Following the election, residents of Bury North elected a new MP James Frith. This meant we needed to explain the work we had been doing with the communication rights charter. We had previously worked with James Daly who had enabled us to take the charter to Parliament.
 James Frith attended a meeting with us at the Bury People first office on 15th November 2024 and we were able to explain how our focus was now on meeting with representatives from the Care Quality Commission. James wasted no time in introducing us to Brian Burke who is the Senior Specialist Advisor regarding People with learning disabilities and autistic people. Brian arranged for us to meet with CQC inspectors and to provide an online training session for them.
We were joined by our friends from a local mental health hospital who represented the voices of the many people who are currently living in hospital and who have learning disabilities and autism. We wanted to highlight the fact that these voices are hidden.
The training session was well received, and this is a significant development towards our goal of becoming paid communication quality checkers. If we want services to implement the communication rights charter, then it stands to reason, that if we were involved in checking the quality of communication support provided by agencies, we could then have a tremendous impact on the lives of people with learning disabilities and autism as services would need to provide the rights listed on the charter.
Brian has agreed to help us with our goals and we are delighted to be working with him and to have found such a great ally.
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Alison Matthews
Updated: Sep 29
Many of the families we have worked with during the Speaking Out Being Heard
project told us that personal care and body parts vocabulary were crucial for their
son or daughter. We created a short list based on feedback at the end of the training
course so that we could include these signs in our training. Families told us what
signs they needed, particularly for their teenagers who were experiencing changes
to their bodies.
There were challenges to finding the right images, which had to be obvious rather
than oblique; in order to be clear what we were referring to. Luckily Boardmaker has
some symbols which are clear. Sometimes, if we are honest, these images can be a
bit blatant or make us feel slightly uncomfortable.
My time spent working as a Registered Intermediary, working alongside the police
has taught me to feel passionate about teaching this vocabulary. Not everyone will
need the vocabulary in a harrowing situation in a police interview, however the
people we support may need to know the names of body parts, body functions as a
means of keeping themselves safe. Some of the people I worked with, in that role,
did not know the names of genitalia and instead we had to go with the family name
for that part or sometimes a slang word, if that was the word they used. On occasion,
people had to show you what they were trying to say , using wooden dolls or body
maps, rather than tell you verbally.
If we are serious about speaking up and being heard, we must include these vital
words and we must get over our own discomfort in talking about, in signing and in
showing the images.
So, it’s not just dominoes you’re playing, it’s teaching safeguarding vocabulary.
This could make all the difference to someone in the future and could be prevent
abuse, provide someone with dignity, and give them choice and control over
their bodies.
Here's the link on our website to download our 'Personal Care and Body Parts' resource:
Alison Matthews
Updated: Aug 4
We were lucky enough to be awarded finding by the National Lottery and last year we worked on our Speaking Out Making Changes project. We worked alongside interns form DISC to create Signalong films and the 4 students from
the Speech & Language Therapy course at the University of Manchester created resources to go with those films.
The first topic we are sharing are resources on 'Feelings and Emotions'.
Our student, Emily Marsh, developed the well-known song ‘If you’re happy and you know it’ into an opportunity
to sign. The idea was developed with staff and supported people from Pathways to Opportunities in Oldham.
Emily also created a Memory Pairs game, which we are also sharing so you
can offer the chance to learn signs in a fun way.
The game uses matching and repetition to good effect which means people
playing get time to learn the signs .
You can download the games below or from our website:
Thanks to Boardmaker for the use of symbols and Signalong for permission
to share their line drawings illustrating the correct methodology.
