New resource to improve access to support for Kent parents and family carers

Parents and family carers of young people and adults with learning disabilities will be able to find out more about how to go about getting the right support thanks to the new Getting It Right booklet, which will be launched with support from the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities on 22 November at the Carer’s Support Centre in Ashford, Kent*.

The booklet, part of the Valuing Families in Kent programme funded by Kent County Council, was written and produced by families in the Maidstone area with support from the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities. It provides information and guidance to families on how to go about choosing a support provider and improve the quality of support that their son or daughter receives.

Over the last 18 months, the project has developed links with carers’ centres in Kent and has worked with them to encourage families to use their knowledge and experience to improve the opportunities available for people with learning disabilities. Two groups of families have been meeting in the Maidstone and Ashford areas and have explored and discussed approaches such as person-centred planning, support planning, personal budgets and circles of support, as ways of finding creative solutions to problems and asserting more control over how support is arranged.

Christine Towers, Research and Service Development Manager at the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities, says:

"Parents and family carers are usually best placed to make sure their relative with a learning disability gets the same opportunities as everyone else but need some support to know how to go about this.

"The Getting It Right booklet demonstrates how families can learn from each other to use direct payments and personal budgets to improve the opportunities and quality of support available to young people and adults with learning disabilities.

"We hope that this new resource will prove a real help to families and encourage more parents and family carers to get involved in the family groups.”

Bev Golding, a parent member of the Maidstone group, who was involved in writing the Getting it Right booklet and organising the event, says:

"I think it is essential that parents are actively involved in the decision making process for their son or daughter because families have the expert knowledge about how they can be supported to have choices and opportunities in their adult life. After all, as a parent you've provided support for many years and you want the assurance of knowing that good support will continue and that their changing needs will be met in the future.

"This booklet has a lot of common sense provided by parents who have found out the hard way what questions need to be asked for your son or daughter to get good support – and it also shows that you don't need to accept the first thing you are offered by  professional care providers."

The booklet includes information on the following issues:

• Finding out about how individual support and personal budgets can work
• Finding and assessing support providers 
• Managing day-to-day arrangements of individual support

Download Getting It Right booklet here

To book a place at the event, please email valuingfamiliesinkent@yahoo.co.uk or phone Bev Golding on 01622 200 474.

*Details about the launch event
The launch event will take place on 22 November 2011 at the Carer’s Support Centre, Norman House, Beaver Business Park, Beaver Road, Ashford, Kent, TN23 7SJ. A coffee reception will be available from 10.15am and the event will start at 10.30am, where parents involved in the Ashford group will talk about the work they have been doing and present the Getting It Right booklet. The event will conclude at 1.00pm when lunch will be provided. All attendants will get a copy of the booklet.