The group has been active on many fronts, attending conferences and meetings, making thought-provoking videos, and contributing to consultations.
In September, Philippa Hoey volunteered to represent the group at the Learning Disability Today LD Today Conference, which discussed actions required for health and wellbeing. Read more about her involvement.
High level meetings
Through her work with Campaign 4 Change, Mary Woodall is a Learning Disability England (LDE) self-advocacy representative. Bringing her usual passion for learning disability rights to the table, she met with two key politicians this autumn.
First, she spoke with the Director General of Health & Social Care Michelle Dyson. They talked about funding of social care for people with disabilities and long-term improvements needed. In a separate meeting Mary met Stephen Kinnock Minister for Health and Social Care, once again getting to the heart of matters and advocating for better funding for the sector.
Equality and human rights consultation
Several Campaign 4 Change members enthusiastically completed an online consultation survey about the Equality and Human Rights Commission draft strategic plan 2025-2028. They responded to questions such as ‘How do you believe EHRC can make the greatest difference as a regulator of equality and human rights?’. They also rated sets of issues in order of importance to them.
Self-advocacy conference
The Positive Voices Conference in early October saw Crystal Higgins and Clayton Maragh attend as self-advocates. This is an important national conference for learning disability self-advocacy groups to come together, to network and share their work and current campaigns.
Crystal and Clayton were inspired and impressed by the range of work being carried out across England and Wales by the different groups. With over 100 delegates, both delegates were able to meet and exchange details with other self-advocacy groups to continue talking about working together on key issues. They also presented to the audience on issues they have been working on, and that are important to them.
Clayton said: “I have made some great new connections, and think if we work together we can all become stronger.”
Crystal said she really enjoyed the day, and hoped this would be the beginning of a stronger national self-advocacy movement to have a stronger voice, leading to more equality for people with learning disabilities.
Advocacy video
To mark Advocacy Week 2024 (14-18 October), Sebastian Foreman and Clayton Maragh animatedly discussed the importance of advocacy in enabling people’s voices to be heard. Listen to the recording on Campaign 4 Change’s YouTube channel.
Further work
Coming up in November is a meeting of the Challenging Behaviour Foundation with MPS and Peers. Also members will be joining an Adult Social Care APPG Parliamentary coffee morning at the Houses of Parliament.
Watch this space for reports of our involvement in these key meetings.
