The National Self-Advocacy Convention

 

There was 320 people who attended a very full national self -advocacy convention last month that ran through from the 24^th-27^th February.

 

 

It has been run now as The National Self-advocacy convention for the last 2 years.

Before this it was the Northwest Self-advocacy Convention and has been held at Grand Hotel in Blackpool for 17 years.

 

 

 

It was very exciting for everyone who came and was 3 full days of fun. I must say it gets more interesting and fun every year.

 

 

 

 

The team who organised it were the Pathways / North West Development Team (NWDT).

 

 

 

The conference, you cannot fault, it was a chance for all groups to network. There was plenty of workshops and a chance to look at big issues and discuss important topics and our vision for 2030.

 

 

The conference opened with a lot of music as you approached the stage. Vicky Buckingham got people exercising in her Zumba class and then there was Dance Syndrome and Disco.

 

 

There was also a Gala night on Wednesday which had a magician doing tricks. The only negative thing I will say is I think we may be in need of a bigger venue for next year! It would be great to see the convention grow even bigger than it already has.

 

 

Lasty, well done and thank you to everyone who worked on organising the conference, those who spoke or ran workshops and of course everyone who attended. Without you this brilliant event would not be able to happen every year.

By Gary Bourlet

 

The Challenging Behaviour Foundation is currently working with Respond, the Tizard Centre and Three Cs to produce a report on the need for trauma support for the families of individuals with learning disabilities and/or autism.

The purpose of the project is to highlight trauma (an often hidden area) for families of children and adults with learning disabilities and/or autism; to understand what support, if any, family carers (e.g. parents, siblings, grandparents) are receiving, what their experiences are, and what they need. Read more → “Challenging Behaviour Foundation Trauma Survey”

Birmingham workshop 19th February 2020

By Gary Bourlet

 

We held our first self-advocacy workshop in Birmingham to start the work on Good Lives 2020. This was about bringing self-advocacy groups around the country together, not about new ideas, but about working together on how to put ideas into action. A lot of these have been talked about for at least 20 or 30 years, but a lot has been said and not been made happen.

It’s all a chance for these groups to network together as a lot of groups have been doing things separately. Each individual group would work on individual issues most important to them and network these with other groups, so its not about one group taking on everything.

Read more → “Good Lives 2020 Self Advocates Workshop”

Learning Disability England is looking for 6 members who want to join the Representative Body

Between now and June 2020 there will be elections for 6 places on the Representative Body.

The Representative Body are people elected by Learning Disability England members to speak up for them and help make sure Learning Disability England is doing a good job

Read more → “Representative Body Elections”

Today the Equality and Human Rights Commission has written to the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock starting a legal challenge over the failure to protect the Human Rights of people with learning disabilities and autistic people.

As an organisation and a membership, we are pleased to see the rights of people with learning disabilities and autistic people being championed through this legal challenge.

Read more → “Legal action on Human Rights”

Two different perspectives by Gary Bourlet, self-advocate, and Frank Steeples, Quality Assurance lead at KeyRing

The #DeclareYourCare campaign that is going this month is to encourage people with learning disabilities or autism, their family, carers and advocates to complain and give feedback on their care.

People with learning disabilities are 17% more likely to regret not complaining about issues with care than people without learning disabilities. But everyone has the right to complain if you are treated unfairly, especially when it comes to your care.

Read more → “#DeclareYourCare Campaign – Two Perspectives”

 

by Sui-Ling Tang from the Supported Loving Network

 

 

I met a lovely lady called Emma who is a producer working for Whistledown Productions. Emma approached me and asked if I wanted to make a radio programme called “Assisted Loving”. I think she must have spoken to someone about me who had seen me in the C4 news film about relationships that I did.

Read more → “My experience of being a presenter for a radio 4 documentary”

Learning Disability England’s Annual General Meeting will be held on 12th February 2020

 

 

 

Read more → “Annual General Meeting notice”

 

 

Blog from Gary Bourlet and the LDE Team

This year, Learning Disability England are giving workshops on self-advocacy to people who work for organisations that give support or care to people with learning disabilities.

We are getting the people who come along to think about what self-advocacy is and what they can do for self-advocacy in their job.

Read more → “Talking to support organisations about self-advocacy”

What does a Good Life for people with a learning disability look like in this new decade?

Learning Disability England wants to work with people, groups and organisations to talk about what we know people with learning disabilities and / or autism want so they can live a good life.

There has been lots of research over the years and we believe the time has come to take action together. We believe the power of change lies in you, our membership, talking and working together to work out what you agree on and can take action on together.

Read more → “Good Lives 2020”