The Community of Practice is pleased to welcome Lindsay McCafferty from Health Education England to share her experiences of overseeing Project Choice, a programme to enable young people with learning disabilities to gain competitive marketable skills through work placements.

This will be of particular interest to those in special educational services, who are concerned with employment and employability. Lindsey is also keen to support localities to identify businesses and services that might lead on providing placements, to develop new partnerships across our region.

Details of the event on 7th September, can be found at the Community Eventbrite page. Click the picture below to register.

The Community of Practice today published a position statement on the focus of this community.

This statement clarifies that it’s focus is people with learning disabilities and their allies and supporters. It is recognised that a significant percentage of autistic people will also have a learning disability, and as such those that experience this co-occurrence are very much in the focus of this community. However as Tracey advises and guides the steering committee, neurodivergent people without an accompanying learning disability require their own spaces, and work is required to inform and educate to ensure these spaces are available. 

More detail can be found in the Statement below and on the About page.

Thanks to Tracey Eyles, George Matuska and Lisa Richardson for having this realised.

Thanks to Sue Marsden, Phoebe Mooney and the small group facilitators for coordinating the Community online learning event on 1st December 2021.

With 140 registered and 70 people attending, this was the Community’s largest event so far, while the richness of the presentations, films and group work will enable the Kent Surrey Sussex region to consider how to prioritise it ambitions for end of life care for people with learning disabilities.

Below are is a recording of Phoebe Mooney’s presentation on advanced care planning, along with the films shown at the event, and finally the one word evaluation. 

Research in social care is very important as it can inform social work practice and improve outcomes for people.  The Kent Research Partnership is one of six capacity building, social care partnerships funded by the NIHR Health Services and Delivery (HS&DR) programme in England. Our four-year programme of work will develop sustainable Kent-based partnerships to support the delivery of high quality social care research on the topics that matter most in our region. 

Kent County Council Adult Social Care, the University of Kent and partners are leading a project that aims to help build capacity and develop a positive culture of research.

Objectives of the Event:

• Networking event to bring together our partners, including people supported by adult social care, carers, and the health and social care workforce
• Review and discuss priority areas on which to focus adult social care research, with a view to improving outcomes for the people we support and our workforce.
• Opportunity to think about and discuss how communities of practice can be formed to support best practice and practice-oriented research in adult social care.

Who should attend:

• Social care practitioners and managers
• People who use social care
• Family/friends who are carers for someone
• Commissioners and providers of care
• Researchers with an interest in social care

To book your place please click on the flyer below. 

On 1st December the Community will be running its fifth online learning event, led by Sue Marsden, on End of Life Care for people with learning disabilities. 

Having worked with St Wilfrid’s Hospice, Eastbourne supporting people with learning disabilities and those around them with death and dying, Sue has significant learning to bring to this event, showcasing others who are undertaking best practice and sharing resources to help us focus on the challenges of providing care that is both person centred and adjusted.  

This will be an opportunity for the Community to work together to identify a set of standards for our region and establish opportunities for developments in practice.

Please click below on the picture below to book your place