North Yorkshire Learning Disability Partnership Board Annual Report
What work have we done between April 2020 and March 2021?
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Our annual report tells you about all the things North Yorkshire Learning Disability Partnership Board have done over the last year. |
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Even though we cannot meet because of coronavirus, we have been very busy and achieved lots of things on our work plan. |
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Our work plan has 4 themes. The themes are
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This report tells you what work we have done for each theme. We hope you enjoy reading our annual report and finding out more about our work! |
| What have we done about Living A Good Life? | |
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Human Rights We made some Human Rights Activity Packs. We worked with Inclusion North to write them. The packs help people think about Human Rights. We have shared the packs with lots of people and have had some great feedback from other self-advocacy groups. Self-advocates have also done some Human Rights training with Inclusion North. |
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Learning Disability England Webinars Some self-advocates have been to webinars by Learning Disability England. They have shared what they learned at the webinars with other self-advocates. Some webinars were about things on our work plan, like housing. |
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Energy Gameshow We have taken part in some gameshows by the Yorkshire Energy Doctor. The gameshows are fun and we have learned lots about how to save energy at home. |
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Online Relationships The lockdown has meant some of us are using the internet for the first time. This includes using Facebook. It is important to be careful and stay safe online. KeyRing made a set of cards that help you think about keeping safe when using Facebook and having online friendships and relationships. |
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What have we done about Staying Healthy? |
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Annual Health Checks Self-advocates filled out surveys about annual health checks for people with a learning disability. The surveys were for North Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group. A Clinical Commissioning Group is the name for a group of doctors and other health professionals who are in charge of planning and buying the healthcare that people need. |
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We spoke to someone from North Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group at a self-advocates meeting. We talked about annual health checks and coronavirus vaccinations. |
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Hospital website We have been working with staff from Airedale Hospital and The University of Bradford. They are making an interactive website for Airedale Hospital near Skipton. The website will help people know what to expect if they to go into hospital for surgery. |
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We have checked how accessible the website is and given feedback. We also shared ideas for a script which our friends at Keighley and Craven People First will use to make a video for the website. |
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Health Champions Some self-advocates in Craven and Harrogate are Health Champions with Bradford Talking Media. |
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They are working to make health services in Craven, Harrogate and West Yorkshire better for people with a learning disability and autism. |
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Social Prescriber training We have helped to develop some training for both social prescribers and people with a learning disability and their families in Craven and Bradford. Social prescribers are sometimes called community link workers. They help people who want to improve their health and wellbeing by being linked into community activities and groups. |
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In the training we talk about health inequalities for people with a learning disability. We explain that we are all individuals and have a right to good health, good healthcare, and a good life in our communities. |
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We are going to trial the training with teams of social prescribers. We will let everyone knows how it works and decide if we need to change any of it. |
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Accessible Information about coronavirus We have made lots of suggestions over the years about how to make information accessible. The council has listened to our suggestions and this helped them to make accessible information about coronavirus. |
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We also made a library of accessible information about coronavirus on the North Yorkshire Partnership website. |
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Coronavirus Vaccinations Mark wrote to Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock and his local MP about when people with a learning disability will get the coronavirus vaccine. Mark got a letter back from his local MP. |
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Staying Safe at Day Services Self-advocates made a video about staying safe when you go back to day services. |
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Flu Jabs and Health Passports We have been working with Public Health and sent out information to remind people to get their flu jabs and keep their health passports up to date. |
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All Party Parliamentary Group Self-Advocate Dean went to an online All Party Parliamentary Group. An All Party Parliamentary Group is where people from different political parties work together on a particular issue. |
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This one was about coronavirus. Dean asked a question about what can be done to make sure people with a learning disability and autism can have the right support. |
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Feeling Good video Self-advocates made a video about how they have felt about the last year. Even though it was a difficult year, people still did things that made them feel good. |
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Mental Wellbeing We have sent out activity packs to all self-advocates. We have had packs about staying healthy, keeping safe and human rights. The latest one is about looking after your mental health and wellbeing. |
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Mental Health First Aid We did some training about mental health first aid. Mental health first aid helps you to look after your mental health and wellbeing. We are running more sessions for people with a learning disability and autism to learn about mental health first aid. |
| What have we done about Keeping Safe? | |
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Keeping Safe Activity Packs We made Keeping Safe Activity Packs and sent them to self-advocates and organisations. The packs include our easy read Keeping Safe guides and some puzzles and questions to help people think about safety. |
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Home Alone Packs A few years ago a self-advocate called David Bruce thought it would be good to do a campaign so people know what to do if something happens when you are at home alone. This is the Home Alone campaign. We made some packs to help people be prepared and know what to do. This year we added a quiz and some top tips to the packs. |
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We sent lots of packs out and people said it was very good. We would like even more people to know about the pack. |
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Keeping Safe Guides The Keeping Safe guides we made are now available in audio. The Safeguarding Adults Board have shared the guides with other Safeguarding Boards across the country. Some other Boards like them so much they would like to adapt them for their own work. |
