North Yorkshire Learning Disability Partnership Board - letter from co-chairs April 2021

Dear friends and colleagues

This is a letter from Mark Hamblin and Katie Peacock.  We are the co-chairs of the North Yorkshire Learning Disability Partnership Board.

We have been writing these letters while we cannot meet.

The letters help us all stay in touch and keep everyone updated about what the Partnership Board is doing.

We hope you enjoy reading them.

Mark gets online

Mark has been learning how to use the internet.

He now has a tablet and says ‘I would really recommend getting the internet if you can because it’s a great way to stay in touch with people and keep being involved in what’s going on’.

Annual Report

Even though we cannot meet, we have been very busy. We are writing about all the things we have done in our annual report.

An annual report tells you what an organisation or group has done over the last year.

Everyone has worked very hard. We are very proud of everything we have achieved together.

We will tell you when our annual report is finished. We will also put it on the North Yorkshire Partnerships website so other people can read it too.

Coronavirus Vaccines

We are pleased that everyone on the learning disability register can now get the coronavirus vaccine.

We have been speaking up about people with a learning disability getting the vaccine.

Mark wrote to the Prime Minister, Matt Hancock and his local MP about when people with a learning disability would get the vaccine.

Talking about coronavirus with Richard Webb

Mark, Katie and Christopher Porter also talked about the vaccine when they met Richard Webb in January.

Richard is head of Health and Adult Services at North Yorkshire County Council.

Mark, Katie and Christopher joined North Yorkshire Disability Forum to ask Richard important questions about coronavirus and disabled people.

Learning Disability England Conference

In March many self advocates went to the Learning Disability England online conference about Getting Stronger. They attended workshops and discussed important topics like the future of social care.

Katie was asked to give a presentation at the conference about what had helped during the
Covid-19 pandemic. She talked about going from panic at the start of the pandemic to feeling better connected.

She said that planning for emergencies had helped some people she works with, families and supporters feel more prepared in case they caught Covid.

Katie told everyone about how the self-advocacy quiz is the highlight of the week and it encourages friendship.

She said so many self-advocates and families have supported each other through this difficult year.

Self-Advocacy Celebration

We are celebrating everything that self-advocates have achieved over the last couple of years.

Because of coronavirus we cannot have the celebration event we planned.

But we are doing lots of different things instead, like making a podcast and a video. We have sent certificates and keyrings to self-advocates.

You can listen to the podcast by following this link https://anchor.fm/nyselfadvocates

We also spoke to Laura Watson who works with Shanna, Caroline and Claire. We told Laura about all the things we have achieved and she drew a very special poster.

Laura had to work very hard to fit everything in because we have done so much!

Well done everyone. Keep being amazing!

Looking to the future

We still do not know when we will be able to meet in-person. We miss seeing each other. But we want to take it steady and make sure everyone is safe and ready.

It has been great to meet lots of new people online.

We have made new friends at our Zoom quiz and self-advocacy groups.

We hope our new friends will come to our self-advocacy meetings when we can see each other again.

If you have any questions about this letter you can contact

Karen at KeyRing at karen.murray@keyring.org or call 07833309693

Take care and please stay safe!

Mark Hamblin and Katie Peacock

Co-Chairs, North Yorkshire Learning Disability Partnership Board