Learning Disability Strategy

The Government has issued a White Paper called Valuing People to implement its strategy for people with a learning disability. It is estimated that up to one million people in the UK have a learning disability, maybe a quarter of whom have a severe disability. The strategy is supported by the Valuing People Support Team. The Support Team website has a lot of resources and information about the strategy including the White Paper itself.

There is regional support available for implementing Valuing People and there is some information on the website of the North West Training and Development Team.

A local Partnership Board is implementing this in Bury. The partnership Board meets every 2 months or so and is attended by most of the agencies and organisations who have an interest in improving local services.

There is a local action plan which is concentrating on modernising day services, providing a choice of housing options, improving respite care, transitions from education, and offering a range of services to encourage independent living. The plan concentrates on a number of different areas and employment is one of them. BuryMetro has prepared an employment strategy for people with a learning disability but this cannot be implemented without additional resources. The plans to improve employment support are on hold at the moment in Bury because of a lack of resources.

The objectives of the local plan have been split up for a number of 'task groups' to work on. These groups are meeting regularly and report back to a Partnership Board who take responsibility for making sure that the plan is on track. The Board is facilitated by the Service Manager, Eamon McKeown.

The Government has recently produced some guidance about the production of an employment strategy and some of the documents can be accessed here in Acrobat (.pdf) format.

Main Employment Strategy Document

Resource Guide

Example of Action Plan

We have some major concerns about how little is happening to support the employment wishes of people with a learning disability in the UK and there is a fear that the Government is going to concentrate its resources on helping people who are closer to work back into employment.

A group is looking at the transition of young people from education to adult lifestyles. The Connexions Service has produced a plan to improve these services. Bury EST is very concerned that many young people leave school or college and do not have a chance to seek work. We would like to support young people in work experience while they are in education and offer them support to find and keep a job once they leave but we do not have the resources to do this. We are lobbying the Government, Learning and Skills Council and Jobcentre Plus to do more about this. The LSC has developed a strategy called Learning for Living and Work into how they fund further education for people with disabilities and we have contributed to its development.