Changing Our Lives Newsletter June 2013

Inside… Dudley Open Mic Night… 2

Quality of Health Toolkit Pilot goes National!

We have started developing our Quality of Health Toolkit, which will explain how to support teams of people with disabilities to review health services against the Quality of Health Principles. You can read them at: www.changingourlives.org:index.php:download:quality-of-health-information) We needed 4 sites across the country that we could pilot the toolkit with and we are now very pleased to report that we have found them! After receiving some great expressions of interest we managed to narrow it down to our final four, East Lancashire, Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust, Sheffield Public Health and Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead. We have been spending some time up north over the last couple of months meeting with the North West Development Team and Inclusion North who will develop review teams to carry out the reviews in Lancashire and Sheffield…

The latest news on People’s Parliament in Sandwell, Wolverhampton and Dudley… 3

What does the Quality of Life mean to you?… 7

Lost and Found visits Wakefield museum 9

Making written thing easier to understand 10

The NHS Constitution 11

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Both organisations facilitate and promote the inclusion of people with learning disabilities in community life so are ideally placed to ensure the Quality of Health Principles are being adhered to in their local areas. Following some training days in September where we will train the teams in how to carry out the reviews, they will be ready to get started! In August we will head down south to meet with the Royal Free Hospital in Hamstead and will link in with a local user led organization to develop a review team. The pilot will conclude in May 2014 but in the meantime we will keep you updated with our progress via our website and newsletters.

Meet Alex Johnson, an 18 year old up and coming Young Voices Leader, who shocked the audience into silent awe with his beautiful baritone ‘It’s a wonderful world’ at Dudley’s First Open Mic night at the newly opened Evolve theatre, part of Dudley College. Ably compered by our very own Gemma Caffrey, Open Mic opened in style with a sixties vibe by old favourites Dudley Din, led by Andrea Pope-Smith, Director of Adults, Community and Housing Services for Dudley Council. Great acoustic performances followed from Dudley College’s own music students who showcased their own songs. Thank you to everyone at the college for your support! You made us feel right at home. The next open mic night is on the 19th July at The Public, West Bromwich. Get in touch if you’d like to join in! You never know, you might find yourself under the bright lights of Wolverhampton Civic Hall at the Spotlight final in January 2014.

Spotlight Open Mic Night goes to Dudley!

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The latest news about our

People’s

Parliaments

Sandwell People’s Parliament

There have been 2 Select Committees in the last few months on employment and health. Once again the MPs held professionals to account and gave them feedback on what they had or hadn't achieved from previous parliament meetings. Sandwell Health Select Committee learnt that all people with a learning disability known to services in Sandwell now have a health book, which is a success, but they are not being checked yet to see if they are being used. Maxine Price, chairperson for Sandwell's People's Parliament challenged the professionals and encouraged them to achieve the agreed outcomes. There were many questions still unanswered and pledges previously made were not met, such as Health books for young people in transition have not been introduced. The MPs decided they will hold another select committee soon, as not enough had been achieved.

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The People’s Parliament has been working in co-production with the Council throughout the year on a new employment strategy and the tender process for the recruitment of a supported employment service in Sandwell. The successful employment provider is Enable. Enable is committed to working closely with the welfare rights team and travel training team to make sure that people have the right support. Enable will have 70 referrals by March 2014 and 35 of these will result in paid employment. 25% of these will be supported to work 16 hours or more. That’s about 9 people in employment by March 2014.

Sandwell's People's Parliament will also be holding a select committee about housing in the next few months.

Wolverhampton People’s Parliament

It has been a busy time for Wolverhampton's People's Parliament. The MPs of Wolverhampton have recently held an Employment Select Committee, where they held professionals to account against the pledges they had made in previous parliament meetings. Some of the successes included Wolverhampton City Council have now put in place a job carving policy, and have recruited 5 people with a learning disability into paid positions. Timkin Sunbeam Continental Landscapes have recruited 9 people into paid jobs. These include:

• Landscape positions 1, 2 and 3 12 hours • Landscape position 4 14 hours • Landscape position 5 and 6 16 hours • Sailing tutor 20 hours • Stores person 16 hours • Temporary kitchen support 5 hours

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They are also looking to employ 3 trainers to work alongside the mentors and job coaches. Wolverhampton City Council Adult Education have recruited someone with a learning disability through job carving and shared their methods and experiences, which was great for the Parliament to hear. The Black Country Partnership Foundation Trust also attended and are developing an accessible recruitment process and are close to recruiting 3 out of 5 paid positions pledged. The MPs are now working on writing an accessible white paper for a full Parliament meeting they are holding about profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD), which will take place next month. They have invited many professional guests along to discuss how to improve the lives of people with PMLD.

