Representatives from Learning Disability England recently attended a meeting for the Social Care All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG).

Mary Woodhall (Self-advocate Rep), Marianne Selby-Boothroyd (Paid supporter Rep) and James O’Rourke (Family Rep) went along.

The APPG is a group of Parliamentarians from across lots of political parties who are all focused on making social care better.

The government have published a White Paper called Get Britain working – it says their plans to change the different kinds of help to work there is for young people and disabled people. 

There are positive actions in the plan to work across government on.

We hope this plan will lead to a focus on contribution so many more people with learning disabilities can work but also the other contributions people can make are supported and valued. 

Blog from Ivan Olbrechts – Family and friends member rep

Learning Disability England has been supporting the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) as they try to increase the quality and safety of nursing.

They want to do this by improving regulation of nurses in advanced practice roles.

In nursing, advanced practice means registered nurses with extra education and training that mean they can practice at a higher level.

This includes carrying out tasks such as assessment, diagnosis, and treatment.

This post will be talking about the Terminally ill Adults Bill and the conversations around it. 

It is going to mention some subjects that people might find upsetting, including: terminal illness, death/dying, Assisted Dying and DNARs. 

Blog by James Harrison – Tenant at Fairoak Housing Association

Ivan Olbrechts, family and friends Rep Body member, represented Learning Disability England members at a recent Department of Health and Social Care ‘stakeholder event’ about the Mental Health Bill and has written a guest blog about it:

Here they are again, providers moaning about the money. 

I work for a canny big organisation employing 350 staff to support 170 people.  We are a Co-operative and Community Benefit society with Charitable status.  We are not in it for the money.  

The Co-chairs of Learning Disability England have been thinking about the government’s budget and what that means for the LDE members they know and represent. 

Learning Disability England wants to welcome some new people to it’s board of Trustees.

The Board of Trustees makes sure Learning Disability England does a good job and is chosen by the Representative Body.

On the 18th October three new people joined the board.

These people were:

There are many different types of advocacy, from independent advocacy, to peer advocacy to what I would argue is the most important – self-advocacy!

Paid advocates are so important and I think could actually play a major role in supporting people with learning disabilities to self-advocate.