This section has resources from a range of organisations in these subject areas:
If you can recommend any information about people with learning disbilities that would be useful to others, please let us know at enquiries@bild.org.uk
You may be interested in the links to easy read resources in the Easy Read section of this web site.
Respond Respond works with children and adults with learning disabilities who have experienced abuse or trauma, as well as those who have abused others, through psychotherapy, advocacy, campaigning and other support. Respond also aims to prevent abuse by providing training, consultancy and research. They have a helpline 0808 808 0700 on Fridays, 12.30 to 4pm. Their website has lots of easy read information as well.
Find out more on their website.
Unlocking sexual abuse and learning disabilities This booklet, produced by Enable Scotland, covers how to help adults with
learning disabilities deal with sexual abuse and its consequences. It provides basic information for families and care staff about what to do when they suspect or know that someone has been abused or when someone discloses abuse. It also explains what might happen after abuse is reported and the support and assistance that might be available.
There is a separate accessible booklet for adults with learning disabilities called 'Surviving sexual abuse'. It can be read alongside this booklet.
Download both booklets from the Enable website.
Same Difference
This guide, produced by Grapevine and BILD, aims to provide advocates with examples of how they can best meet the needs of learning-disabled people from black and minority ethnic groups.
The guide gives examples of the barriers faced by learning-disabled people and their families from BME groups together with examples of approaches and solutions used by their advocates.
Download the Same Difference guide Find out more about Grapevine's work Action for Advocacy Looking for an advocate? The Action for Advocacy website is the place to start. Use their 'Find an Advocate' facility to find advocacy organisations in your area.
They have lots of other information and resources to support advocacy.
Find out more on their website.
Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance Live in Scotland and looking for an advocate? This website has a 'Find an advocate' page and offers a lot more information and advice about advocacy.
Find out more on their website.
Your Guide to Advocacy
Asist, an advocacy organisation in Staffordshire wrote a book about advocacy to help their clients understand better what they could expect from their advocate.
BILD worked with Asist to make a few changes so that the book could be used by any advocacy group. We think this will save groups having to produce their own individual information.
They cost £1 each plus postage. If you want to order this book you please email us at enquiries@bild.org.uk
Staying Strong
'Staying Strong' was produced by the National Forum of people with learning difficulties (2011), and gives a lot of useful information about self advocacy.
Download a copy of 'Staying Strong'.
The National Forum has also produced a follow-up document, 'Staying Strong - for how long'.
Download 'Staying Strong - for how long'.
The BILD Factsheet on advocacy
Advocacy can take a number of forms, but independent advocacy such as citizen advocacy, peer advocacy and self-advocacy should be differentiated from the roles played by family and professional carers.
Download our factsheet about advocacy
Social Care Institute for Excellence papers about advocacy SCIE Report 24: Personalisation and learning disabilities: A review of evidence on advocacy and its practice for people with learning disabilities and high support needs
Download from the SCIE website.
SCIE Position paper 6: Supporting self-advocacy.
Download from the SCIE website.
Advocacy in Social Care
In 2011 the Equalities and Human Rights Commission produced a report, 'Advocacy in Social care for groups protected under equality legislation'.
You can download a copy of the report.
National best practice in independent advocacy for parents with learning disabilities: a short scoping exercise
A report by CHANGE for the Office of the National Director for Learning Disabilities in July 2010.
Download the report.
Advocacy in a cold climate
A survey, conducted by in September 2011 by Action for Advocacy, looking at the state of advocacy services that ensure people are listened to, safeguarded, respected and have choice in health and social care.
Download the survey results and the survey appendices.
National best practice in independent advocacy for parents with learning disabilities CHANGE produced a report in February 2012 about advocacy for parents with learning disabilities, funded by the Office of the National Director for Learning Disabilities. They discovered that there are not many good advocates who can help parents with learning disabilities and it is a “post code lottery” as to who will receive good advocacy support.
Download the report from their website. June 2012: Advocacy funding for people with learning disabilities cut Advocacy service funding for people with learning disabilities has been cut by 15% over the past four years, according to research by Improving Health and Lives. Their report, Advocacy by and for adults with learning disabilities in England, surveyed 88 advocacy groups and 78 council commissioners of advocacy services This found that from 2009-10 to 2012-13 funding for learning disability specific advocacy services fell by 15.1 per cent as commissioners cut their total spend for self-advocacy organisations and also moved specialist contracts to generic advocacy organisations.
Download their report,
Advocacy by and for adults with learning disabilities in England There are
links to advocacy organisations on the Useful Links page on this website. You can also look at
our Advocacy pages on this website.
Top of the page
National Austistic Society
A website that is full of information about autism and Asperger Syndrome, as well as guidance, resources and useful links.
Find out more on the NAS website.
