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News and events

This page is open to all those in the learning disability community to publish their news and information about coming events. Inclusion on this page does not imply any endorsement by BILD.

If you would like to let us know about something that could go up here, please use this email link:  Contact BILD

We've also added some recent news items about BILD's work.

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Recent news from BILD on this page


 News

 

Have you been affected by cuts to your services?

As part of the 'Protect the Frontline' campaign, which BILD supports and will be promoting, the Learning Disability Coalition have launched a 'Cutswatch' email and website.

They want to hear if you, or the person that you care for have been affected by cuts to services or cuts to funding. They want to know how spending cuts are changing the lives of people with a learning disability and their families. Please email them at the address below and tell us as much as you can about what has happened, where, when and what the consequences have been.

As well as hearing about cuts stories, they are interested in hearing about local authorities who are responding to spending cuts by looking for new ways to deliver services, or by making services more cost-effective. These disguised cuts can be just as damaging as headline cuts.

The information that you send them will support the 'Protect the Frontline' campaign, and may be used on their 'Cutswatch' notice board. They will not include any personal information, and will contact you before putting anything up on their website.

Please email the Learning Disability Coalition at cutswatch@learningdisabilitycoalition.org.uk and let them know what has happened, where, when and how it has affected you.

Posted August 2010


Raising our sights report and DVD - copies available

Copies of the 'Raising our sights' report and DVD are now available. This report about services for adults with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities was written by Professor Jim Mansell for the Department of Health.

To order a copy: Email publications@mencap.org.uk or Tel 020 7696 6900 (There is a limit of 1 per person, 3 per organisation)

You can download the report and view the DVD on-line here
 

Posted August 2010


NHS White Paper

'Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS' was launched on Monday 12 July and sets out the Government's long-term vision for the future of the NHS. The vision builds on the core values and principles of the NHS, setting out how we will put patients at the heart of everything that the NHS does, deliver health outcomes in England that are among the best in the world and empower clinicians to deliver results.

Further information on the White Paper can be found on the Department of Health website which will also contain details of the engagement and consultation documents as they become available.

You can download a copy of the easy read version of the White Paper.

Posted August 2010


Social care funding commission announced

The government has announced the establishment of a Commission on the Funding of Care and Support.

The three-person commission will be chaired by economist Andrew Dilnot, formerly head of public spending experts the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and also includes Jo Williams and Lord Norman Warner; Williams is the current acting chair of the Care Quality Commission and also a former chief executive of Mencap, while Warner is a former Labour health minister, who now sits in the House of Lords.

They have been tasked by the Department of Health with reporting within a year on how best to reform the care funding system.

Read more about the Commission members on the Community Care website

Posted July 2010


Advertise jobs on the Guardian website for free

Real Roles is an online community where local authority and third sector employers and people with a learning disability can come together to discuss ways for making employment a reality for people with learning disabilities.

The Guardian Jobs website is backing Real Roles by offering to advertise any vacancies available to people with a learning disability free of charge.

So, if you are an employer and there is a vacancy available for someone with a learning disability in your organisation sign up to the Real Roles Forum and head to the Real Jobs board to publicise it.

Every vacancy uploaded to Real Roles will appear on the Guardian Jobs website until at least October 2010.

Posted August 2010


New Observatory launched

The Improving Health and Lives Learning Disabilities Observatory is there to keep watch on:

  • the health of people with learning disabilities
  • the health care they receive

They have a website that provides a lot of information, you can visit it at: http://www.improvinghealthandlives.org.uk/

This three year, Department of Health funded, project is in response to Sir Jonathan Michael’s 2008 inquiry into access to healthcare for people with learning disabilities.

The national observatory aims to provide better, easier to understand, information on the health and healthcare of people with learning disabilities.

Gathering information from across England, it will help hospitals and other providers of health and social care, to understand better the needs of those with learning disabilities, as well as their families and carers, in order to identify quality improvements that will ensure the best possible outcomes.

Posted July 2010


NHS Evidence – learning disabilities specialist collection

Visit the NHS Evidence – learning disabilities  website for up to date content from a variety of sources including guidance from NICE and the Department of Health.

The aim of NHS Evidence - Learning Disabilities is to provide quick access to key documents and evidence for health professionals. including links to key journals.

The Learning Disabilities Specialist Collection has an RSS feed featuring the latest additions to the collection, a monthly evidence bulletin and a Google Group for users to network with colleagues.

Posted July 2010


Woman forced by Court of Protection to have treatment against her wishes

A cancer patient who has a phobia of hospitals should be forced to undergo a life-saving operation if necessary, a High Court judge has ruled. Sir Nicholas Wall, sitting at the Court of Protection, ruled doctors could forcibly sedate the 55-year-old woman, who has learning difficulties.

