Dudley People's Parliament on employment took place on Friday 26th April.

Several MPs; Kevin Tomkins, Alan Slym and Judy Alcock challenged local decision makers about their pledges made at the last Parliament, which took place in July 2012.

Izzy Brant, MP and Chair Person spoke confidently questioning delegates from Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, staff from the Black Country Partnership Trust and the Employment Plus team.

The Employment Plus team shared the lives and experiences of two paid employees; Susan Baker and Roger Jones. We were able to hear about their positive experiences of being in employment, and the valuable work they do in their roles.

The People's Parliament has put employment high on the agenda within Dudley Council gaining support from John Polychronakis the Chief Executive for Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, who supported the MPs to hold delegates to account.

The pledges that were made were to create paid job opportunities, write a job carving policy and an accessible recruitment process within Dudley Council and the Black Country Partnership Trust. The MPs held the professionals to account, to make sure the needs and voices of people with learning disabilities and autism are herd and acted upon.

There were many delegates present, including Ian Austin, Labour MP. The MPs for Dudley's People's Parliament were pleased to hear from Mr Austin, and will continue to work with him as he has offered them the opportunity to shadow him either locally or in Parliament to see what his job involves.

All delegates were asked to give feedback on what they had achieved to meet their pledge. The MPs then commented on the outcomes and scored them against a new traffic light system.  Some of the positive outcomes achieved included:

• Dudley Council have created 3 jobs. They were given an amber light, as they hadn't achieved the 5 agreed jobs.
• Lunch on the Run created 4 new jobs for people with learning disabilities.

Councilor Dave Vickers was also present, supporting the work of the MPs and helping to secure the paid job opportunities the Black Country Partnership Trust had agreed to.

The MPs made it clear if they were happy with the feedback and set further actions for the next Parliament. The work is still on going, and we all hope it will continue to improve the opportunities available for people with learning disabilities and autism.

The next Parliament will take place on Friday 25th October 2013.

Back in February the Black Country Partnership Foundation Trust asked Changing our Lives to help them review their value and vision statement. We wanted to make sure that people with learning disabilities were involved, so invited people with learning disabilities from across the Black Country to an event on the 19th of April.

Gemma Caffery hosted the event and started the day with a quiz to wake everyone up! The quiz was followed by a series of interactive activities that gave people the chance to say what was important to them in their life, what they wanted for the future, how should NHS staff support you and what would make the service great.

Staff from Changing our Lives and the Black Country Partnership Foundation Trust worked with people using Ipads and talking mats to get their views and opinions.

Lesley Writtle, Divisional Director for Learning Disabilities gave a short presentation about what her role is and then asked people if they were her for the day what would they improve?

Some of the key messages of the day were that people want to:

• Be seen as a person first and a disability second
• Health professionals should 'talk to me first and not my supporter
• Services should fit around me, not me fit around you
• Ppeople with learning disabilities should not be pushed out and should be seen with everyone else

The people taking part in the event also had the opportunity to film short messages for the Trust and to have their photograph taken with their 'value'. These photographs will be used by the Trust to remind everyone what people with learning disabilities expect from their services.

Steven Holmes from BCPFT said, "

“This was a fantastic day. Having the chance to sit an talk with people in this way about what was important to them, and how we could help them achieve this was very humbling. I look forward to being part of many more similar opportunities".

It was clear from the day that people had high standards for their lives including wanting to live in their own home, get married and get a job. They want to be listened to and involved in their own care and treatment.  People who attended the day commented that it was:
'A huge success, everyone enjoyed themselves'
'It was great to be listened to, we are the experts we know best'

Wolverhampton City Council commissioned Changing Our Lives to consult with children and young people with disabilities on short breaks services.  The aim of the consultation was to gain a better understanding of what short breaks services children and young people are currently using, what they think of short breaks and what they would like future short breaks services to look like. We also talked to young people who are not currently using shorts breaks provision about what activities they enjoyed accessing in their spare time.

We went to three schools in Wolverhampton; The Orchard Centre, Penn Fields and Penn Hall and spoke to 35 children and young people. We planned fun and accessible workshops which young people enjoyed taking part in and were able to contribute in may ways – for example through drawing, speaking or writing.  We found that young people with disabilities want to take part in the same activities as those without disabilities.

Exciting news!!
During this consultation, we also were able to identify young people who are interested in becoming young leaders in Wolverhampton. Changing our lives are developing a young voices network which will enable young people with disabilities in Wolverhampton to help shape services locally. This is a really exciting opportunity for young people to have their voice heard and make a difference. For more information, please contact Ellie at Changing Our Lives.

Changing Our Lives is currently working towards launching a new People's Parliament to focus on the rights of people with Mental Health issues. Daniel McNamee, a Self Advocacy Officer with Changing Our Lives, gave an update on the work he has been doing recently:

"As part of the work around developing the Mental Health Parliament I have been doing some community consultation work with people who have mental health issues and have used both community and inpatients mental health services across the Black Country.
To gather evidence to show there is a need for Parliament I have met with people who attend the Making A Difference group at Delta House. During the consultation I asked people what issues they are facing and what the Parliament should be working on. Key themes are emerging. People are finding that professionals who have little or no experience of working with people with mental health issues are completing the assessment processes for benefits. Another issue is employment where people feel there is employment a real stigma about employing people with mental health issues.

To ensure the parliament is fully supported I have met with various Westminster MPs. Travelling to London I met both Kevan Jones and Charles Walker who are both MPs. I presented the idea of a Mental Health Parliament; both were fully supportive.

Following on from a meeting with James Morris MP, James has agreed that the issues from the Mental Health parliament can be fed into the All Party Parliamentary Group in Westminster.  Other meetings have included a meeting with Dominic Fisher who is a Criminal Justice Liaison Officer based at Church Vale. The purpose of the meeting was to share the idea of the parliament and gather his views."