The Autism skills and knowledge list has been developed jointly by Skills for Care, Skills for Health and the National Autistic Society to help enhance awareness of autism and improve skills among workers in generic health and social care services. This work is part of a wider range of on-line training resources funded by the Department of Health to increase awareness and understanding of autism across all public services.
Find out more and download the document on the Skills for Care website
Improving access to social care for adults with autism
This guide, from the Social Care Institute of Excellence (SCIE), looks at how social care services can improve access to adults with autism. It is based on research that explores the barriers to services experienced by people with autism. It covers people with autism, whether or not they also have a learning disability. The guide suggests ways services can improve, identifying how best to meet the goals of the government's autism strategy.
Find our more on the SCIE website
The Autism Act 2009: developing specialist skills in autism practice
A guide, published in Learning Disability Practice in October 2011 and supported by the Department of Health, that is aimed at people in a specialist role who will lead the planning, development and commissioning of services with local authorities and GP consortia. This guide also discusses the development of skills and knowledge in autism practice.
Download a copy.
Transition toolkit This toolkit, produced by The Autism Education Trust, is a summary of the common issues surrounding transition for young people on the autism spectrum, as well as a guide to the considerations that should be taken by those supporting them. We offer some practical strategies to support transition periods as well as provide a list of useful links to other organisations and support materials.
Download from The Autism Education Trust website. July 2012: First National local authority self-assessment of services for people with Autism The Improving Health and Lives: Learning Disability Observatory has published the results of the first national local authority self-assessment exercise for services for people with autism.The aim of the exercise was to establish a baseline position against which to monitor progress in the implementation of the autism strategy, Fulfilling and Rewarding Lives.
Find out more on the IHAL website.
Self-directed support and BME communities Self-directed support is a new system.
It’s about people being in control of
the support they need to live their life
as they choose.
This fact sheet provides information
about how self-directed support can
be introduced to people from Black and
Minority Ethnic (BME) communities.
Download the fact sheet. There are lots of other fact sheets on the In Control website about selfdirected support.
The PAST Project The aim of BILD's PAST project was to find out why people from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic communities do not access personal budgets, to find examples of excellence in advocacy within these communities and spread the knowledge of good practice through networks and contacts.
Find out more and download the report on our PAST Project page.
Reaching and Supporting Diverse Communities
Hft have produced a guide to meeting the needs of people with learning disabilities, and family carers, from newly arrived, Black, Asian and other Minority Ethnic (BME) communities.
Hft’s Family Carer Support Service was commissioned by the Valuing People Support Team to develop this resource, to provide a range of information about meeting the needs of families from BME and seldom heard communities.
Find out more and download the guide from the Hft website.
Race equality in practice resource pack: Supporting Advocates Working With Cultural Diversity
Produced by North Wales Race Equality Network as part of the British Institute for Learning Disabilities and the Welsh Assembly Government Advocacy Grants Programme.
“A ‘colour-blind’ approach, or assertion that ‘we treat everyone the same’, is often operated within organisations. Such statements may, however, disguise the fact that organisations have either not considered the needs of minority ethnic communities or have chosen to ignore them.
What is needed, instead, is an approach which moves away from the notion of ‘an average citizen’ to an acknowledgement of the diversity of need and required services”
Download resource pack
May 2012: Here to Stay
The Here to Stay project addresses the gap in the knowledge about the health and social care needs of people with learning disabilities from ethnic minority and new migrant communities living in England.
If you work with people with learning disabilities in education, health or social care in the public, private or voluntary sector, we would like to ask you to complete a survey and share your views and experiences.
Take the survey.
More information about the project.
July 2012: Reaching Out: to people with learning disabilities and their families from BME communities
The Reaching out to families project of the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities set out to find new ways of addressing the inequalities that people with learning disabilities from Black and Minority Ethnic Communities (BME) and their families experience in health and social care. The project paid particular attention to the role of third sector organisations and usedaction learning techniques to identify good practice.
Download the report from the Foundation website.
Top of the page
Involve Me The Involve Me resource aims to increase the involvement of people with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD) in decision making and consultation. The resource is the result of a three year project, supported by the Renton Foundation and run by Mencap and BILD.
People with PMLD and staff took part by learning about and using different approaches to communication: sharing stories, creative communication, peer advocacy and multimedia advocacy.
Find out more about Involve Me
on this website and
the Mencap website.
The Rix Centre's Big Tree The Big Tree is dedicated to sharing information and ideas about multimedia and what it can do for the learning disability community.
The site is run by the Rix Centre, a research and development centre and independent charity that is based at the University of East London's Docklands campus.
The Big Tree is designed for people working with and supporting people with intellectual disabilities, including social carers, teachers, web developers, family members and advocates.
Find out more on the Big Tree website.
Oxfordshire Total Communication Are you a support worker, parent or carer? Do you know or work with someone with a learning disability? This website is just for you!
