Think Tank Advisory group

Kaliya Franklin is a well known disability rights campaigner who worked for LDE between April 2014 and May 2019.

Kaliya helped to found Learning Disability England.

Kaliya has been asked by IPPR to join their advisory board to help make sure that the work they are doing on social security includes disabled people.

IPPR are a think tank. A think tank is an organisation that brings different people together to help them find out what isn’t working with things like benefits or social care. A think tank comes up with ways that things like employment or education could work better.

Politicians look at the ideas from think tanks when they are thinking about what they want to do better when they are in charge.

LDE are really pleased that Kaliya has been asked to be part of the IPPR advisory board. We know that Kaliya understands how problems with benefits, social care, employment and education make life difficult for disabled people. We know that Kaliya really cares about making sure things work in the right way for learning disabled people.

We understand why Kaliya decided to use the employment tribunal system after she was made redundant from LDE. We have come to an agreement with her which includes a financial settlement. We would like to thank Kaliya for working with the organisation to find a way forward and coming to an agreement which has allowed both parties to move on.

Update 10/8/20: Kaliya Franklin wrote this statement above, and asked Learning Disability England to post it on our website as part of our agreement with her. We have therefore published it  – in full, and unedited – as agreed with Kaliya.