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LDAG News
March 2014
New Care Bundle There is a new care bundle for people with a learning disability in hospitals in Wales. The care bundle is a collection of things to make health care in hospital better for people with a learning disability. Mark Drakeford, Minister for Health, told people about the new care bundle at the Senedd on 13 January 2014. Mark Drakeford
The care bundle tells people who work in hospitals what they need to do to make sure people with a learning disability get good care while they are in hospital. There is also a new guide called “Improving general hospital care of patients who have a learning disability� that goes with the care bundle. You can read it here: http:// bit.ly/1fprT8O. (More on page 2)
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LDAG News Easy Read (More from page 1)
The guide has information about the health needs of people with a learning disability. It also has information about the sort of support they might need when they go into hospital. There are 4 key steps in the care bundle for when someone with a learning disability goes into hospital: “To catch the reader's attention, place an interesting sentence or quote from the story here.”
Find out as soon as possible if somebody has a learning disability.
Make sure there is good communication so that everybody knows what is happening. This means the patient, their family, their carers and the hospital staff.
Person-centred care planning.
Make sure patients are checked regularly and plans are made for when the patient is ready to leave hospital.
Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board started work on the care bundle after the death of one of their patients called Paul Ridd.
Paul Ridd
(More on page 3)
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The Public Services Ombudsman looked into Paul’s death and wrote a report about it. The report said that the health board needed to make changes to make hospital care better for patients with a learning disability like Paul. The health board worked with Paul’s sister and brother to make these changes. “To catch the reader's attention, place an
interesting sentence or quote from the story here.”
Paul’s sister and brother talked about the way Paul died and how sad they were. Paul Ridd’s sister They helped the health board write the care and brother
bundle to make things better for other patients with a learning disability in Wales. Welsh Government hopes that if the care bundle is used properly it will make going into hospital much better for people with a learning disability. Staff working in hospitals also need training to make sure they understand the care bundle and how to look after people with a learning disability.
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LDAG News Easy Read
What has LDAG been doing? The Learning Disability Advisory Group (LDAG) met on 13 January 2014 in Cardiff Bay. The group talked about lots of different things. Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Bill Penny Hall from Welsh Government talked about what is happening with the new Social Services and Well-being Bill. “To catch the reader's attention, place an interesting sentence or quote from the story
The Social Services and Well-being Bill is a new law about the way people in Wales get social services to help them in their daily lives.
here.�
2014
Welsh Government hopes that the Bill will be finished by the end of March 2014. But it will not become law until all the other rules and policies that are linked to the Bill have been changed.
2016
This means that it might not become law until April 2016. Learning Disability Transformation Project Nygaire Bevan from the Social Services Improvement Agency (SSIA) came to the (More on page 5)
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meeting to talk about the Learning Disability Transformation Project. This project worked with some local councils in Wales to look at ways to change services for people with a learning disability. The aim of the project was to make services cheaper and better. “To catch the reader's attention, place an interesting sentence or quote from the story
The LDAG wants to know what difference the changes to services make for people with a learning disability and their families. here.�
They decided to ask some people from the councils who have worked on the project to talk about the changes in their area. They want to hear real stories from people with a learning disability and their families about the changes to services in their area. Edwin Jones from the Challenging Behaviour Community of Practice said that we need to make sure any money the councils save is put back into services for people with a learning disability. (More on page 6)
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Co-Chair of LDAG Roger Banks is worried about local areas writing their own learning disability strategies instead of having one strategy for the whole of Wales.
