What can we do to improve the lives of people with learning disabilities? This question has become ever more urgent since the publication of datawhich shows that people with a learning disability are likely to die 23-29 years before their peers. Health inequalities and social exclusion mean that learning disability has become a socially constructed life-limiting impairment.
On 5thJuly, Professor Katherine Runswick-Cole went to an event hosted by the Public Policy Exchange to speak to self-advocates, family members, academics and practitioners about recent research carried out at The University of Sheffield with people with learning disabilities: Big Society? Disabled people with learning disabilities and civil society.
Katherine spoke about the strand of the project that focused on raising the levels of employment for people with learning disabilities that currently stands at only 5.7%. Katherine talked about the policy recommendations from the project that include ensuring that young people can keep their Education, Health and Care Plans if they move into employment before they are 25; increasing the number of supported internships available to young people and creating national standards for job coaches. You can read full details of the policy recommendations here: http://www.humanactivism.group.shef.ac.uk/assets/images/working%20austerity.pdf
You can read the presentation here
Big Society, Disability and Civil Society Research 