So,
What's Happening in Leicester?
Leicester has one of
the highest BME populations in the UK, so has been working
really hard to make sure that it's services and products
are accessible, suitable and right for people from BME
communities. Lots has been happening and this is a great
opportunity to tell you about some of it.
Person
Centred Planning
Leicester have now
held two 'Person Centred Planning - Awareness' training
courses in Gujerati. Trainers are made up of staff from
Social Care and private/voluntary sector organisations, as
well as people with learning disabilities, who are able to
speak both English and Gujerati. The day is held in
Gujerati and all of the leaflets and handouts have been
translated. Feedback from carers has been really positive,
with people saying that it is so much easier to learn and
contribute in your first language. Plans are underway to
introduce a course in Urdu later this year, and we have
already started to think about holding single sex training
sessions.
One of the more challenging aspects of the course has been
the section where we have traditionally talked about the
history of learning disability services in the UK. It is a
very 'British' model and does not represent the historical
evolution of learning disability services from overseas. We
are working with family carers and the trainers to develop
a social history model that better represents our BME
communities. We have also started to record our information
handouts onto audio CD - starting with English, but we will
be progressing towards Gujerati and Urdu translations to
complement the training courses.
Health
Action Planning
We have set up a
sub-group of our Health Action Planning group to
specifically look at the issues that affect people from BME
communities. We are looking at the specific health needs
that need to be focussed on, but also looking at how to
engage with people from the BME communities and how to make
sure that accessible, and culturally appropriate
information is available. Again, the translation of
information is key. We are in the process of gathering
accessible, translated information that can be handed out
to health facilitators during training courses. Plans are
also afoot to train some people who can run the Health
Facilitator training in community languages.
DVD
We are working with
Person Centred Planning Co-ordinators, Lead Health
Facilitators and Speech and Language Therapists from
Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, to put together a
DVD for carers. We are working with a local film-maker to
create an information DVD to focus on the 3 key planning
tools - Person Centred Plans, Health Action Plans and
Communication Passports. The DVD will show carers what the
tools are about, and have video clips of families and
service users talking about what the plans mean to them.
The DVD will have audio translations, and will be in 3
sections, to be watch all together or in smaller sections.
Carole Shelton, Person Centred Planning Co-ordinator
Leicester City
Tel: 0116 256 5157
Email:
Carole.Shelton@Leicester.gov.uk
