Life for people with learning disabilities through the pandemic: what have the first wave findings told us?
Blog by Gary Bourlet, Membership and Engagement Lead and self advocate
Stronger, Louder, Together!
Blog by Gary Bourlet, Membership and Engagement Lead and self advocate
Guest blog from Jan Walmsley on encouraging people with profound and multiple learning disabilities to be more involved in self-advocacy.
Read the easy read summary here.
Self-advocacy and people with profound and multiple learning disabilities do not often go together. I noticed this when I first learnt about it in the 1980s. Jackie Downer, LDE lifetime member and a pioneer of ethnically sensitive self-advocacy put it like this when we wrote a chapter together
“I think it can work but it will take time. And we people with learning difficulties, we got no time.” (Walmsley and Downer 1997 p. 44).
Read more “Self-advocacy for people with profound and multiple learning disabilities”
A new Centre called the IMPACT (Improving Adult Care Together) Centre has been launched today.
What is life really like for people with learning disabilities during the pandemic?
NHS England and NHS Improvement has published a new LeDeR Policy this week.
Lots of people with learning difficulties do not find the benefit system easy or helpful. Too many people live in poverty and too many people find themselves stuck in poverty traps – unable to work – unable to live with a partner – unable to have savings. In the past few years the system has got even worse with lower benefits and more tests, sanctions and stigma.
Can we change the system?
There is a growing demand around the world for a new kind of benefit system called Basic Income:
Everybody gets enough money to live on
People are not punished if they work
People can keep any money they earn
People get their own money, whoever they live with
But how does this work for disabled people?
Simon Duffy (a co-founder of LDE) and Caroline Richardson (a co-founder of Spartacus Network) have developed a proposal called Basic Income Plus – showing how basic income would work for disabled people.
You can read an Easy Read version of their ideas here: https://www.centreforwelfarereform.org/library/basic-income-plus-easy-read-version.html
Simon Duffy will be leads the session, explaining Basic Income. There will be time to ask questions and discuss the ideas.
This webinar is from Learning Disability England members only. If you would like information about joining, click here.
This session will talk about how people who live together can decide how to share costs such as food shopping, bills and furniture. We will also talk about how to manage a shared vehicle and what the alternatives are.
Read more “Managing shared household expenses: What’s best practice?”
The Supreme Court has published its judgements about Sleep-Ins and pay.
Guest blog from Jan Walmsley on encouraging people with profound and multiple learning disabilities to be more involved in self-advocacy.
Today the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have published their report about the review of ‘do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation’ (DNAR)decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read more “CQC publish review of DNAR during Covid 19: ‘Protect, respect, connect’”