Stronger, Louder, Together!
An organisation called National Voices has created ‘Our Covid Voices’ which is a project which allows people with long-term conditions, disabilities and other health and care needs to share with the world what life is like for them right now. They can talk about their experiences of the UK under lockdown as they happen.
Learning Disability England have worked with 10 other organisations to jointly write to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to raise their concerns about the decision to stop carrying out inspections of care homes and hospitals.
On 16 March 2020, the CQC announced a cessation of regular inspections, save for “in a very small number of cases” where there are “concerns of harm, such as allegations of abuse”.
Read more “Challenge made over lack of CQC inspections during coronavirus pandemic”
Training session
10 – 11am 22nd May
(Zoom meeting)
This is being led by the British Institute of Human Rights and hosted by Learning Disability England in support of the Right 2 Home campaign
The British Medical Association (BMA) is the national organisation that represents doctors.
They have written a paper about what doctors should do if there are more people with Covid-19 than they can treat.
We are recruiting a temporary Administrative Assistant to join our small team who support Bridget, our Office Manager, with the day-to-day running of the office at Learning Disability England.
Read more “We’re recruiting an Administrative Assistant (maternity cover of approximately one year)”
Covid 19 and the rights of disabled people – statement supported by disabled people’s organisations and allies
Learning Disability England is one of many organisations and thousands of people supporting a statement about the rights of disabled people during Covid 19.
The statement sets out the principles we believe should underpin all health and support decisions now.
The government have made a new law called the Coronavirus Law.
It has changed some things to help the country and services cope whilst Coronavirus is widespread
We’re all in this together – let’s keep working together
Blog by Gary Bourlet, self advocate and member of the LDE team
We need to take inspiration from Formula 1 racing manufacturers who are coming together during these difficult times and making ventilators for our hospitals.
We need to take inspiration from supermarkets as they are joining up as one, not just trying to get the most business, but making sure there’s food for everyone in the stores together.
It’s great to see self-advocacy organisations, families, carers and provider organisations following these leads to work together to provide services together for the sake of people with learning disabilities and/or autism.
These different groups all have their own strengths and a different viewpoint, so by joining up in these hard times it could be really powerful.
Nobody has had to deal with these types of international issues before and it is a chance for groups to get even better at co-working and learning from each other as they all struggle to deal with the crisis.
The different groups are often all fighting for similar things but can still be competitive. But this is no time for competition. This is time for collaboration. It’s great to see this is happening.
Communication is so important – making a digital radio station, joining together to improve social media networking, making sure everyone has the technology to be able to take part in video sharing etc.
That’s why we have developed our Resource Hub. This will help keep people with learning disabilities and/or autism connected with their families, friends, carers and providers during these hard times.
Please spread the word to everyone who works in the field of people with learning disabilities and/or autism, their families, carers and providers that we are all in this together and so we need to keep working together and carry on helping each other stay strong.
Frequently Asked Questions on Corona virus guidance and work- regular updates
The NHS England Learning Disability and Autism programme team are sharing an update every Friday
There are extra measures for a group of people whose physical health conditions mean they are at the greatest risk from Coronavirus.
The guidance can be found here. There is an easy read version of the guidance as well as long information.
Some of the group of people who are extra vulnerable will be people with a learning disability, autism or both so it is important people and their supporters know about it.