London Development
The aim of our London work is to develop activities that use our knowledge of the law to support disabled people to realise their potential.
We are very open to suggestions for work that we could do with other organisations. Where possible we respond to requests for our support at events and meetings. This work is done both by the London Development Officer, Nick Clarke, and our legal team.
A focus for our London Development work is public legal education. We are keen to experiment with imaginative tools and formats that help disabled people to understand the law and develop the skills and support that they need in order to make use of their legal entitlements and the confidence to try new situations. In the past we have run workshops, spoken at peer support groups and supported disabled people to make a film about employment discrimination.
We also organise biannual training courses in disability law. Our courses happen every Spring and Autumn and cover topics as diverse as Community Care, Disability Living and Attendance Allowance, Goods and Services Discrimination, Personlisation, Empowerment and Employment issues relevant to disabled people employing their own staff. We can also run bespoke training courses for organisations.
For further information about our London Development work, courses, or if you would like to be added to our database of organisations that we contact with information about these contact Nick Clarke (020 7791 9819), nick@dls.org.uk
Examples of recent outreach activities:
Community Care Workshop for disabled people and carers in Barnet
In May 2011 with support from Barnet Centre for Independent Living and the Richmond Fellowship, we ran the workshop with a group including people with learning and physical disabilities and family carers. The session explained what rules govern the council when they are deciding who to provide Community Care support to and assessing charges for services and provided participants with accessible and practical advice about what to do if they have problems.
Detailed evaluation feedback was collected and was overwhelmingly positive, with almost all participants feeling that they had learnt a lot, were feeling better and more confident about their situation and about how to deal with social services and knowing how to get advice. Everyone rated the day as enjoyable, useful and practical. The value of being able to interact with others and to ask questions was a comment that a number of participants made.
DLS is very pleased to be able to offer this type of support for disabled people as the need for information and knowledge about how the Community Care system works is often highlighted in policy and evaluation work (for example in the ‘POET’ national evaluation of personal budgets published in July 2011 access to information and advice was highlighted a key element that disabled people found was lacking in the system).
Discrimination Workshop for Mental Health service users
In April and May 2011 we ran workshops in partnership with Cooltan Arts as a part of their self advocacy programme. The workshops looked at disability discrimination and what you can do about it.
Detailed evaluation feedback was collected and was overwhelmingly positive, with all participants feeling that they had learnt a lot, were feeling better and more confident about their situation and about how to deal with discrimination and knowing how to get advice. Everyone rated the day as enjoyable, useful and practical. The value of being able to interact with others and to ask questions was a comment that a number of participants made. The workshop was with mental health focussed, but through the session it was possible to explore a social model approach to disability, in which discrimination is understood as the problem rather than an individual’s impairment.