Stronger, Louder, Together!
Learning Disability England is looking to appoint an Administration Lead to join the staff team.
This role is an important part of the organisation’s daily work. It includes leading the administration of memberships and finances, and supporting other team members with projects and events.
This notice is to announce the Learning Disability England Annual Members General Meeting for 2025.
Where
The meeting will be online over Zoom.
Responding to new report on the state of the adult social care workforce in England…
The State of the Adult Social Care Sector and Workforce in England annual report from Skills for Care shares information about the people who work in adult social care – how many there are, what jobs they do, and the challenges employers are facing.
The report for 2025 has just been published, read here.
It shows that the number of jobs in social care is growing and that the number of vacant posts has fallen to 7%.
That is still high though compared to other kinds of jobs like working in a shop.
The report also showed what many people already know, which is that lots of people are leaving their jobs – this can range from 42% turnover in some organisations to 14.5% in others.
Kate Green, Member of Learning Disability England, was recently invited to be part of the Transplant Games and shares her experience in this new blog…
Going to the Transplant Games was an amazing experience. It’s a bit like the Olympics, with sports like archery, track events, volleyball, and squash.
People from different transplant centres across the UK come together to take part.
The LeDeR report for 2023, published just yesterday, shows that people with learning disabilities and autistic people are still dying far too young – on average 20 years earlier than other people.
Other key findings from the report:
Learning Disability England representative body members have responded to findings of the report:
Clear, accessible communication is important for everyone when using health and care services.
As Gary Bourlet, Self-advocate and Membership and Engagement Lead says:
“Everyone with learning disability should be able to understand what is being said, by doing this it empowers us and gives us independence.”
For people with learning disabilities, autism, sensory impairments, or communication needs, having information in the right format can make a big difference to how they understand and manage their health and care.
To try and help with this, there is a set of rules called the Accessible Information Standard (AIS).
This standard is used by NHS and adult social care services in England.
Gary Bourlet and Rachael Hall from Learning Disability England, attended Festibility last month, ‘Kent’s best accessible Music Festival’, to spread the Good Lives word and encourage others to join the movement. They share how it went in this latest blog…
FestAbility is more than just a music festival – it’s a celebration of joy, inclusion and community.
Held in Kent and set up by two incredible family members, Debs and Vanessa, FestAbility is designed to be fully accessible and welcoming for disabled people of all ages.
Rep Body Member, Kumudu and Membership and Engagement Lead, Amanda went to the Open University for the SHLD conference to run the Good Lives Photobooth. Here they share how it went…
Kumudu and Amanda went to the Social History of Learning Disability Conference 2025 to learn from others and share the Good Lives framework.
We were so pleased to be part of such a brilliant programme which opened our minds to the many different ways that people with Learning Disabilities are reclaiming and retelling their histories.
You can find out more about the conference here.
This year was the 30th Anniversary of the Social History of Learning Disability (SHLD) Conference Programme, held on 9-10th July 2025.
The conference is about the importance of the stories, memories and histories of people with learning disabilities.
It’s a powerful place where people with Learning Disabilities record their own experiences and take up space in the archives and history books!
The Government have published their plans for how the NHS will work in the future.
It is called Fit for the Future: The 10 Year Health Plan for England
It has big ideas in it for making the NHS work better but also to help people live healthier lives.
Learning Disability England members were part of the consultations that led to this plan – you can read about that here.
Lots of things Learning Disability England members said are important are part of the plan.
On 4th June, Learning Disability England took part in a Parliamentary Reception hosted by the Adult Social Care All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG).
The APPG is a cross party group of Parliamentarians, with an interest in social care, supported by a working group of organisations, including Learning Disability England, and a lived experience advisory group.