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Carry On Talking Podcast Self-advocates have started making a podcast. They have just voted to call it the Carry on Talking podcast. In October we made a podcast for Hate Crime Awareness Week. In December the podcast was about Safe Places and the Sunflower scheme. We are planning more podcasts. |
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Keeping Safe Champion We appointed Sam Suttar as the Sam is doing lots of good work, like making the podcasts. |
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Safe Places For Hate Crime Awareness Week in October, Mark Hamblin wrote a blog about Safe Places and why they are important. Mark is the Safe Places Champion. Mark also wrote an open letter to businesses to tell them about the Safe Places scheme and made some top tips for staff. The tips help staff in Safe Places know how to support people with a learning disability or autism. |
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Online Hate Crime Christopher has worked with the KeyRing national office on a lived experience group for online hate crime. |
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The group has been working with other charities to find out why hate crime happens online including on social media such as Twitter and Facebook. They will write a report about what can be done to reduce online hate crime. |
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What have we done about Making Our Voices Heard? |
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Meetings with Richard Webb Over the last year, Mark, Christopher and Katie have taken part in three meetings with Richard Webb. Richard is head of Health and Adult Services at North Yorkshire County Council. The meetings were organised by North Yorkshire Disability Forum. Mark, Christopher and Katie have asked Richard lots of important questions. Richard has really valued listening to our voices and hearing our questions. |
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Talking to Social Workers about Self-Advocacy We are working with the senior social workers at North Yorkshire County Council to help social workers learn more about self-advocacy. Recently, some self-advocates from Craven and Harrogate went along to a social workers’ meeting to talk about self-advocacy. We are looking at other ways we can help them find out more about our work. |
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Transitions Samuel is working with North Yorkshire County Council to help make Transitions better. Transitions is when you move from children’s services to adult services. |
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Samuel worked with Jodie from KeyRing and a senior social worker called Natalie Harland. They made a video that was shown at meetings for social workers. |
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Natalie said that the video was very important to help social workers understand that they should always consult and speak to people with lived experiences of social care. She said that they had very positive feedback about the video Samuel has a written a blog post about his work for the KeyRing newsletter. |
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Recruiting New Support Workers In September, self-advocates worked with North Yorkshire County Council on a recruitment campaign for support workers. Self-advocates told the Council what makes a good support worker for them. This will help the Council to find new people who want to be support workers. |
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Zoom Quiz Self-advocates have been going to KeyRing’s weekly Zoom quiz. People take it in turns to ask the questions. The quiz is so much more than a quiz! People have developed skills and learnt new things. New friendships have developed across the county. We hope the new people we have met at the quiz will join our meetings when we see each other again. |
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Flying High We have talked to young people at Flying High about self-advocacy. They have come to the Zoom quiz to meet self-advocates. |
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Easy Read Self-advocates have checked easy read information for service providers. |
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Checking the Learning Disability England website Samuel, Dean and Christopher have done some paid work with Learning Disability England to help redesign their website. They helped to make sure the new website is easy to use and accessible for everyone. |
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Budget Consultation Self-advocates took part in North Yorkshire County Council’s Budget Consultation. The Budget Consultation asks people what they think about the county council’s plans for the future and how they spend money. |
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Council Plans Self-advocates shared their views on the county council’s plans for making council services in North Yorkshire simpler and better value for money. |
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Being Online Lots of people have got online this year. We are proud of everybody’s hard work, learning new internet skills. |
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We want to make sure that people who cannot take part in online meetings are still included. KeyRing have worked hard to make sure everyone is included. They have used phonecalls and letters to stay in touch. We made a survey about Being Online. The survey will help North Yorkshire County Council understand our experiences. |
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News Article We celebrated International Day of People with Disabilities on 3 December 2020. Sam, Mark and Stewart were interviewed about self-advocacy for a news article on the North Yorkshire County Council website. |
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Live Well Live Longer The Live Well Live Longer delivery group checks to make sure the actions in the Live Well Live Longer learning disability strategy are happening. We haven’t been able to meet because of Covid. The people involved in making the strategy actions happen all work in health and social care. This means they have been very busy making sure people are kept safe and well, and continue to be supported during the pandemic. |
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They have still been working hard to make some of the Live Well Live Longer actions happen. This is good news. They told us that over the last year they have focussed on
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What have we done about How we work? |
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Partnership Board Manual We have made a guide to the Partnership Board. We are writing new Terms of Reference. |
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Keeping In Touch We have worked hard to stay in touch while we cannot meet in person because of coronavirus. We wrote 2 letters from the Partnership Board, 3 letters from each Local Area Group and 3 letters from the North Yorkshire Health Task Group. We have also started a fortnightly email bulletin to share useful information and opportunities. |
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Self-Advocates celebration We are celebrating everything we have achieved over the last few years. We have made a podcast and shared photos to make a video too. |
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We also talked to Laura who works with Shanna, Caroline and Claire. We told Laura all about what we have done and she drew an amazing poster. We will share the poster, the podcast and the video with other people. This is so they can see all the good work we have done. |
If you would like to find out more about the work we have done you can follow the links below:
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Report authors: NYCC Health and Adult Services Participation and Engagement Team |
| July 2021 | |
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If you have questions or want more information about something in this report you can email Claire Canavan at claire.canavan@northyorks.gov.uk or call 07929 873638. |
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