Category: learning disability

Autism diagnosis times in England to be recorded

/ Lisa Richardson / Leave a comment

The Government has announced that from next year it will start recording autism diagnosis waiting times in England, a key part of the National Autistic Society’s Autism diagnosis crisis campaign. It also plans for these times to be published from 2019. The announcement was made during a debate in Parliament in which 30 MPs debated issues around autism diagnosis waiting times, with calls to record the data so that local areas can be held accountable. The debate was tabled by Bambos Charalambous, a new MP who was struck by the experiences of long waits for a diagnosis during a general election hustings organised by the National Autistic Society.

Developing the workforce to build the right support for people with learning disabilities and/or autism

/ Lisa Richardson / Leave a comment

Developing the workforce to build the right support for people with learning disabilities and/or autism

Thursday 12 October 2017

Skills for Care London office

Lynton House
7-12 Tavistock Square
Bloomsbury
London
WC1H 9LT

Registration from 10.40
Start 11.00
Finish 15.00

Skills for Care and the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group (VODG) are working together with the Transforming Care programme (workforce) to develop a series of person-centred examples. 

These will set out the skills and knowledge needed to support people with learning disabilities and/ or autism, who display or are at risk of displaying behaviour which challenges. The examples will aim to cover a range of individuals and situations.

They’ll be used by commissioners and adult social care providers when they’re planning support options with people. 

We want to co-produce them and so invite you to attend this workshop, where we’ll start to produce the examples.

There’ll be two further workshops in November in the South West, North East and North West, to refine and test out the examples with more people. You can attend as many workshops as you wish.

Who should attend?

We’d love to get a range of people in different roles who support people with learning disabilities and/ or autism.

Whilst we hope to get lots of different people’s ideas, we ask that (for now) only one member of staff attend from each organisation (unless you represent different perspectives, for example a front-line support worker and the head of health and safety).

It’s really important to us that people who’ve used services and their families help us with this.  Therefore we have a small budget available to support people who use services and their families to attend – this can cover the costs of their time, travel and any additional support costs. Their support workers might also attend with them. Email policy@skillsforcare.org.uk to find out more.

If you know people who have a learning disability and/ or autism or family members who have relevant experience, please share this invite with them.

If you’d like to get involved in this work, please register here.

Social workers speak out about the state of care today – Care and Support Alliance (CSA)

/ Lisa Richardson / Leave a comment

A survey carried out by the CSA and community Care magazine amongst social workers has been published. The report finds that social workers feel under pressure to reduce care packages for vulnerable adults, with some fearing the reductions are unfair and unsafe, with 68% of respondents admitting they were expected to cut care costs to meet budgetary requirements.  Read here.