We are delighted to share that our friends Eve Holt from Maxwell Gillott Solicitors and PSG Speak Up from Manchester University are holding an open discussion about the LB Bill.
The discussion will take place on Monday 1st December. It starts at 10am and finishes at 1pm.
The discussion is being held at Manchester University, in room AG3/4 in the Ellen Wilkinson Building.
Today we met with Disabled People’s Organisations to talk about the #LBBill. A film maker, Luke, came too. He is making a short film which can be shown at events to let people know more about the Bill.
These people were at the meeting today:
Andrew Lee – People First (Self Advocacy)
Mike Steel and Mark Williams – Bristol Disability Equality Forum (by Skype)
Simone Aspis – Changing Perspectives
Zeenat Jeewa – Asian People’s Disability Alliance
Joe Whittaker – Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People
Henrietta Doyle – Inclusion London
Ellen Clifford – Inclusion London
Grahame Whitfield – Disability Sheffield
Luke – film maker
Steve Broach, Richard Huggins and Sara Ryan – #justiceforLB
We had a good chat about how we could all work together.
We talked about different bits of the Bill.
Luke filmed people talking about the Bill.
Some of the things we talked about:
People should be able to choose where they want to live
The importance of listening to what people want
Respect
Accessible information
Time to think and make decisions
The importance of good advocacy
What does ‘residential’ mean?
Concern about residential schools
Concern about medication
There should be consequences if mistakes are made (accountability)
There was a strong feeling it was the right time for the #LBBill.
We made a plan that Ellen would collect feedback from some organisations.
People will keep sharing information about the Bill.
This week we went to London to meet the Right Honourable Norman Lamb. Norman works for the government as the Minister for Care and Support.
Norman is responsible for what happens in social care. He is very frustrated at the poor care of people with learning disabilities.
He is very disappointed that the people who promised to improve things in December 2012 have not made much progress.
The Minister told us about his plans for a Green Paper. A Green Paper is what government write to help people debate and discuss the legal and policy changes they are suggesting.
Green Papers do not have any promises to change things in them. It is just for discussion. It is called a Green Paper because it used to be printed on green paper.
There is a team writing the first draft of the Green Paper. They include Sarah and Frances who we met last month. Norman asked us if we would work with them and share our ideas from the LB Bill.
The Minister told us about some of the people with learning disabilities and their families that he had met. Lots of them told him that public bodies (people who work to help look after us) do not listen to them.
This is like what happened to LB, Southern Health did not listen to his family and because of that he died. The LB Bill (clauses 4 to 6) strengthens the family’s right to challenge decisions. The Minister said that the Green Paper would do this too. We think that this is great news and families should be listened to more.
The Minister also talked about the need to change the way that services are commissioned. He felt that changing the law was the only way that people buying services would change their behaviour. He has tried hard to get them to change for two years now and not much has improved. He is going to look at how money can move within the system because he thinks that causes problems at the moment.
It was great to meet the Minister, to hear his plans and to share ours. We look forward to working with the people writing the Green Paper to make sure the key points of the LB Bill, and your views and comments are taken on board. So please keep them coming. The draft LB Bill, is here.
When I say launched, I mean we stuck it on the blog and shared it and waited to see what would happen.
There are four options, you can pledge as an individual, an organisation, an MP or Parliamentary Candidate, or as Peer.
Since late last night we’ve had over 300 pledges, 290 from individuals, 13 organisations and 1 MP/Parliamentary Candidate – Duncan Enright who has been supporting the #JusticeforLB campaign for some time now.
Please keep pledging and keep sharing the campaign. We will add the names of MPs, Parliamentary Candidates and Peers onto the site once they pledge their support.
We also hope to add individual and organisational names too, we’re just thinking about how best to do that.
Thanks again for the support, let’s make #LBBill happen.
This is just a short note to capture some of the coverage that #LBBill launch got in case people wish to watch/listen.
We visited the Department of Health to talk to two senior civil servants the day before we launched. You can read more here and watch our film recorded after the visit here:
On the day we launched the local media, BBC Oxford, provided a lot of coverage:
1) Phil Gayle’s breakfast show interviewed a number of people involved with the LBBill, including Rich (Connor’s step dad), Chris (from IHAL) Philippa (from Change) and Paul (from My Life My Choice). The show is available to listen to online here for the next few days.
2) The lead news story on the local BBC TV news was about the LBBill. It is no longer available to view, but it included a video of Sara, explaining what had happened to Connor and why the Bill might have helped, and Steve, talking about the Bill.
3) The evening drive time radio show was presented by Nick Piercey and included a 10min slot discussing the LBBill. This coverage included an interview with Norman Lamb, the Care Services Minister, and Sara. You can listen to it online here for the next few days. The Sara and Norman interview starts at 2hrs7mins, this is what it looked like behind the scenes:
The Minister expressed his total frustration at the pace of change and promised to work with Connor’s family and members of the JusticeforLB campaign to explore how the principles of the LBBill could be embedded within law. The Minister was good to his word and a date has been set for that meeting in the next fortnight. We will keep you posted about how that meeting goes.
We will be shortly adding pages to this website where you can pledge your personal or organisational support for the LBBill. In the meantime if you wish to share news of the campaign with someone who doesn’t use social media then you can send them our email newsletter available here and encourage them to sign up for future updates.
Thank you all for your continued support and contributions to introducing the LBBill and improving lives for many disabled people.
Our campaign has been entirely crowdsourced, we are relying on interested people to help us develop what the #LBBill should say. Please share your ideas with us about how you will collect views and input, so we can share those ideas with others.
Today a small number of #JusticeforLB supporters visited the Department of Health (Steve, Sara, Rich, Mark and George).
We met two people, Sarah McClinton and Frances Smethurst, who are responsible for the policies that apply to disabled people.
They were interested in hearing about Connor’s experience and Steven’s experience and the experience of their families in supporting them.
We introduced the #JusticeforLB campaign to them, and talked about our hopes for the #LBBill.
Afterwards we recorded a short film to share with you all.
Tomorrow, Tuesday 4 November, we will share the first draft version of the LBBill and are really looking forward to your feedback, thoughts and comments.
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LB Bill 