The woman lacked the capacity to make decisions about her health, he said. Doctors at her NHS foundation trust had argued she would die if her ovaries and fallopian tubes were not removed.

Read more about the case on the BBC website and on the Daily Telegraph website. There is another article about the powers of the Court of Protection on the Telegraph website.
Find out more about the Court of Protection

There is more about the Mental Capacity Act on our human rights page
Find out about the BILD publication, 'Communication is a human right'

Posted May 2010


Another death in hospital contributed to by neglect

On Tuesday 8 June, Basildon University Hospital Trust was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay £40,000 costs for failures in its systems and procedures that led to the death of Kyle Flack, pictured left, aged 20.

Kyle was a quadriplegic and had cerebral palsy and learning disabilities and was admitted to Basildon Hospital in October 2006 after becoming ill. His bed was not fitted with the appropriate safety bumpers despite requests from his mother. When he was moved to a different ward, staff were not informed that he was deaf, and his round the clock nursing care was withdrawn. Two days after having been admitted, Kyle died from asphyxiation after his head became stuck between the bars of his hospital bed.

The inquest verdict on 20 July 2009 found that the circumstances leading to his death were:

- Inadequate risk assessments
- The level of supervision had been inadequate for Kyle’s complex needs
- There had been poor record keeping on behalf of the Trust
- Ineffective cascading of information which failed to support the staff providing direct care to Kyle
- Insufficient training on the proper use of cot sides and bumpers
- The cause of death was contributed to by neglect

The £50,000 fine followed the prosecution of Basildon University Hospital for failing to address the health and safety issues. The Health and Safety Executive’s statement identified that the Trust had no system to assess the risk to patients from bed rails: “Despite Kyle’s size, he was placed in a bed with adult spacing bed rails. Had the rails been suitable for Kyle, it would not have been physically possible for him to get his head through any gap”

Keith Smith, BILD Chief Executive said, “Kyle’s death was preventable and his loss is another indictment of the poor quality of healthcare that many people with learning disabilities continue to receive. BILD is committed to ensuring that there is equal access to high quality person centred health care for all people with learning disabilities. This requires a real change in attitudes and awareness from healthcare professionals and all those responsible for providing direct support and care.”

There is a brief interview with Kyle's mother in this Sky News report.

Posted June 2010


Phoebe Caldwell wins award for work with autism

The woman who has transformed the lives of more than 1,000 children and adults with
autism through the use of body language has been honoured by leading politicians,
academics and scientists. She was yesterday awarded The Times/Sternberg Active
Life Award.

“Intensive interaction” was pioneered by Phoebe Caldwell, 76, a mother of five and grandmother of nine. The system encourages parents and carers to study the body language of those with autism, then “echo” their sounds and movements to engage with them. Everyone she has worked with has shown considerable improvements and “anyone can learn to do it”, she says.

Read more about her award at The Times website

BILD has a publication about Intensive Interactions, more information available here.

Posted April 2010


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 Events

Money Talks! - Learning Disability Wales Annual Conference

Tuesday 23 and Wednesday 24th November 2010 – Holiday Inn, Newport South Wales.
 
Looking at how you get your money and what you do with it to make every penny count. This two day conference will be a lively mix of workshops, drama, discussion and real life stories.

Download the information flier, including programme and workshops, and booking form from the Money Talks! website page.

For more information and to book your place call Rebecca on 029 2068 1160
or email rebecca.watkins@learningdisabilitywales.org.uk

Posted August 2010


Learning Disability Today London

8 December 2010
Business Design Centre, London

To find out more about this important event in the learning disability calendar, go to their website and download the information pack.


New British Institute of Human Rights training courses

Human Rights Action Centre, 17-25 New Inn Yard, London, EC2A 3EA

Human rights and health and social care
22 September

This one day course aims to demonstrate how human rights principles and standards can be used in practical ways to support the delivery of improved, more person-centred care and strengthen existing work on equality and diversity. It will share learning from the national project ‘Human Rights in Healthcare’, led by the Department of Health in partnership with BIHR and five NHS Trusts, which has been testing the assumption that human rights can lead to improved standards of care since 2006. For a full course brief and agenda please visit: http://www.bihr.org.uk/events/training/human-rights-and-health-and-social-care


Human rights at home: transforming services, changing lives
7 December

Following on from our one day conference on 18th November, ‘Human rights at home: transforming services, changing lives’ we are offering a one day training session for participants wishing to explore the conference themes in more detail. This one day course will explore how human rights can be used in practical ways to help people commissioning or delivering public services find cost effective ways to protect the most vulnerable in a climate of cuts and to practically deliver on the government’s agenda to devolve more power to neighbourhoods and individuals. We will offer a 10% discount on both events to participants attending the conference and the training course.

