Build for the Future is a group of over 30 people from seven advocacy organisations.

They work with BILD to ensure that BILD’s work is rooted in the real life experiences of people with learning disabilities.

The organisations are:

Somerset Advocacy

Taking Part, Shropshire and
Taking Part Telford and Wrekin

Our Way, Worcestershire

Talk Back, Buckinghamshire

Options for Life, Walsall

Culture Speak Out, Coventry

Speaking Up for Action, Sheffield

The meeting on 19 October discussed some important subjects.

There was an update on responses to the abuse seen on the BBC Panorama programme about Winterbourne View.

This was followed by group work to give their views to the Department of Health's consutation, 'Caring for our Future', about future planning for social care.

Among Build for the Future's feedback was:

Quality care

How could care be better?

• People with disabilities to be involved in the training of Social Workers, Support Workers, Carers and other professionals
• Support network for parents and carers - raising awareness that people are free to make life choices
• Changing the attitudes of the general public by disability groups going into schools and working with children
• People should not have to wait a long time to be diagnosed
• Teachers should be trained to spot disabilities issues at early age
• Care should be directed to the need of the individual, everyone is different and that should be recognised

Local care services

How can we make sure there are lots of local organizations which can provide different types of care?

• More local advocacy
• Advocacy and Experts by Experience to be involved in every stage of tendering and contracts with providers, to keep it local.
• Make sure we go for quality service rather than the cheapest.
• Review services – make sure they are doing a good job. Involving people that use services, carers and services users.

Making services work together better

How can we make sure the NHS, social care and other support services work more closely together to make things easier for people who use more than one service?

• Praise good practice by new staff – for example, A young person’s MH unit had a new staff member who suggested that staff take off their badges and all staff and patients to sit together at mealtimes. This helped to stop 'them and us’.
• Sharing of information between the different services so that the individual has consistency.
• For each of the services to have more understanding of learning disability and the problems they face when accessing health services.
• The presumption of the professionals before meeting the patient is often a problem.