Accord member Gary Stark takes part in national review of engagement work

Accord member Gary Stark takes part in national review of engagement work

By Gary Stark On May 16th, 2017 In Community

Good News – In May the national NHS Learning Disability & Autism Engagement Team (NHS England), asked Inclusion North to select a panel of 6 people from across the North to peer review the work so far carried out by the Engagement Team.

Inclusion North (Independent Learning Disability Advocacy Service for the North) chose me, Gary Stark from North East Lincolnshire: a local advocate for local people with a learning disability.

The review panel met in early May (in York with Inclusion North), to plan the meeting - with the Engagement Team. I met 4 other panel members from Sheffield and Newcastle.

The panel decided to look at what the Engagement Team had achieved so far, what’s working - needs developing, and share ideas.

The following week we met the full Engagement Team in York and we had a very productive day. The Team were very keen to be scrutinised, and open to new ideas.

The Team has developed a range of easy read materials, media blogs, and held national events. Information on these can be found here at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/learning-disabilities/get-involved/

The Engagement Team has set themselves good objectives and we helped them with future planning.

The task open to them is to take their message further: Ensuring the NHS is engaged with people with a learning disability, understands their views, and takes seriously the issues
concerning them.

It was a good day: all was involved, all had a say, No view was discounted.