Andy Howell Chair person for Wolverhampton's People's Parliament has recently been appointed as a City Crier. He is hoping to use his talents of singing and performing to spread news and up-date the people of Wolverhampton about changes and events taking place, whilst they are out in the City centre. Fantastic news Andy!!

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Dudley People’s Parliament Dudley MPs last met in Parliament in May to discuss employment and record what had been achieved. There were many successes and positive stories shared, including Dudley Council success filling 2 out of the 5 job opportunities they pledged to create. The Employment Plus team is currently working with 74 people who are being supported via job coaching. Dudley Council is working on its draft job carving policy. John Polychronakis, CEO of Dudley Council said, "Its good for me to hear real stories of people who have been supported by Dudley Council to find work. Hearing the stories of people with learning disabilities, hearing how they struggle to get jobs makes me value what we take for granted - the fact that having a job can mean we make new friends, have the opportunity to go on holiday and do other everyday things. Dudley Council is very committed to improving the lives of people with learning disabilities." Andrea Pope-Smith, Director of Adults, Community and Housing said, "Sue works in my office and Sue has a learning disability. She is the main person who greets visitors and as such she is the face of the organisation. She makes people feel really welcome when they arrive and this changes the culture in the Adult Community and Housing Directorate. She also opens people's eyes so they understand more about what it means to have a learning disability and at the same time she's changing what people think about people with learning disability so they are seen in a more positive light. " Ian Austin MP said, "I am very impressed that local jobs have been created for people with learning disabilities. I'm very committed to supporting the Parliament to ensure that more people with learning disabilities in Dudley can benefit from paid employment."

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What does the

Quality of Life

mean to you?

In January of this year Changing Our Lives began working in partnership with Dudley Council to review the impact of the social care pathway. This project looked in detail at the lives of adults and people with

physical disabilities and sensory impairments. We wanted to identify how people are supported to be equal and valued citizens in their communities and to find out if

people who access social care services within Dudley lead fulfilling and meaningful lives. The project enabled

Changing Our Lives to compare what the people of Dudley told us against our Quality of Life Standards, which are widely used within the Black Country and are also now adopted as national best

practice.

Around the country many people with disabilities tell stories of discrimination and experience

difficulties in building relationships, gaining paid work and choosing homes and support that is

tailor made to their individual needs. The Quality of Life Standards are really important because

they were co-produced by people with disabilities and define what people with disabilities really want in their life. The

standards aim to empower people by making sure their voice is always heard and informing them of their rights to choose and make decisions about their own life.

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Changing Our Lives met with 115 people who use a number of community networks in Dudley to

begin introducing the Quality of Life Standards to them. People welcomed the standards; with one

person saying, "This needs to happen, the standards talk about the things that I want in my

life". People talked about how Dudley could adopt the standards and most people suggested that they should become an integral part of the way

that services are developed locally and should be used to check that people are leading good lives.

Many people told us that sometimes they struggled to speak up about how they feel and what they

want, so saw the standards as being a good way to help them develop confidence.

We met with key people who lead social care services in Dudley to report on our findings. This

feedback was delivered by auditors working on the project and also by Ami Green who uses the

Vision Support Service in Dudley. Ami discussed her own personal experiences of living with a visual impairment telling the meeting that she

wants to be enabled to lead an active and busy life. Brendan Clifford (Interim Assistant Director of Adult Social Care) welcomed this fresh approach to reviewing services and shared Changing Our Lives commitment to supporting the people of

Dudley.

He said, “We are very pleased to learn of the positive impact that our work has had. We listened very carefully to the things that had not gone well. Introducing the Quality of Life Standards gives us an opportunity to make things even better in the

future”.

