Post 26/11/21

People with learning disabilities – COVID-19 Support and Action Group Wednesday 17th November 2021 Time: 12:30pm-2:30pm https://us06web.zoom.us/j/97471173675 Meeting ID: 974 7117 3675 1. Present Andrew Joanne Ray Firielle Chris Eve Don Phil Jenny Charles Kweku Sarah Sam Geraldine Olcay 2. Introductions Joanne and Jenny welcomed everyone to the meeting and asked how they were feeling. We welcomed Don OCallaghan from the USA. Firielle told us about her dental treatment and meetings with her self-advocacy group. 1 Chris shared some information about some treatment he’s having on his feet and the Channel 4 documentary on Heidi’s court case. Charles said he has written to the BBC to talk about his experiences as someone with autism. They are calling for people’s stories. Kweku shared an update about the hosting of Waltham Forest People First. Eve said she’s feeling better and preparing for some important meetings. She also said that she found out that she had a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order on her notes. She said she will be challenging it. Olcay said she has been really busy and shared her concerns about the lack of social distancing that’s happening, especially when out shopping. Don said he was really grateful to be able to link in with the group. Jenny said she’s ok and has been really busy. Joanne said she’s looking forward to her break next week and going to London. She’s also pleased to have her internet access back. Chris said he has had an email back from Traverse about the research questions we sent. 2 3. Discussion: Employment of people with learning difficulties, disabilities, and autism Andrew reminded the group about where we were with the work around this. We want to gather more information through our networks about how many people with learning difficulties, disabilities and autism are employed and what the terms of their employment is. We reviewed the suggested questions and wanted to agree them today. The survey will then be sent out. The response will support our campaign. Questions for a survey: The big question we want to find out about is... How many people with learning difficulties, disabilities, and autism are employed by self-advocacy organisations and Deaf & Disabled People Organisations? These are the questions we agreed for survey: 1. How many staff does your organisation employ that pay tax and national insurance 2. Of the staff that you employ how many are registered Disabled 3 3. How many of those staff identify as having a learning difficulty, learning disability or autism? a. What types of jobs do they have b. what type of contract are they employed on i.e. part time full-time, zero hours, temporary permanent 4. Have you heard of Access to Work and do you use it? 5. What are the progression routes and personal development opportunities for staff that have learning difficulties, disabilities and autism? When should we send the questionnaire out? Everyone agreed there needed to be a good amount of time for people to go through the questions and reply. It was agreed to get the questionnaire out as soon as possible and have plenty of time after. We agreed:  Complete an easy read questionnaire by the end of November 2021.  To send the questionnaire out for the first week of January 2022.  Allow at least 4 weeks for people to fill it in. 4 Suggested explanation and introduction for the survey: We are sending this questionnaire to you because we are doing some research about employment for people with learning difficulties, learning disabilities and autism. We are doing this because we would like to see more people with learning difficulties, learning disabilities, and autism employed in proper and well paid jobs. 3. Sharing news People First newsletter: if you don’t receive this in your inbox let us know and we can add you to the database. Charles’s blog: A Voice for the Voiceless https://peoplefirstltd.com/charles-a-voice-for-the- voiceless/ Sam’s blog: Working through Covid https://peoplefirstltd.com/sam-johnson-working-through- covid/ The Long Covid Project: there will be two workshops in December Wednesday 1st December 12:30pm – 2:30pm Wednesday 8th December 12:30pm – 2:30pm Long Covid Flyer: https://peoplefirstltd.com/wp- content/uploads/2021/11/Long-Covid-Project-Flyer.pdf 5 Together All Are Able 10th Birthday celebrations on 9th December. Film about Hate Relationships (11 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDZv5liWlpI Charles and Geraldine shared this information 6 Oska Bright Film Festival is the world’s leading festival for films made by or featuring people with learning disabilities or autism. Oska Bright Film Festival promotes accessible screenings, runs training for venues and develops skills for aspiring filmmakers. Oska Bright Film Festival puts people with learning disabilities or autism where they should be, on the big screen. Oska Bright Film Festival is working closely with the Barbican to support them to welcome learning disabled and autistic audiences back to their venue as part of our “Welcome Back” scheme. They will be sharing dates soon. Maybe this is something the group could organise as a social trip? 4. Reminder of topics for future meetings Some of the things that people said were:  Poverty  Safeguarding  Accessible information standards  Employment  Booster vaccinations  Human rights  Setting up groups  Personal development and training 7 Next meeting: Wednesday 24th November 12:30pm – 2:30pm https://us06web.zoom.us/j/97471173675 Chris’s Art Work 8