Here you will find a host of information, links, free resources which you can download, and ideas from other people in Oxfordshire who are using Total Communication to communicate effectively with people with a learning disability.
Find out more on their website.
Gloucestershire Total Communication Gloucestershire Total Communication offers training courses in communication. The process aims to ensure a 'common language' is adopted for all people to help make a consistent and positive difference to everybody's lives.
Find out more on their website.
Intensive interaction
Intensive interaction is an approach to teaching the pre-speech fundamentals of communication to children and adults who have severe learning difficulties and/or autism and who are still at an early stage of communication development.
Find out more on the Intensive Interraction website.
Communication and people with the most complex needs: What works and why this is essential
This guide was commissioned by Mencap in partnership with the Department of Health as part of the programme of work set out in Valuing People Now to ensure people with the most complex needs are included. The guide is aimed at commissioners, to support them in commissioning support and services which meet the communication needs of people with the most complex needs, including people with PMLD. However, it will also be useful for family carers, frontline staff and people with a learning disability.
Find out more about this and download a copy of the report or the easy read version, on the Mencap website.
The Office for Disability Issues (ODI) The Office for Disability Issues (ODI) leads the government’s vision of achieving equality for disabled people. They are a cross-government organisation that works with government departments, disabled people and a wide range of external groups.
Their website gives information about inclusive communications, offering advice and resources.
Find out more on their website.
How to make information accessible
There is a guide to making information accessible produced by Change, called 'How to make information accessible - a guide to producing easy read documents'.
You can download a copy from their website
Making written information easier to understand for people with learning disabilities
Department of Health document published in November 2010 giving guidance for people who commission or produce Easy Read information.
Download a copy from here
Hearing from the Seldom Heard People with learning disabilities face many barriers in being able to complain about the services they receive. However people with profound and multiple learning disabilities and other complex communication needs are not going to be greatly helped simply by the production of an integrated complaints procedure or an 'accessible' complaints leaflet, however well designed.
The Hearing from the Seldom Heard project aimed to look at how to overcome barriers and create listening cultures within organizations to hear from those who are seldom heard.
Find out more about the project and download the resources on this website.
The Hearing from the Seldom Heard resource, 'Communication tools and approaches' has a long list of links to further, useful, information.
Netbuddy Apps for the iPad
Netbuddy has an information page about communications applications that you can run on the Apple iPad computer.
Find out more on the Netbuddy website.
Top of the page
The Knowledge Base at the British Association for Supported Employment The knowledge base is an open, freely accessible trove of information and resources, both for supported employment and for disability / employment support generally. These resources include practical guidance and support, policy and research reports, evaluations, framework documents and links to relevant content elsewhere on the web.
In addition to contributions from BASE and its member organisations, the knowledge base also acts as an archive for initiatives such as Valuing People Now.
Find out more on the BASE website. Valuing People Now employment resources
The Department of Health has developed tools to help Local Authorities support people with learning disabilities into work.
To access the resources visit the Department of health website.
Make the Move
Make the Move is a website aimed at young people with learning disabilities in Scotland. The website aims to be a helpful guide for young people at any stage of their careers, from thinking about a job to gaining promotion and progressing further.
www.makethemove.org.uk/
Your rights at work This film was made with a group of people with learning disabilities by the Disability Law Service. It shows what people with learning disabilities can do if they have problems at work. There is also an easy read guide to download as well.
Find out more and see the film
miEnterprise miEnterprise is the UK's leading supported self-employment specialist. It is a social enterprise that operates as a mutual marketing co-operative.
"We set miEnterprise up because we know that there are a lot of people with earning disabilities and other disadvantages in the jobs market who would like to work. We also know that not very many people are working, and getting paid!"
Visit the miEnterprise website to find out more.
In Business Quick guide to Self-employment This publication is part of the In Business Easy Business Planning series and gives basic information about what you might need to set up a business or be self employed. A list of organisations who may be able to provide help and advice is also included.
Find out more and
downnload the guide on the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities' website. There is also a page about the
In Business service.
Micro-enterprises An information fact sheet from In Control about how self-directed support can help you to set up your own business.
Open the leaflet.
There are lots more fact sheets from In Control available
on these pages on their website. They also have audio versions of their fact sheets available here.
Films about employment from Inclusive Films
It’s Working in Dudley:tells the story of people with learning disabilities making a real success of paid work.
Self Employment for People with Learning Disabilities:shows people working for themselves and succeeding with a variety of different business types.
Self Employment for People with Mental Health Problems: we meet people who have chosen to work for themselves, find out about their journey, the support they have had and the pros and cons of this approach.
Watch them on the Inclusive Films website
If you can recommend any information about people with learning disabilities that would be useful to others, please let us know at enquiries@bild.org.uk
Top of the page
