We would like to hear the views of people with a Learning Disability and those who support them on health and social care

15 January 2021

Listening Event scheduled for March 2021

Ashfield Voluntary Action, Mansfield CVS, Newark & Sherwood CVS, Nottingham CVS, Rushcliffe CVS and NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Clinical Commissioning Group (the part of the NHS which plans and pays for services) all worked together in the summer to find out how Covid had affected people when accessing health and social care services.

As part of this work, we spoke to voluntary and community groups who may find it more difficult to access services and this included people living with a Learning Disability. We had an excellent level of feedback from a wide-range of organisations and the message from them was that communication could be better. They also said that some people with a Learning Disability wanted the opportunity to speak for themselves.

When the report was finished, a group was set up to look at its findings and develop a plan so that the Clinical Commissioning Group (or CCG) could turn some of these ideas into actions. The hope being that engagement and communication could be improved, resulting in this community having a better understanding of how to stay safe and access services appropriately.

The action group feels that it is vital that they provide an appropriate platform for people living with a Learning Disability and those who support them to have their say.

Ashfield Voluntary Action and Mansfield CVS, with the support of the CCG, plans to hold a listening event in March. We would like groups supporting people with a Learning Disability to be involved now in the planning stage so that we can shape, design and co-produce the event together.

We have prepared a briefing document which outlines what we are hoping to do which can be found HERE. 

We have also developed a simple road map to show what we would like to achieve which can be found HERE and drafted a leaflet to promote the listening event (primarily as a discussion document) which can be found HERE.

The first meeting will be held virtually the week commencing the 18th January, there are three potential dates and time slots for the meeting. Please contact Sarah Taylor at Ashfield Voluntary Action at s.taylor@ashfieldvoluntaryaction.org.uk for more information, or ring 01623 555 551. Or contact Lesley Watkins at lwatkins@mansfieldcvs.org or ring Lesley on 01623 392444 or 07789 454893.