My Life
The My Life Focus Groups are for anyone who has an interest in the Suffolk Joint Learning Disability Strategy this could be people with a learning disability, autistic people, families and carers, provider organisations, members of the public, key organisations and businesses.
There are 4 My Life Focus Groups a year, which are online and face-to-face.
The My Life Focus Group is co-chaired by:
- Boo Dendy, Business Development Manager, Leading Lives
- Mark Conquer, Expert with Experience Project Worker, Ace Anglia
The My Life Focus Group is about working in co-production. Guest speakers from health and social care and wider organisations come to talk about topics highlighted by the Group. It is really important that people with a learning disability come to the My Life Focus Group to talk about what changes they want to see happen across Suffolk.
Contact: info@suffolkordinarylives.co.uk for more information
The My Life Focus Group wants to:
- Showcase and celebrate best practice
- Identify projects to work together on
- Explore how we want the group to work, communicate with each other and develop plans to ensure the vision of the strategy is supported:
- People with learning disabilities live good lives as part of their community, with the right support, at the right time, from the right people.
- The findings from this coproduction will feed back into the Suffolk Learning Disability Partnership Board to support and enable change.
My Life Focus Group: 5th July 2023
Meeting date: July 5, 2023
Agenda Item
- Item 1.
- My Vote My Voice with Dr Mark Brookes – Dimensions
- Item 2.
- Lets talk reviews with James Boutle Operations and Partnerships Manager (Learning Disabilities and Autism) Suffolk County Council
- Item 3.
- Any other business
Who attended
2
Self Advocates
2
Families and Carers
3
Key Organisations
4
Provider Organisations
2
Board Members
Guest Speakers
- Item 1.
- Dr Mark Brookes, Dimensions
- Item 2.
- James Boutle, Suffolk County Council
Item 1. My Vote My Voice with Dr Mark Brookes – Dimensions
- You Said
- It is a lot harder to vote now that you need an ID.
- Response
- There are now more options with which ID you can use. You can apply for a voter’s ID if you need one. You can also use a freedom pass.
- You Said
- It would be good for MPs to know about this campaign and to pledge support.
- Response
- Action: to contact MPs and tell them about the campaign.
- You Said
- How do we know what each party is aiming for?
- Response
- They usually have a manifesto. One thing we are campaigning for is for each party to put their manifesto in easy read.
- You Said
- Is there easy read available to tell you about how MPs have voted?
- Response
- We are trying to talk to constituencies and find out what they have in easy read. So far I don’t know of any that have this in easy read.
- You Said
- How can the social care team help with this?
- Response
- Making sure that everyone is registered and understands they have a right to vote.
- You Said
- What needs to happen to help reduce hate crime?
- Reponse
- Education! Raising awareness through the I’m with Sam campaign.
- You Said
- How does hate crime relate to Suffolk? Are there particular concerns?
- Response
- We did have a strong relationship with Police in Suffolk before Covid. We now have contact with another person in the police.
Lets talk reviews with James Boutle Operations and Partnerships Manager (Learning Disabilities and Autism) Suffolk County Council
- You Said
- Since Covid I have been accessed as not needing any support but I don’t agree with this.
- Response
- Support being cut can be a big worry for people when it comes to reviews. A good review should bring out any support needs that are still there.
- You Said
- We know people are having telephone reviews but are not aware that these were actual reviews.
- Response
- Telephone reviews are important for us to get through everybodys review. For some people they work better but not for everybody.
- You Said
- I am aware of many people in services who have not had a review in the last 2 years.
- Response
- We have huge numbers of reviews to get through. We have been doing lots of work recently. 70% of people have had a review in the last year. We want to make sure people have quality reviews. We also want to make sure that people have reviews proportionately if not, much needs to change then a long review process may not be needed.
- You Said
- People are not given good choices and end up being stuck in day services.
- Response
- I think there is a perception that we are trying to push people into day services. We don’t want to do this, but we have found since covid that there is less going on in communities.
- You Said
- There needs to be more support for people to know what a review is and how to prepare for one.
- Response
- We did some great work around 6 years ago with the partnership board around what makes a good review. From that we had around 3 workshops for social workers.
- You Said
- We used to have social worker students come and do placements with us. This really helped with understanding of advocacy and knowledge of what’s available in the local community.
- Response
- We are working on a more standardised induction process for social workers. Helping to signpost people to the right place can be quite an individual thing.
- You Said
- Is there an opportunity to ask people at the start of the review process whether a telephone review would be ok for them, or whether they need a face to face review?
- Response
- We do want to train social workers to ask these questions.
- You Said
- Could you have more funding for social workers?
- Response
- We would love more social workers. Reviews would be better quality if we had more social workers. Its not just funding that makes this difficult. We are also struggling to recruit social workers.
Presentation: My Life Focus Group 5th July
pdf, 7 MB