Sir David Nicholson pledges his support for

The Whole of Life Standards!

Young People with disabilities have written a set of standards called the “Whole of Life Standards”. These standards tell commissioners, professionals, staff and services what people with disabilities expect. Within this will sit the ‘Inclusion and Participation Standards’, which will be launched on 24th February 2012. They also tell people with disabilities what rights they have!

Our Whole of Life standards were launched at our All of Me Event, co-hosted by Gina Patel, on the 11th November.

We were very lucky to have people such as “Our Dave’” from London (Sir David Nicholson Chief Executive of the NHS) who pledged his support for our standards, Helen Smith, Service Director for Children, Barbara Peacock, Corporate Director – People and Karen Dowman, Chief Executive of the Black County Partnership Foundation Trust.

W I N T E R 2 0 1 1

C H A N G I N G Y O U N G L I V E S

What’s been happening…

“Our Dave” from London supports Whole of Life standards.

Gina takes over the job of Sandwell Council Chief Executive!

Young people write school standards about Inclusion and Participation.

Young people help design accessible health leaflets.

The Whole of Life Passport trials.

Young leaders present to the Children’s Trust Board.

CHANGING YOUNG LIVES WINTER 2011

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Gina takes over Jan Britton’s job for Take Over

day 2011! On the 11th November 2011 Gina Patel, one our young leaders had the opportunity to take over the job of Sandwell Councils Chief Executive Jan Britton. Gina was kept really busy all day!

The morning of take over day was spent at the All Of Me event launching the Quality of Life standards and Whole of Health Principles. During this time Gina also met Sir David Nicholson, who is the Chief Executive of the NHS for England. In the afternoon Gina met all the council directors who are in charge of things the council deals with, such as housing and finance. Gina was also invited to approve the Christmas edition of the Sandwell Herald and some business cards for all the people who work at Sandwell Council. To finish off her day she interviewed Jan about his job, and asked him a few questions.

What did Gina think of her day as Chief Executive?

I enjoyed taking part in the Takeover Day and to me, it was an amazing opportunity and has led to hopefully getting some volunteer work in the Council. My favorite part of the day was meeting Jan Britton as I found out lots of things about him and his job. The best part of the day was when I asked Jan “Why he came Chief Executive?” He replied with “It was a complete accident!” which really made me laugh. Taking over the job of the Chief Executive and working in the Council was a great opportunity for me.

This is what Jan had to say……….

Gina handled the job of Chief Executive for the day with real style and the need to explain what I do caused me to pause for thought a couple of times as well! We both had a useful learning experience and Gina made a mark in her short time in the top job. I think it's quite possible that one day she might be after my job for real.” (Jan Britton, Chief Executive of Sandwell Council).

CHANGING YOUNG LIVES WINTER 2011

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The Whole of Life Passport

copy. Young leaders from the Young Voices Network have designed what the Passport looks like and what areas of information will be included in the Passport. The passport is going to be trialed in the schools between December 2011 and February 2012.

What will it include?

These are just a few examples

My Views

Information about me

My disability

My communication

My health

My food and drink

My transport

My reviews

My employment

The Whole of Life Passport is a person centred way of recording a young person’s story. Young people with disabilities have told us they don’t want to tell their story over and over again to a range of different professionals. They want to be able to control the way they are seen and control what happens in their lives. The Passport will be “owned” by the young person; they will decide how they describe themselves and they will control what information is shared in the Passport and what information they want to keep private. At times where young people need support, the family will manage the Passport. The Passport will be portable and web based, on a secure site. In meetings young people will be able to either access their Passport by downloading it from the website, or by bringing a printed paper

CHANGING YOUNG LIVES WINTER 2011

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School Standards

Everyone is being included!

Some young leaders have been working in schools

in Sandwell, to write some standards about

inclusion and participation for young people with physical

disabilities. These standards are going to be used in the future to

check that schools are including young people. Peer researchers have worked

with students at Wodensborough, St. Michaels and Crocketts Lane, Victoria Park.

My Life, My Dreams

Isabelle continues to co –chair the meeting with Janine Brown.

Gina, Matt and Gemma continue to represent the views of the

young people in the young voices network. The group has been

working to develop the Whole of Life service, for both children and

adults.

Giving young people with a Profound and

Multiple Learning Disabilities a voice

We have been working in the Meadows school, looking at

the different ways young people communicate. We have

made a set of short films, showing the range of communication

young people use (Makaton and PECS) We want to make sure all the

young people in Sandwell have communication passports and that everyone who

does not use words to communicate has a voice.

Designing Health Leaflets

The young leaders have worked with Phil

Lyddon to look at health leaflets for young

people to see if they can be made more

accessible, find out what sort of information

was missing and to make suggestions on how

they can be more young people friendly.

Young Leaders present to the

Children’s Trust Board

Young leaders Matt Purcell, Gemma Caffrey and Gina

Patel met with the Children’s Trust Board to present their

Whole of Life Standards. Everyone thought the young

people presented extremely well and they got the

professionals working and thinking hard. The young

leaders are also presenting their standards to John

Middleton’s Public Health policy group in December.

They also wrote the Job Description for the ‘Get It

Done’ workers.

CHANGING YOUNG LIVES WINTER 2011

Changing Our Lives

The Public, New Street, West Bromwich B70 7PG

Tel: 0121 533 7174

Email: ask@changiingourlives.org

www.changingourlives.org

www.twitter.com/Positive_Lives

And finally …a very Happy Christmas to everyone!

We’ve done something a bit different with our Christmas card this year. Have a look at:

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/fHci5BN2m

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