? “To catch the reader's attention, place an interesting sentence or quote from the story here.�
He is worried that this could mean people with a learning disability get different services just because of where they live. Roger is also worried about adults with a learning disability having to live with their parents just because there is not enough supported housing. He wants the LDAG to do some work on this. Sub-groups Then the group heard about what the subgroups have been doing. The sub-groups are small groups who are working on different things like health or advocacy. One of the sub-groups is looking at how and why people with a learning disability have worse health than other people in Wales. (More on page 7)
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They want to find ways to make health services better for people with a learning disability. They want to ask people who work in social services and health to join the sub-group. They will write a work plan to show what they plan to do and by when. “To catch the reader's attention, place an interesting sentence or quote from the story here.�
There is also a sub-group on advocacy. This sub-group met for the first time on 20 January to talk about what they plan to do. The other sub-group is about making services better for people with a learning disability and challenging behaviour. This sub-group works with the Challenging Behaviour Community of Practice. They have written an action plan to make sure that the abuse of people with a learning disability that happened in Winterbourne View never happens in Wales.
(More on page 8)
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Gwenda Thomas, Deputy Minister for Social Services, asked the sub-group to pick the 5 most important things from the action plan. Gwenda Thomas
1. ________ 2. ________ 3. ________ “To catch the reader's attention, place an
4. ________
interesting sentence or quote from the story here.�
Gwenda came to the meeting to hear about the 5 most important things from the action plan. She asked the sub-group to put the 5 most important things in order so that she knows which need to be done first.
5. ________
She has already written to social services and health boards to ask about people who have been sent to live away from their local area. New website Samantha Williams, LDAG Information Officer, told the group that she is working on the new website www.ldag.info. She asked the group for ideas about how the website should look and what information should be on it. She hopes that the new website will be ready by the end of March 2014.
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March 2014
Project Enable Only a few people with a learning disability have paid jobs even though lots of them can work and want to work. Project Enable aims to make it easier for people with a learning disability to work in NHS Wales. NHS Centre for Equality and Human Rights, Elite Supported Employment Agency and Cwm Taf University Health Board work together on this project.
“To catch the reader's attention, place an interesting sentence or quote from the story here.�
The project helps to give young people with a learning disability the skills and experience to get paid jobs. The first group of young people who took part in the project worked in the catering department in Cwm Taf University Health Board. The catering department makes and serves the food for all the patients, staff and visitors in the hospitals.
(More on page 10)
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The young people were supported by a job coach from Elite. Thanks to the project, 3 of the young people are about to start new paid jobs working in the Royal Glamorgan Hospital.
“To catch the reader's attention, place an interesting sentence or quote from the story
Lots of people in Wales work in the public sector, for example, in hospitals, schools or local councils.
here.�
But not many people with a learning disability have paid jobs in the public sector. This is because the way the public sector finds new staff makes it difficult for people with a learning disability to get the job. Project Enable is about changing the way people can get a job in the public sector so that it is fairer for people with a learning disability. Having a paid job can give people confidence and help them to make friends.
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It can help people be more independent and live in their own home. It is good for our health and well-being. It can also change the way people think about people with a learning disability. When people work with someone who has a learning disability, they can see them develop and become an important member of the team. “To catch the reader's attention, place an
interesting sentence or quote from the story here.�
The project has worked so well that the project partners are already making plans for another group of young people to start training in the health board very soon. The project partners are also talking to Powys Health Board and Powys County Council about starting another Project Enable in Powys. To watch the film and find out more about Project Enable, you can go to the website www.wales.nhs.uk/equality or phone 01443 233450.
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Real Opportunities Regional SEN Transition to Employment Initiative
Annual Conference 2014 Thursday 5th June St David’s Hotel and Spa, Cardiff Bay The Real Opportunities transition project for young people with additional needs are holding their third annual conference. Please mark this date in your diary—more details to follow soon! To find out more about the project and our previous conferences please visit www.realopportunities.org.uk. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter @Real_Opps.
The next meeting of the Challenging Behaviour Community of Practice (CB CoP) will take place on Wednesday 30 April 2014 at Cefn Lea, Dolfor, Newtown. Places are limited so if you have not yet booked, please email Karen Barnett: Karen.Barnett2@wales.nhs.uk.
For more information or to let us know what you think, phone Samantha Williams on 029 20681177 or e-mail: samantha.williams@ldw.org.uk. Look at the website www.ldag.info or follow us on Facebook and Twitter @LDAdvisoryGroup