Manchester Learning Disability Partnership Board Issue 37 July and August 2010 Plain text version. 1. Introductions People said who they are and where they are from. 2. Minutes of the last meeting Agreed these were true. 3. Matters arising There were no matters arising. 4. Presentation: A place to Live Lee Morgan is a Review Officer from Supporting People. He came to tell us about the Housing Sub-group. They have been finding out what people want from the ÔHome for LifeÕ scheme and the problems faced by people with a learning disability and their carers. They will tell the Commissioners and Partnership Board what they find out. The Housing Sub-group and Manchester People First will be putting on learning disability awareness training for people who are involved in re-development housing projects. Bernie Wood said some parents have built extensions to their homes to give their children more independence. Lee said it would be good to have a parent/carer on the group. Mark Burton said there is a problem having enough of the right sort of housing. This is because there is not enough money and the Housing Policy Group should look into it. Supporting People funds a small number of housing projects, which are then run by groups such as North West Community Services. Paul Cassidy asked if there were any more plans for people to buy or part-buy their own homes. At the moment there is one house like this, which 6 people share. There are no more planned at the moment, but Andrea Libman has a contact in Knutsford who could come to a meeting. 5. Ring and Ride Jackie Beaumont and Dave Parr from Ring and Ride came to the meeting. They said Ring and Ride is trying to give a better service. They have set standards for every part of the service that customers come into contact with. All the publicity has been re-done to make it more accessible. A big problem has been getting through on the telephone to book journeys. So, they have made the time you can book a journey longer. New staff have been trained and Ômystery shoppersÕ (people who inspect services by pretending to be customers) and passenger surveys will be used to see if there are any problems. Councillor Evans thanked Jackie for all the hard work Ring and Ride has done to sort out problems. Deborah Goodman said the leaflet was good, but thought there should be information about using transport for health appointments and who is allowed to use NHS transport. Mark Burton asked about journeys that went across different council boundaries. Jackie said they were now able to do this and some middle shifts had started to cover the busy time around 3:30pm. Paul Cassidy said we needed to work out how to have a service, which meant people did not have to leave events early because of transport problems. Manchester People First said they would be interested in being Ômystery shoppersÕ and asked about easy read leaflets. Jackie told us about the cross boundary service, where buses travel across areas covered by different councils. This is a well-used service that lets people go longer distances to other towns. It can be booked a week in advance or an hour before. 6. Transport Action Group Bill Harrop is a Strategic Engagement Worker for the Transport Action Group. This is a network in Manchester for groups interested in transport. BillÕs job is to tell people about what is going on and listen to what they think. The aim of this work is to make things better for passengers. They have looked at things such as behaviour on buses. Groups that want to take part should contact Bill. Bernie Wood said bus drivers should take part in travel training programmes. Board members thought this was a good idea and Bill will tell the next Transport Action GroupÕs meeting. 7. Any other business Neelum from Himmat invited people to a Conference on 25 June about ÔMarriages of Learning Disabled People in the Ethnic MinoritiesÕ. Nicky Whitehead told us about a performance by people from Landridge House at the Royal Exchange Theatre in July. If you are interested, contact Nicky. Anna Fedeczko said that 21 to 27 June is MencapÕs ÔLearning Disability Awareness Week. This is a campaign to raise awareness about health issues for people with a learning disability. MLDP will do more general awareness raising and will hold an event in the Sculpture Hall of the Town Hall. More information will be given out soon. 8. Date of next meeting Tuesday 13 July 2010 10:30am at Manchester People First 3 Broughton Street Cheetham Hill Manchester M8 8RF