Yorkshire and Humber Regional

Forum February 2016

The Yorkshire and Humber Regional

Forum was held on the 5th of February

at the ST Georges Centre in Leeds at

the forum we talked about Transforming

Care .

40 self-advocates and supporters attended the forum from

Regional Forum at St George Centre Leeds

5th February

The forum first voted for the subject they want the National Forum to talk about:

1. Making sure that the voice of people with learning disabilities are heard

Votes: 23

2. Understanding the welfare

reform

Votes: 4

3. Making sure that people are

safe

Votes: 6

Regional Forum at St George Centre Leeds 5th February

Work that has been

happening in our region.

More person centred planning out there

There has been lots of training around Hate

Crime and Mate Crime. Self-advocates from

Bradford and Kirklees have been training

university students about this and so far have

trained over 2000 students.

Hate crime and mate crime well

covered in Leeds

Doncaster have done lots of good

work around Hate and Crime and

Mate Crime on all strands.

Doncaster advocacy have also been

quality checking hospital services in their

area

Rotherham are working with REMA (Rotherham Ethnic Minority Alliance) about

hate crime

Work that has been happening in our

region.

In Doncaster they visited the

houses of parliament telling

people with learning disabilities

to use their vote and see how

parliament work.

Work that has been

happening in our region.

We are very worried because

……………………………………..

There's less than 30% of self advocacy

groups left in our area than there was

10 year ago

Local councils want to co-produce

plans with self-advocacy groups

however funding is more difficult we

feel like we are losing our voice and

missing out on lots of information.

Feedback from North Yorkshire Keyring Self-

advocates

On the 2nd of February I went to North Allerton Mencap Centre to meet with the Keyring Self-advocates

Self-advocates from Harrogate

told me about their Home Alone

Campaign. This campaign is

happening because self

advocates in their group were

talking about how they feel when

they are living on their ownIndependently.

Billy’s Story

One self-advocate shared his story about his recent experience; this self-advocate has allowed me to share his story with you today:

Self-advocate lives in his own flat and doesn’t have any support to live there. In December last year Billy became frightened because the people below his flat were making a lot of noise and started fighting with each other. Petrol was poured in the flat and it was set a light.

Billy’s Story

Self-advocate was very scared and

didn’t know what to do. The police turned

up and knocked on the door for

information however, he did not answer

the door to them because he was too

scared he thought it was the men in the

flat below trying to cause more trouble.

In the morning Billy was able to ring the

safeguarding adults board who would

then ring the police for him. They left an

easy read letter through the letterbox.

A Supporter’s Story

A supporter at the meeting also

spoke about her experience of

people with learning disabilities not

getting any support to live in their

flat but don’t get it because they

don’t meet the councils criteria.

A Supporter’s Story

One woman who I know lives in her own

flat independently but needs some

support. The council has said she doesn’t

meet the criteria for housing support. This woman pays £25 a week for an

organisation to support her in her own

home for one-hour a week. She now has to

make tough decisions about paying for this

support over going out with her friends and

other leisure activities”.

Feedback from region

I think this is an issue the national

forum should discuss and works

well with the national forum priority

of making sure people are safe. Is

this happening in other areas?

does anybody have any advice

that I can pass back to this

advocacy group to support their

campaign?