Over two thirds of people with learning disabilities, who use Warwickshire County Council’s Aim 4 employment service, are in paid work, work experience or voluntary work.
Aim 4 is a specialist recruitment service offering employment or work experience to adults with learning disabilities.
Its services include:
· matching adults with learning disabilities to work placements
· providing initial job training
· monitoring placements until all involved are confident
· providing ongoing support where required
· facilitating courses on work options and skills required
· providing independent travel training
· helping services users to make and maintain friendships
Current employers include care homes, local hospitals, retail outlets, hotels and catering establishments; and Warwickshire Adult, Health and Community Services.
Click here for details
Friday, 9 October 2009
Sandwell leads by example
Sandwell MBC has been chosen as the demonstrator site for the Social Inclusion and Housing Project run by the National Development Team for Inclusion.
As part of the three year project funded by the Department of Health, the council will work with groups and individuals on developing supported living schemes for people with learning disabilities.
The Social Inclusion Project provides support to local authorities moving away from residential care models to ordinary housing and support, in a way that promotes social inclusion.
Click here for details
Other initiatives in Sandwell include:
Safe Places Scheme – designed to help people with learning disabilities if they become victims of hate crime, harassment or bullying. Individuals are provided with a card that identifies them as having a learning disability and as a member of the Safe Places Scheme. Printed on it are the words ‘I need help’, the persons name and contact numbers.
Agencies, businesses and public buildings are asked to display the Safe Places Symbol to show they are part of the scheme. This indicates the staff inside are willing and able to help when called upon.
Click here for details
Partnership with Changing Our Lives – The council is making sure people with learning disabilities are at the forefront of making Valuing People Now happen. Members of the council supported the People’s Parliament, made up of people with learning disabilities, and will join with the self advocacy group Changing Our Lives to write Sandwell’s mission statement for learning disability services.
Changing Our Lives is part funded by Sandwell and acts as a critical friend to statutory bodies. Their work to date includes:
· Ongoing inspection and regulation work with the Care Quality Commission and Sandwell’s contracts unit
· Campaigning against violence in care
· Audit work with Sandwells NHS trusts to ensure services are responsive to the needs of people with learning disabilities.
As part of the three year project funded by the Department of Health, the council will work with groups and individuals on developing supported living schemes for people with learning disabilities.
The Social Inclusion Project provides support to local authorities moving away from residential care models to ordinary housing and support, in a way that promotes social inclusion.
Click here for details
Other initiatives in Sandwell include:
Safe Places Scheme – designed to help people with learning disabilities if they become victims of hate crime, harassment or bullying. Individuals are provided with a card that identifies them as having a learning disability and as a member of the Safe Places Scheme. Printed on it are the words ‘I need help’, the persons name and contact numbers.
Agencies, businesses and public buildings are asked to display the Safe Places Symbol to show they are part of the scheme. This indicates the staff inside are willing and able to help when called upon.
Click here for details
Partnership with Changing Our Lives – The council is making sure people with learning disabilities are at the forefront of making Valuing People Now happen. Members of the council supported the People’s Parliament, made up of people with learning disabilities, and will join with the self advocacy group Changing Our Lives to write Sandwell’s mission statement for learning disability services.
Changing Our Lives is part funded by Sandwell and acts as a critical friend to statutory bodies. Their work to date includes:
· Ongoing inspection and regulation work with the Care Quality Commission and Sandwell’s contracts unit
· Campaigning against violence in care
· Audit work with Sandwells NHS trusts to ensure services are responsive to the needs of people with learning disabilities.
Delivering inclusion
The Department of Health West Midlands will offer help and advice to local authorities on how to go about meeting the Public Service Agreement (PSA) 16 requirement to increase the proportion of socially excluded adults in settled accommodation and employment, education or training.
Current PSAs set out government’s key priorities and the results it wants to achieve for the period 2008-011. They are used to set standards for delivering and improving services.
All PSAs are designed to achieve:
· Fairness and opportunity for all
· A better quality of life
· Stronger communities
· A more secure, fair and environmentally sustainable world
PSA16 supports adults at risk of social exclusion, specifically:
· Care leavers
· Adult offenders under probation supervision
· Adults in contact with secondary mental health services
· Adults with moderate to severe learning disabilities
The agreement will be delivered by a range of government and non- government organisations working together; such as social housing groups, social care providers, colleges, and user led organisations.
