East Kent Mencap Feedback, Proposal and Plans for Valuing People Now Grant
Highlights over last 3 years
⚫ Valuing People events and speaking up groups have been held regularly covering topics such as health, voting, safety, community activities and opportunities. ⚫ We would continue these events in 2020/21.
Health ⚫ We worked closely with Healthwatch to improve access to hospitals for people with learning disabilities. ⚫ We continued to support Kent Community Health Trust (KCHT) to develop easy read information including patient information leaflets and Apple Tree (Sexual Health) Clinic.
⚫ We supported 2 people to train as patient assessors and undertake Community hospital assessments for KCHT’s PLACE Programme. The Place Programme checks how accessible the hospital is. ⚫ EKHT Hospital Communication Poster. This was a recommendation in the Healthwatch report. The draft was shared with other Kent Hospitals Trusts for agreement and will now be used by Hospitals, Dentists and GP surgeries across Kent.
⚫ We supported the ‘ iWantGreatCare ’ and Kent & Medway Cancer Alliance to gather views of women with learning disabilities about cervical screening. This information was used to inform the Cancer Screening Delivery Plan for 2019/20.
⚫ In 2019 St Nicholas School in Canterbury and The Willows in Herne Bay expressed interest in a Pupils Voice programme and this is now being developed. ⚫ A ‘What’s Next’ event was held at Foreland Fields School for students and parents. Schools across south east Kent were invited.
Supporting Carers ⚫ Monthly carers coffee mornings have continued in Deal and Thanet providing information and social networks. ⚫ A ‘Planning for the Future’ event was held to provide information on wills & trusts, housing & support options. 47 family carers attended from Thanet, Dover, Canterbury and Swale.
Campaigning ⚫ 10 people in Deal campaigned for improvements to a local public toilet. ⚫ We are also part of the national Treat Me Well Campaign to improve acute patient care for people with learning disabilities
⚫ The east Kent TMW Group made a short film for Activism Week which was shared with both acute and community hospitals trusts. ⚫ In addition to the local Treat Me Well work, one person is supported to represent views on the National Steering Group and attended a Parliamentary Reception. This is a paid work role.
⚫ Our National Steering Group member was invited to take part in a meeting with the Royal College of Nursing Foundation to help plan training for learning disability nurses.
Voting ⚫ As well as regular reminders at groups of the importance of voting, Forresters Hall, East Kent Mencap’s new Ramsgate office, opened its doors as a polling station in May. This created an accessible venue for people and demonstrated that people with learning disabilities have the same rights to vote as everyone else.
Work in Progress/ Future Work
⚫ We will continue to work with our local health partners to improve access to, and experience of health care. This will include Healthwatch Kent, PLACE Project, easy read groups, acute and community hospital trusts and PALS ⚫ We will continue to be part of the national Treat Me Well campaign and will be meeting with the South East Campaigns Officer shortly to agree the next steps for the local campaign working with EKHT.
⚫ We will continue to develop the Pupils Voice Project with current schools in Thanet and Canterbury. ⚫ We are exploring additional funding streams to extend the project to more schools in Canterbury and Dover, including work experience opportunities.
⚫ Following the success of a bereavement session held in Deal in 2018, a further session is planned for Thanet where several people have had recent bereavements. ⚫ We are working with Books Beyond Words to offer volunteer opportunities at a new group starting in Thanet.
⚫ During Activism Week in October we will have a 2 day stall at Margate Hospital to raise awareness of cancer screening including easy read information. ⚫ We have been contacted by Jo’s Trust to support them to get information on screening to school age children, through Pupils Voice Project. ⚫ We are also linking with MacMillan Nursing to raise awareness of the support they offer.
⚫ We continue to work closely with Kent Police around issues of safety and crime reporting. ⚫ We will continue to share information on local and national consultations, petitions and campaigns. ⚫ We will also continue to support local activists to campaign on issues that affect them and/or that they feel strongly about.
⚫ We will continue to challenge social perceptions and raise awareness of issues and barriers affecting people with learning disabilities. We will do this linking with national and local events Learning Disability Week, International Women’s Day, Hate Crime Awareness Week.
⚫ We will continue to raise awareness and understanding of the importance of voting in both national and local elections. ⚫ We will continue to support the production of easy read information and will be arranging a joint meeting during Activism Week to explore working with Fire Service, Police, Ambulance Trust and St John’s Ambulance Service.
Sustainability
⚫ We will explore different ways to make sure Valuing People work continues beyond the end of the funding. ⚫ We will ask people at VPN events what ideas they have for continuing projects, opportunities and networks.
⚫ In Thanet the GOLD Project works closely with the VPN Project Worker. Speaking Up, rights, choice and independence are central to the GOLD Project. ⚫ East Kent Mencap are exploring a GOLD style project in Dover and will be talking to people at a VPN event in 2020 about how this might work.
⚫ We will continue to look for alternative sources of funding to offer additional activities that people have requested eg financial donation made to Dover DPG for accessible first aid course.
⚫ East Kent Mencap will use existing services eg day services and supported living, as a platform to hear the views of people with higher support needs. We will do this by holding tailored activities on topics such as health, housing and keeping safe. ⚫ The Valuing People Project Worker will continue to work with other members of East Kent Mencap staff to embed the principles of valuing people and support people to have a voice, campaign and make change happen.
⚫ Thank you for listening ⚫ Any questions?
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