For more information and online booking, please visit the BIHR training website.
 


Giving Us A Voice – Meeting the needs of people with learning disabilities from BME communities

ARC, BILD and Mencap are bringing people together for constructive dialogue in 9 Regional Summit Meetings around England.

Dates for 2010:
1st November at Exeter
3rd November at Nottingham
11th November at Newcastle
16th November at Preston

Dates for 2011:
12th January at Birmingham
13th January at Cambridge
20th January at Brighton
25th January at London
3rd February at Leeds

This 18-month project, funded by the Department For Communities and Local Government under its Tackling Race Inequalities Fund, will give you the opportunity to talk and learn from people with learning disabilities and family carers from BME communities.

The project will also launch a National Charter for Inclusion and will invite you to sign up to it as part of your ongoing commitment to delivering quality services.

The benefits of getting involved:

- You will have the opportunity to meet local people from BME communities, to learn about their specific cultures, to hear about the problems that they have and find out what they need from your services
- Your strategic plan for future services will be based on first-hand knowledge
- You will be able to demonstrate a commitment to equality
- You will have a good platform for developing your race equality impact assessment
- You will meet families from BME communities who could be involved in your Learning Disability Partnership Board
- You will have the opportunity to explain the problems and realities of delivering services today.

Flyers for either professionals, families or self-advocacy and booking forms for each event are available to download at:

http://www.lden.org.uk/page9/page105/page105.html

If you would like to discuss the project or events please contact:

Professionals:
Philip Ware – philip.ware@arcuk.org.uk
Lesley Dean – lesley.dean@arcuk.org.uk

Families:
Ghzala Ahmad – ghzala.ahmad@mencap.org.uk
Oi Mei Li – givingusavoice@mencap.org.uk

Self-Advocacy:
Ola Odeyemi – ola@bild.org.uk
Sarah Rafiq – s.rafiq@bild.org.uk

The events are FREE to attend.

Completed booking forms should be sent to:

Pam Smith – pam.smith@arcuk.org.uk
ARC, ARC House, Marsden Street, Chesterfield, Derbyshire S40 1JY


Supporting families where parents have learning disabilities and difficulties

21 September 2010, Nottingham

A one-day seminar to consider the barriers faced by parents with learning disabilities and difficulties, and approaches and initiatives which are succeeding in addressing these.

Organisations featured include:

- Norah Fry Research Centre, Bristol University
- CHANGE
- Valuing People Now, Department of Health
- Norfolk County Council (Disabled Parents Protocol)
- KeyRing Housing Association
- Valuing Families Service, Family Action

Full details of the seminar can be found on http://www.ccclimited.org.uk/ or telephone 0115 916 3104.


Developing Emotional Intelligence: Strategies for managing Behavioural, Emotional & Social Difficulties in the classroom

Friday 8th October 2010
America Square Conference Centre, London


Keynote: The Inclusion Development Programme (IDP) : Supporting children and young people with BESD
Mary Daly, Programme Lead, Inclusion Development Plan (IDP), working for the National Strategies

This presentation will look at the key messages in the BESD IDP and illustrate how these link with those of the other IDP resources. It will also consider the implications from the Lamb review, the Rose Report and the new OFSTED Framework upon universal provision for pupils with SEN.

Workshops:

This Way Up - understanding and coping with emotions
Rob Long, Educational Psychologist and Author

Child to Child Peer Massage in the Classroom
Jean Barlow, Teacher and Trainer

Examining Approaches to Social & Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL)
Barbara Knowles, Executive Director, SEBDA

Understanding the impact of childhood trauma and mental health issues
Aqualma Murray, Children’s Mental Health Consultant and Trainer

Conference information and booking form:  http://www.nasen.org.uk/uploads/publications/130.pdf

Contact for more information: Sarah Cann 01827 311 500 sarahc@nasen.org.uk

Posted May 2010


Second International Conference on Violence in the Health Sector - From Awareness to Sustainable Action

27 – 29 October 2010 - De Meervaart - Amsterdam - the Netherlands

Download the event flyer

Posted August 2010


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 Recent news from BILD

Easy reading at the British Library

BILD has been working with the British Library’s Business & IP Centre to help them improve the services they provide to positively include people with a learning disability. A key part of this has been producing information that helps people understand their services and how they can use them. BILD has translated their main information leaflet into ‘easy read’ and this will be available on their website. The Centre helps people to set up and run their own businesses, you can find out more at their website: www.bl.uk/bipc

If you would like to find out how BILD can help your organisation produce ‘easy read’ documents, please contact Valerie Wilkinson on 01562 723022 or email v.wilkinson@bild.org.uk

Posted August 2010


Lots of challenges still to face

BILD Chief Executive Keith Smith is interviewed in the latest edition of the British Journal of Learning Disabilities.

