Rashpal Binning

East Midlands Regional Rep.

East Midlands Update.

National Forum – 9th & 10th September 2014.

We had our pre-planning meeting on 3rd September 2014 at the Brite Centre in Leicester. We talked about what we will do at our next Regional Forum meeting.

We will be looking at voting as the election is next year. We will ask someone from Mencap to talk about the Hear My Voice campaign.

We would also like to know what work the National Forum want us to be doing locally? We have already been doing lots of good work on Hate and Mate Crime in the East Midlands.

People are still confused about the changes to benefits and need better information.

The next Regional Forum meeting on 20th November 2014 in Leicester.

Our meetings.

Regional Updates.

Northamptonshire.

Central England People First (CEPF) got given a grant from the Partnership Board to deliver some Safeguarding training.

So far 15 training sessions have been run, delivering training to around 150 people from care homes, social groups and workplaces.

The training talks about different types of abuse, the signs someone might be being abused and where to get help if you’ve been a victim of abuse.

It is important that vulnerable adults know how to keep themselves safe.

In July, Ian, one of the Regional Coordinators and his supporter Kelly went the Social History of Learning Disability conference in Milton Keynes.

The day included talks about: positive practice in supporting parents with a learning disability; new ways to understand about using and managing Personal Assistants to support you; and using technology to be more independent and to help with communication.

There are some new posters and leaflets to raise awareness of the different types of Hate Crime and to encourage people to report it. One of the posters is about Disability Hate Crime, there is also an easy-read reporting form available.

Leicester City

The decision has now been made to keep specialist advocacy services. This is good news as there will still be an advocacy service just for people with learning disabilities.

There is a tender process going on at present, we will know more about what’s happening in a few months.

The We Think self-advocacy group will be starting some training soon, it will lead to everybody getting a Level 2 qualification in Independent Advocacy.

We have been supporting the Giving Voice campaign run by Speech and Language therapy services. The campaign sets out 5 standards to help make communication better for people with learning

disabilities. The We Think group took part in a Hate Crime research project last year. It was run by the University of Leicester. Some members attended a conference on 5th September to talk about the findings.

Lincolnshire

Produced new Keeping Safe leaflets with money from the Partnership Board and Police & Crime Commissioner.

Thank you for listening.

Are there any questions?

Rashpal was supported to write this update by Laura Clifford, Mencap Leicester Advocacy Project. Images from Photosymbols and Google images have been used.