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Lost and Found makes links with the museum of Mental

Health in Wakefield

Members of the Changing Our Lives team recently visited the Mental Health Museum

(www.mentalhealthmuseum.co.uk) based in South Yorkshire to meet with the curator, Cara Sutherland

and to view some of the items held within the collection. The collection is made up of a huge variety of objects

that were used in the past treatment of patients living at the Stanley Royd Hospital in Wakefield which has since closed down, being replaced by modern inpatient and

community based services.

The collection of objects (dating from the late 18th century) aims to provide a powerful insight into the way care and support of people with mental health issues

has developed and represents how attitudes and practice has improved over the years. We were given access to a number of important items that would have

been used since around 1948, we all found that handling many of the exhibits brought the past alive and helped us to understand more of the personal

stories we have gathered through the Lost and Found project. The session provided by Cara was incredibly informative and helped us all to reflect on some of the

dehumanising practices of the past.

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Changing Our Lives are going to work in partnership with the South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS

Foundation Trust to bring some of the collection to the Black Country so that local self-advocates can explore

the exhibits and understand the importance of researching and maintaining the past. The Lost and Found project continues to develop and the history

team are continuing to work towards the launch date of 11th October 2013 when Changing Our Lives hosts a

national conference called "Breaking the Silence" which will showcase our work within secure and

forensic settings.

June saw two excellent community fundraising events:

Nat West and Pure Gym, West Bromwich, organised a day’s rowing challenge, complete with cake stall and full on fancy dress.

Blind Dave and his team cycled from Aberdovey, Wales into West Bromwich in memory of Liz Mabley.

A huge thank you to everyone that contributed to these events - your time, effort and commitment is appreciated. Please let us know if you’d like to help organise our next community event.

Community Fundraising at its best!

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Making written things easier to understand

There are approximately 1.5 million people in the United Kingdom who have a Learning Disability; this is equal to almost 3 in every 100 people. One issue that most people with a learning disability face in their everyday life is a difficulty in interpreting and understanding all of the information they are inundated with on a daily basis. Most organisations understand that to communicate information effectively to people with learning disability, the information needs to be made easy read and accessible. However, as there is no set standard for making information accessible it is often left to the author to decide how this can be achieved. This often leads to document that are still too complex or alternatively have had all of their important information removed. To overcome this issue Changing Our Lives has developed guidance document which sets the standard for making information accessible. The guidance sets a basic standard that all organisations should conform to ensure that their information is presented in a format that is accessible. The ‘Making Written Things Easier to Understand’ document sets the standard for writing reports, agendas, minutes as well as how to effectively use supporting images. Making written things easier to understand can be downloaded from www.changingourlives.org

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On the sunny afternoon of 19th June Jessica Bromley, Changing Our Lives leader travelled to London to meet with Stephen Robinson and James MacDougall from the NHS Constitution Team, as part of a small focus group on the easy read NHS Constitution. The group were introduced to the background of the easy read document and this was followed by discussions around the format and layout, style of writing and content and awareness and accessibility. Jessica said “I find it difficult to read so it was important for me to be a part of the focus group. I am very clear about what works well for people with learning disabilities when using accessible information. I talked to them about the use of photos and why this is important and also advised them about the sort of font and language that they should use. It is important for people with learning disabilities and other groups of people who might find it difficult to understand the constitution to know their rights”. The NHS Constitution – What is it?

The constitution is an important part of NHS plans to make it clear to patients, the public and staff what they can expect from the NHS. The constitution will:

• make sure the NHS can continue to do a good job in the future • give power to patients and the public. The NHS want everyone to know what

services they can get and what to do if they do not get them • explain what patients, the public and NHS staff should do to help the NHS • tell staff that they are the most important part of the NHS.

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The Public, New Street, West Bromwich B70 7PG

Tel: 0121 533 7174

Newhampton Arts Centre Dunkley Street,

Wolverhampton WV1 4AN

ask@changingourlives.org www.changingourlives.org

www.twitter.com/Positive_Lives

Changing Our Lives June 2013

What’s happening next?

OPEN MIC NIGHT 19th July

6-8pm at The Public

If you can sing, play, do poetry, comedy, drama or dance then come

and join in!