed to the consultation process and this week, the Ministry of Justice published its results.
There is now a date set for the next members meeting.
This year it will be happening online over Zoom.
These meetings are for us to speak about the work that has been happening for the organisation over the last year and what will be happening in the future.
It will also go over Learning Disability England’s accounts which is how much money has come in and out.
There will also be an opportunity for members to make some decisions or ask questions.
When
The meeting will happen on the 6th December 2023.
What time
The meeting will start at 10am.
We think the meeting will last 1 hour.
Accessible resources and information to help you use your vote or support others to use theirs in the upcoming General Election
There will be a General Election happening on Thursday 4th July 2024.
A General Election usually happens every 5 years and it will be a chance for you to vote for a new government to run the country.
In 2022, Learning Disability England heard from some people that there is not a lot of leadership or speaking-up training that includes minority ethnic people with learning disabilities and autistic people.
We were also told that training about different people’s experiences and anti-racist practice is not accessible to many autistic people and people with learning disabilities.
We learnt about this by working with people and organisations as part of the Equal Treatment and Working Together to get the job done projects.
Learning Disability England wanted to find out what leadership or similar training there is aimed at or led by people with learning disabilities or autistic people.
Healthwatch has written an open letter to NHS England to improve the Accessible Information Standard (AIS).
This has been signed by eight other members of the Your Care, Your Way campaign, including Learning Disability England.
The Your Care, Your Way campaign is trying to help make sure people are receiving healthcare in the way they understand.
All providers of NHS care or other publicly-funded adult social care must meet the Accessible Information Standard (AIS).
We looked at the map of fees paid to support providers that the Association For Real Change (ARC England) Learning Disability Research Unit has shared.
It shows that most Councils are not paying as much as it costs to run the services.
You can see the map here.
As member reps at Learning Disability England our 1st reaction was fear.
We are scared what the reality of his map means for people who draw on support and their families.
We hear stories of people struggling, becoming unwell and crisis.