Jon Rouse, the Director General for Social Care visited Dudley on 7th June to see the borough's dementia services, Making it Real and the work of the Changing Our Lives People's Parliament and Quality of Life audit team. Issy spoke with passion about the Parliament's current work championing paid employment for people with learning disabilities and autism, "We are real people, we want real jobs and real money!" Jon said the day was inspirational and even said he was happy for MPs from the People's Parliament to shadow him in his role as Director General, as part of their training programme. Issy and her colleagues felt this was a real opportunity as it will give MPs a great insight into the workings of social care across England.

On April 19th Wolverhampton People's Parliament held an Employment Select Committee to bring together professionals that had signed up to deliver on outcomes in the Parliament's White Paper.

MPs Kamal Jassal and Jessica Bromley, who took charge of a busy agenda and held professionals to account, chaired the meeting. They used a newly developed traffic light system to record the progress made by professionals in achieving their pledges.

The meeting was extremely well attended by public and third sector organisations, who came to present on the outcomes that they had successfully completed. (direct to outcomes). New stakeholders included Wendy Walker from Wolverhampton Volunteer Centre, who came to introduce the service, how it supports people and the value of volunteering as a potential way into paid work. 

Roger Painter, Employment Consultant, presented employment figures from across the West Midland for people with learning disabilities and told the Select Committee that the best performing areas are those with a meaningful written strategy, strong leadership and where there is an assumption of employment from an early age.

Chris Parsons from Adult Education in Wolverhampton shared the success of her pledge in employing a person with a learning disability to work over 16 hours. We heard about the journey that this pledge this took and the barriers that Chris had to overcome to achieve this. 

The People's Parliament were thrilled to hear that the Wolverhampton City Council now have a Job Carving Policy, which has been signed up to corporately and will be rolled out cross departmentally. Their Supported Employment Team have got 5 people into work since December 2012, 6 people on their way to jobs with a commitment to another 15 jobs for people with learning disabilities over the next 6 months.

The next Employment Select Committee will be held on November 1st 2013.

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.

Here is a copy of the agenda for our Parliament on Housing on 14th March, 2013.

Here is the Sandwell People's Parliament White Paper on Housing and a copy of Mencap's report on housing for people with a learning disability.

On Tuesday 12th February Siraaj Nadat, Self Advocacy Officer and Izzy Brant, Chair of Dudley Peoples Parliament, attended 'Life in a Day', a conference for everyone with an interest in making employment a reality for people with disabilities.  The event reported on the evaluation of a 3-year programme, funded by NHS West Midlands. It celebrated the ongoing work of many of the projects involved and showcased what had been learnt from a wide variety of approaches to the challenge of getting people into genuine employment.

Dudley People's Parliament was funded through this programme so Changing Our Lives were asked to present on the success of the Parliaments. Siraaj explained that, "To influence policy and shape services you need to build relationships between professionals, service providers and other people that use services to share knowledge, share problems and develop new ways of working together". Izzy and Siraaj showcased the work of People's Parliaments and how this model has brought about cultural change in terms of leadership and employment for people with learning disabilities right across the Black Country.

Izzy spoke proudly of her role as an MP and Chair of the Parliament and the ongoing training and development that she continues to undertake. Then proceeding to test and challenge the values and opinions in the room by presenting the delegates with controversial statements to debate in relation to people with learning disabilities and autism.

After the workshop, delegates were asked to describe what they thought of the workshop in one word...

Stimulating, thought provoking, interesting, inspirational, excellent, informative, fun, empowering, encouraging, inspiring, individual, great, lively, wonderful, awesome!

Karen Ziglam, Area Operations Manager said, "Your workshop was one of the best that I have ever been to".

Please see what other delegates said about the workshop by clicking on the films below.

Catch up with all the latest news from People's Parliament!

Since the launch of Dudley Peoples Parliament in late July 2012, Dudley MP's have been working to learn more about the issues relating to employment and their role as an MP. "It takes a lot of hard work to develop into a good MP" said Izzy Brant, Chair of the Peoples Parliament in Dudley. In February Izzy will be part of a team that have been asked to present at the 'Life in a Day' conference to look at lessons learnt from the NHS Employment Support Programmed to talk about achieving cultural change and positive outcomes. This workshop will showcase the People.s Parliaments and how this model has brought about cultural change in terms of leadership and employment for people with learning disabilities right across the Black Country.

The next Parliament meeting to follow up the pledges made at the Employment Parliament in 2012 will be held at the Council Chambers at Dudley Council House between 2-4pm on Friday 26th April 2013.

For further information contact Lucy Dunstan on 0121 533 7174.

Our Dudley MPs went to Westminster to talk about employment for people with disabilities. Here's what they said about their visit:

"Izzy, Alan, Kamal and I caught the Virgin train from Birmingham New Street to London Euston. When we arrived we took the underground to the Houses of Parliament.

Callum, Personal Assistant to Ian Austin, Dudley North MP, met us, gave us a short talk and then we went to the Public Gallery. We listened to Prime Minister's Question Time which included education and jobs, which is what Dudley Peoples Parliament are working on. Afterwards Calum took us on a short tour of Parliament, before returning to Euston where we had lunch. We arrived back in Birmingham late afternoon after a very interesting day. The following day at Dudley MP meeting we had a visit from Ian Austin, MP Dudley North. We asked questions and talked about the lack of opportunities for people with learning disabilities in the workplace and how people can be treated pretty badly. It was good very interesting, informative and exciting".
By Judy Allcock

"When I went to Westminster I learnt a lot about the difference in numbers between the people who don't have a disability and those who do that are in employment. I really enjoyed the experience and it was good to see the leaders David Cameron and Ed Millaband for the first time. I first went to Westminster on a school trip many years ago, so going again after so long was a good feeling. When I heard the Prime Minister (PM) and other MP's talking I learnt a lot about what's happening around employment. It taught me how important listening is, which will help me become a better MP. I was very happy to be there!"
By Kamal Jassal

Here are the minutes from Dudley People's Parliaments.