1. East Midlands Rep Clare Dorothy Crawford

2. Who I am I like to speak out for people with learning disabilities I have done this for eleven years. I am also into sports especially swimming. I represented people with Downs Syndrome internationally in Taiwan. I really care about using my voice to make a difference with people with a disability. I really like singing as well and I’m quite good at it!

3. GOOD THINGS IN EAST MIDLANDS Adam Chilcott was in the newspaper talking about being a local rep. Northampton pb had a away day on new rights charter. The right to control pilot scheme in Leicester

4. BAD THINGS IN EAST MIDLANDS People are worried about: Benefits and Health Cuts to services Being told to leave their homes because of the tram.

5. Self advocacy In OUR area Hardly any Self advocacy groups in East Midlands Lots of East Midlands advocacy has closed in 18 months Central England People first is the only independent group left

6. What we like to do next? We would like to write to our mps to ask them what they are doing for people with a disability. Would you like to join in come to us if you are interested come give us your email.

7. Feedback from the Forum We mainly talked about changing the forum to make it work better and save money. We talked about having less of the big National Forum meetings. We talked about having 2 instead of 4.

8. Feedback from the Forum We talked about having task groups instead. They would be on special subjects. They would do work on the topics and would be made up of experts.

9. Feedback from the Forum What do you think about this? Do you have other ideas about how we could change things? We can also send Lyn a list of our special skills so that she can tell us about any jobs we could do.

10. Feedback from the Forum Wayne came to talk to us about benefits. We have a hand out to give you. It is still confusing. You need to make sure you get special help to fill in forms.

11. Feedback from the Forum We voted for a new vice chair. Karen from London won. She will take over from Karen from Liverpool when she leaves.

12. Thanks for Listening