Local strategic partnerships (LSPs) are responsible for setting targets for improving services.
DOH West Midlands will work with local authorities and their partners to ensure appropriate targets have been identified and embedded in the work of LSPs.
Click here for details
Current PSAs set out government’s key priorities and the results it wants to achieve for the period 2008-011. They are used to set standards for delivering and improving services.
All PSAs are designed to achieve:
· Fairness and opportunity for all
· A better quality of life
· Stronger communities
· A more secure, fair and environmentally sustainable world
PSA16 supports adults at risk of social exclusion, specifically:
· Care leavers
· Adult offenders under probation supervision
· Adults in contact with secondary mental health services
· Adults with moderate to severe learning disabilities
The agreement will be delivered by a range of government and non- government organisations working together; such as social housing groups, social care providers, colleges, and user led organisations.
Local strategic partnerships (LSPs) are responsible for setting targets for improving services.
DOH West Midlands will work with local authorities and their partners to ensure appropriate targets have been identified and embedded in the work of LSPs.
Click here for details
DOH and JIP support for Valuing People
The Department of Health West Midlands is working closely with the JIP to ensure implementation of Valuing People Now and Valuing Employment Now across the region.
DH regional lead for the Valuing People programme, Chris Sholl, is in contact with a range of organisations to ensure Valuing People Now and Valuing Employment Now are embedded in their work and to provide help where needed.
VPN is being managed locally, regionally and nationally. The regional learning disability programme board has devised an action plan to make sure it is delivered.
Click here for the West Midland’s plan.
Director of Adult Services and Health for Sandwell MBC and JIP member, Andrea Pope-Smith, co-chairs the board with Neil Davies, who is a representative of the regional and national forums.
Regional lead, Chris Sholl says: “Its evident there is a lot of enthusiasm, hard work and partnership activity going into changing the shape of services. We are working closely with the JIP and are planning some joint projects.”
The first regional Valuing People News letter will be published this month and can be found on the West Midlands regional page of the VPN website click here.
For Chris Sholl’s contact details click here.
DH regional lead for the Valuing People programme, Chris Sholl, is in contact with a range of organisations to ensure Valuing People Now and Valuing Employment Now are embedded in their work and to provide help where needed.
VPN is being managed locally, regionally and nationally. The regional learning disability programme board has devised an action plan to make sure it is delivered.
Click here for the West Midland’s plan.
Director of Adult Services and Health for Sandwell MBC and JIP member, Andrea Pope-Smith, co-chairs the board with Neil Davies, who is a representative of the regional and national forums.
Regional lead, Chris Sholl says: “Its evident there is a lot of enthusiasm, hard work and partnership activity going into changing the shape of services. We are working closely with the JIP and are planning some joint projects.”
The first regional Valuing People News letter will be published this month and can be found on the West Midlands regional page of the VPN website click here.
For Chris Sholl’s contact details click here.
Valuing employment now - real jobs for people with learning disabilities
The government is aiming to substantially increase the number of people with learning disabilities employed for at least 16 hours a week, by 2025.
Published in June this year the strategy ‘Valuing employment now’ includes actions to raise expectations across services, that all people with learning disabilities can and should have the chance to work.
Successful implementation will require:
• close partnership working between statutory, voluntary and private agencies
• good career and skills preparation at school and college
• campaigns to change attitudes and culture
• moves towards personal budgets
• high quality job coaching
• building a business case for employers
• making travel and transport less problematic
Click here for details
Published in June this year the strategy ‘Valuing employment now’ includes actions to raise expectations across services, that all people with learning disabilities can and should have the chance to work.
Successful implementation will require:
• close partnership working between statutory, voluntary and private agencies
• good career and skills preparation at school and college
• campaigns to change attitudes and culture
• moves towards personal budgets
• high quality job coaching
• building a business case for employers
• making travel and transport less problematic
Click here for details
Valuing People Now: a new three-year strategy for people with learning disabilities
Valuing People Now, the government strategy for improving support services for people with learning disabilities to help them live normal lives, is available on the Department of Health website.
