East Midlands Regional Update. Rashpal Binning – East Midlands Regional Representative. National Forum – 3 rd & 4 th September 2013.

Proposed changes to the National Forum. At the pre-planning meeting we talked about whether to have the National Forum 2 times a year instead of 4 times a year. People said they would like to keep the meetings to 4 times a year as it’s important to meet face to face. If the meetings do have to go down to 2 times a year, then we could look at working in other ways to keep in touch. We could try using Skype, Twitter or Facebook.

People like coming to the meetings to meet up and see other Reps. We thought an idea might be to have social events for Reps, but they would have to pay for this themselves. We could look at having the National Forum meetings at a different venue. This could save us some money.

Feedback from the East Midlands. Northamptonshire – Launch for Rights Charter for People with Learning Disabilities ‘Everyone Has Rights’. The charter sets out the things that people with learning disabilities should expect when using services in Northamptonshire. The launch event was a really good day, over 250 people came! Certificates were given to all organisations who signed up to the charter. We’ve written our Annual Plan to say how the Partnership Board can work better.

Winterbourne View follow on- Work with the Clinical Commissioning Groups to find out what they are doing to help people in hospital placements move back to their local area. Nottinghamshire – Big health event in Nottingham, Michelle attended this. Derby City – Personalisation Lincolnshire – Health and changes to Day Services. Nottingham City – Looking for help to change the way the Partnership Board Works.

Leicester City – Hate Crime Project: a researcher came to talk to us about our experiences of hate crime. Hate crime and mate crime is on the agenda for the next Regional Forum. A Police Officer is coming to talk to us. People are worried about the bedroom tax, council tax and changes to benefits Day service pilot - People are using services and facilities in their local area. It is working well and a DVD has been made about it.

We are making an animation DVD with Seymour, a student from Loughborough University. The Brightlights group are making their DVD about Bullying and Hate Crime. The We Think group are making their DVD about relationships. Some people have had bad experiences with relationships. Some people would like to go out with a boyfriend or girlfriend, but it is hard to meet new people. We hope the animations will help people to understand more about these topics and to raise awareness.