Hello! What s in VoiceAbility News this month? We have a new service in Lincolnshire called Appropriate Adults Page 2 Read about another new service in Essex. Page 3 Our Parliament in Cambridgeshire is changing. It s going to become the Speak Out Council. Page 4 Our team in Camden and Islington tells us what they ve been up to. Page 6 Becky from Bexley talks to us about being a child in care and how advocacy could have helped. Page 8 We get a quality award for our work with young people in Suffolk Page 10 What have people in Lincolnshire found out about hate crime in their area? Page 11
Lincolnshire Appropriate Adults Service: VoiceAbility has won a contract to provide an Appropriate Adults service in Lincolnshire. Appropriate Adults support young people and vulnerable adults who have to talk to the police. Appropriate adults make sure there is good communication between individuals and the police. An Appropriate Adult can be family, a friend, a social worker or a volunteer. They make sure people understand what is happening while they are with the police. They make sure the police treat people fairly and do not abuse people s rights. They support people while they are receiving important instructions from the police. We will start this service in August.
Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy in Essex: From July, VoiceAbility will be providing an Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy service in Essex. Independent Mental Capacity Advocates help people who may not be able to make an important decision. VoiceAbility has lots of experience in providing this type of advocacy. VoiceAbility already have offices in Essex and the new service will be based in Thurrock. We will also hire new members of staff to work on the new service. You can find out more about the new service by going to the website: http://www.voiceability.org/in_your_area/thurrock We will start this service in July
Cambridge Speak Out Council: The Learning Disability Parliament in Cambridge has now closed. Now there is a new forum called the Speak Out Council. The Speak Out Council will support vulnerable adults. This includes people who cannot always get support from other services. Things are difficult for many people at the moment. So the Speak Out Council is really important. Lots of people in Cambridge are not able to find jobs. So it is even harder for people with learning disabilities who need extra support. At the same time, lots of important benefits are being cut.
There are fewer day services for people with learning disabilities to use. And lots of transport services no longer run. This means people with learning disabilities are finding it harder to have their voices heard. Speak Out Council Leaders will be people with learning disabilities. They will be paid by VoiceAbility to speak up for other people with learning disabilities. They will support people to understand important issues. They will work with professionals to help overcome problems. They will hold meetings to discuss how to solve important issues. They will run campaigns to raise money and awareness to solve other issues. We are looking forward to the new project starting!
Update from Camden and Islington: Ann Standen is the new service manager in Camden and Islington. She has been in the job for over a month now and she has been busy! But Ann explains how having a great team has made it all possible. Ann says: We have now started a new service in Camden, Islington and Hackney. The service is for Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy. This is where people without mental capacity are supported to understand and make important decisions.
Another new service in Newham has been going since January. There are four excellent advocates there and the commissioners are really happy with the service. They were pleased with where the Newham office is and how easy it is for people to use. We spoke to them about the carers in Newham who had not had advocacy before. They were really pleased that carers are able to have advocacy support now. We also have a new volunteer programme. Megan Karnes and Susanna Momtazuddin are training the new volunteers at the moment. They have worked really hard and the training is going well. Thank you to everyone in the North London team for making the first month so positive!
Advocacy for Looked After Children in Bexley: This week we spoke to Becky Gunner, who is an advocate with VoiceAbility. Becky works with children who are in care. She makes sure people listen to what they want and need. VoiceAbility has 3 Looked After Children s services. They are in Bradford, Milton Keynes and Bexley. Becky recently supported a small group to give a presentation to Bexley council. What we want They talked about 10 things the council could do better to help children in care. One important thing was knowing the children better. The children gave the councillors a quiz to test how much they knew about them. The council thought this was a great idea!
Bexley council are going to make some changes to support young people better. They are also going to give children leaving care 500 extra to support them. Becky used to be a child in care in Bexley. She knows what it is like for the young people. Becky s parents split up when she was a baby. Her mum left her by herself when she was two. When she was growing up, there were always lots of people talking about how to look after her. They did not always listen to what she wanted to say. Becky thinks having an advocate would have made a big difference. Advocates listen to what people want to say and support them to have their voices heard. Advocates can also help people to understand paperwork that is hard to read.
VoiceAbility Wins Young Suffolk Quality Award: Last month, VoiceAbility won an award for working with young people in Suffolk. The award is called the Young Suffolk Quality Award. It shows that VoiceAbility provide good and safe advocacy for young people. Suffolk Council looked at lots of VoiceAbility information to decide whether to give us the award. They looked at our work in keeping people safe. They looked at how we support our staff. They looked at whether we have managers. Suffolk Council was very happy with the services in Suffolk. Graham Fitzgerald is a VoiceAbility manager in Suffolk, he thanks everyone for their hard work.
What is Hate Crime in Lincolnshire like?: VoiceAbility has been working with the victim support group in Lincolnshire. The group wanted to know from people with disabilities whether there was any hate crime in the area. The VoiceAbility team worked with people in the area to find out if there were problems. Then they told the Victim Support Group what they found out. They found out that there was hate crime and that people didn t know what to do if they were a victim. Our report said that people want to understand what to do if they are a victim. They also want to hear from people who have been a victim. It would help them to understand what happens afterwards. We hope that the police in Lincolnshire listen to the people who have been victims of hate crime and can help to stop it.