The three year strategy, published in January this year, outlines what needs to be done to promote equality for people with learning disabilities and give them more choice and control over their lives.
It builds on the Valuing People policy introduced in 2001.
Valuing People Now sets out the next stage for adapting services to help people with learning disabilities live in the community alongside their fellow citizens,and falls within the wider transforming social care agenda.
Priorities for action are:
· Inclusion – for individuals with more complex needs, black and minority ethnic groups and people with autistic spectrum conditions
· Personalisation – achieving significant increases in direct payments and the number of people able to commission their own services
· Healthcare – recommendations for improvement are published in Healthcare for All
· Housing – ensuring all mainstream housing policies are inclusive
· Employment – the Government has published
Valuing Employment Now, its strategy for getting people with learning disabilities into paid employment of at least 16 hours a week
· Living in the community – ensuring sufficient support and provision across areas including advice, advocacy, transport; sport, leisure, safety; justice and redress.
Click here for details
The three year strategy, published in January this year, outlines what needs to be done to promote equality for people with learning disabilities and give them more choice and control over their lives.
It builds on the Valuing People policy introduced in 2001.
Valuing People Now sets out the next stage for adapting services to help people with learning disabilities live in the community alongside their fellow citizens,and falls within the wider transforming social care agenda.
Priorities for action are:
· Inclusion – for individuals with more complex needs, black and minority ethnic groups and people with autistic spectrum conditions
· Personalisation – achieving significant increases in direct payments and the number of people able to commission their own services
· Healthcare – recommendations for improvement are published in Healthcare for All
· Housing – ensuring all mainstream housing policies are inclusive
· Employment – the Government has published
Valuing Employment Now, its strategy for getting people with learning disabilities into paid employment of at least 16 hours a week
· Living in the community – ensuring sufficient support and provision across areas including advice, advocacy, transport; sport, leisure, safety; justice and redress.
Click here for details
Foreword
In this issue we feature some of the innovative work councils are doing to support people with learning disabilities in the region.
We also give you a quick guide to the government’s three year strategy
– Valuing People Now – and its supporting strategy Valuing Employment Now, for helping people with learning disabilities to live normally alongside fellow citizens in the community.
At the heart of the strategies is the premise that people with learning disabilities have the right to live like others, with the same opportunities and responsibilities, and to be treated with the same dignity and respect.
Expectations are high, with the need for real change to be delivered in a relatively short time.
To achieve this we have to accept and understand that Valuing People Now is part the wider social care transformation agenda, as with personalisation where the government expects a substantial increase in the number of people commissioning their own services, including people with learning disabilities.
The JIP’s role is to support improvement of social care. We are planning with the Department of Health West Midlands a number of projects to help local authorities deliver Valuing People Now.
In the meantime, we invite you to share with us and colleagues across the region information and examples of good practice that we can all learn from.
Andrea Pope-Smith
Director, Adult Services & Health, Sandwell MBC
ADASS lead for Learning Disabilities
Co Chair of Valuing People Now Regional Project Board
We also give you a quick guide to the government’s three year strategy
– Valuing People Now – and its supporting strategy Valuing Employment Now, for helping people with learning disabilities to live normally alongside fellow citizens in the community.At the heart of the strategies is the premise that people with learning disabilities have the right to live like others, with the same opportunities and responsibilities, and to be treated with the same dignity and respect.
Expectations are high, with the need for real change to be delivered in a relatively short time.
To achieve this we have to accept and understand that Valuing People Now is part the wider social care transformation agenda, as with personalisation where the government expects a substantial increase in the number of people commissioning their own services, including people with learning disabilities.
The JIP’s role is to support improvement of social care. We are planning with the Department of Health West Midlands a number of projects to help local authorities deliver Valuing People Now.
In the meantime, we invite you to share with us and colleagues across the region information and examples of good practice that we can all learn from.
Andrea Pope-Smith
Director, Adult Services & Health, Sandwell MBC
ADASS lead for Learning Disabilities
Co Chair of Valuing People Now Regional Project Board
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