Among the issues Keith raises:

"We’ve probably got the best policies we’ve ever had but that isn’t reflected by what’s happening on the front line and in services and supports. It is this gap between policy and practice that BILD tries to address."

"Staff in services for people with learning disabilities are often not being valued, not necessarily having the right training or support and really being fairly powerless in terms of setting any direction for their work."

"BILD hasn’t necessarily got it right in terms of making sure that all of our trustees are supported to understand everything that’s happening within the organisation, that is still a challenge we’re working on."

You can read the rest for yourself by downloading a PDF copy of the interview.

Posted April 2010


Hate Crime – BILD’s response to the cross-government Action Plan

The Government has published an Action Plan for tackling hate crime.
Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, identifies in the foreword to the Action Plan that “hate crime is a human rights issue, a threat to community cohesion and a rejection of our shared values. Our society is strong when our communities are strong and communities thrive when they are united by positive values they share. Values like fairness, respect, democracy and the rule of law.”

Unfortunately, the need for this action plan has been reinforced by the sad and totally unnecessary deaths of Fiona and Francesca Pilkington. Their daily harassment was hate crime, and should not be viewed as simply the ordinary problems of community living.

Read more about BILD's response, available to download here.

The Government's Action Plan can be downloaded here. There is an easy read version you can download here. 

Posted March 2010


BILD is learning from the PAST

BILD have obtained funding from the Department of Health for a project that will  gather stories from the black and minority ethnic communities around good practice in advocacy and the personalisation agenda.

We have called the project the PAST project: Personal Advocacy Story Telling. We are aiming to set up focus groups who we hope will be able to share their stories.

Our main aim is to share the stories which we hope will enable Black and Minority Ethnic communities, health and social care practitioners and commissioning organisations to learn from people's experiences of advocacy.

You can find out more on our PAST project page in the human rights section of this website.

Posted September 2009


Deprivation of Liberties Safeguards publications

The Mental Capacity Act Deprivation of Liberty safeguards (formerly known as the Bournewood safeguards) were introduced into the Mental Capacity Act 2005 through the Mental Health Act 2007 (which received Royal Assent in July 2007).

The MCA DOL safeguards apply to anyone:

- aged 18 and over who suffers from a mental disorder or disability of the mind, such as dementia or a profound learning disability
- who lacks the capacity to give informed consent to the arrangements made for their care and / or treatment and
- for whom deprivation of liberty (within the meaning of Article 5 of the ECHR) is considered after an independent assessment to be necessary in their best interests to protect them from harm.

The safeguards cover patients in hospitals, and people in care homes registered under the Care Standards Act 2000, whether placed under public or private arrangements

The aim is to implement the safeguards in April 2009. The safeguards are designed to protect the interests of an extremely vulnerable group of service users and to:
- ensure people can be given the care they need in the least restrictive regimes
- prevent arbitrary decisions that deprive vulnerable people of their liberty
- provide safeguards for vulnerable people
- provide them with rights of challenge against unlawful detention
- avoid unnecessary bureaucracy.

There are two publications, funded by the Department of Health and produced by BILD, which you can download in .pdf format: The Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards and You and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Guide for families and carers.

Also available from the Department of Health website are easy read publications about Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards in basic and expanded versions, as well as a video version.

Posted July 2009
 


Build for the Future contribute to Government Learning Disability Employment Strategy

Build for the Future is an advisory group of people with learning disabilities, their carers and supporters established by BILD in 2006. The 30 strong group meet regularly through the year to help develop BILD and take a view on issues that matter to people with learning disabilities.

The Department of Health and the Cabinet Office had issued a short Call for Evidence to inform the learning disability employment strategy to be published this Spring, with the deadline for submissions on 11 March, the same day as Build for the Future met.

As a result, more than 20 Build for the Future members, carers and supporters worked together in groups to provide answers to the questions posed by the consultation. Each group spent ten minutes on each of the five questions, and ideas and suggestions were noted on flip chart sheets that were swapped between the groups.

That same afternoon everyone's comments were typed up and sent off to the Department of Health. If you want to see Build for the Future's submission, you can see it as a Word document, or as a .pdf file.


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