News from Blackpool - The North
West Regional Forum turned up there
again for another year at the Imperial
Hotel.
The conference was attended by
nearly 200 people from 30 selfadvocacy groups all over the North
West region.
http://blog.pathwaysassociates.co.uk/what-you-said/
The conference was opened by the
Master of Ceremonies Jason Rhodes and
the Mayor of Blackpool Councillor Sylvia
Taylor
All the delegates joined together
to learn the sign a song for
Tuesday night
Next Lynn James - Jenkinson
(Director of NWTDT) explained
how the voting will work.
Karen Flood told us how people’s
voices in the North West are
being heard on a national level.
Our next speaker was Dr Umesh
Chauhan, who talked about how to
find out how good your hospital or
GP is.
Then we had Jackie Stewart (not
the racing driver) to tell us about
the improvements being made to
the Mental Health service for
people with Learning Disabilities.
http://blog.pathwaysassociates.co.uk/improving-mental-health-services/
We did some work at our tables to think about what
delegates wanted from conference this year.
After the tea break the 8 workshops started, we
wanted to collect stories to see if things were
getting better.
Employment
Health
Disability Hate Crime
Transport
Assessments that affect
Getting it right for
money and support
children and young
Housing
Relationships and the
people
importance of them
Delegates got their chance to talk about issues that
concerned them with the roving mic.
As day turned into night the entertainment started.
First there was Mark’s Driving Workshop and Signing
a Song
Driving Workshop
Signing A Song
http://blog.pathwaysassociates.co.uk/sign-a-song/
Then there was Danielle
and Mark’s Generation
Game (what fun that was)
Followed by some time for the late night quiz with
Darren Rimmer
The second day was opened with
some local entertainment.
Blackpool’s very own Park School
Band.
And also a special surprise for
birthday boy Mark Shackleton.
As the band played “Happy
Birthday” all the delegates sang
along. Happy 40th Birthday mate.
Our first speaker of the day was
Rosemary Trustham who told us what the
Campaign For A Fair Society actually
means.
http://blog.pathwaysassociates.co.uk/campaign-for-a-fair-society/
We had a presentation by
Cumbria People First on Best
Life Independent Advocacy
Then after the tea break the candidates for the
National Forum gave their speeches on why people
should vote for them.
http://blog.pathwaysassociates.co.uk/national-reps-speeches/
I know one thing for sure I wouldn’t like to have to
pick a winner. (But I don’t get to vote anyway)
Later in the morning there were more workshops
they were
Employment
Drama Productions
Health
Housing
Winterbourne View
How To Campaign
Mental Health and Loneliness
After lunch the same workshops were repeated for a
second time.
Drama Productions
How To Campaign
Winterbourne View
Mental Health and Loneliness
Health
Employment
Housing
We decided our campaign issues and put them on
posters to share with the bosses, good things and
things that needed to be worked on.
We had some feedback from the issues that were
raised on the roving mic
There was then a response to our
campaign issues from Mark Palethorpe,
North West Association of Directors of
Adult Social Services (NW ADASS) Lead.
Mark is the Director of Adult Social Care
and Health for Cheshire West and Chester
There was also a new award
presented to “Mr Blackpool”
for all his help towards the
conference over the last
year. It was called “The
Derek Russell Award For
Outstanding Leadership”.
We will tell you more about how you can nominate
people for next year soon.
http://blog.pathwaysassociates.co.uk/exceptional-leadership-award/
As day turned into night there was a gala dinner
followed by a disco and karaoke.
Disco
Karaoke
All the delegates had a great time and sung, danced
and drunk long into the night. Some did into the next
morning. (You know who you are)
I got the feeling that there were going to be a few
sore heads tomorrow morning.
One day to go and the Lead Officers joined us
The delegates thought it
would be a good idea to show
the lead officers what they
had learned so they all
performed the song “Circle
Of Life” in sign language.
Send us your videos if you ‘perform’ this locally.
http://blog.pathwaysassociates.co.uk/sign-a-song/
Email your Video’s however you like, Youtube, Facebook or directly.
info@nwtdt.com
www.facebook.com/nwtdt
Our next speech was on
Acute Hospital Self
Assessments with Aidan
Kehoe.
http://blog.pathwaysassociates.co.uk/acute-hospital-self-assessments/
This was followed by some feedback from the
delegates on the Roving Mic.
A new section then opened called “Forum Theatre”
created by Dr Laurence Clark, Adele Hoskison- Clark,
Vicki Hornby and conference delegates in the Drama
Workshops.
After the tea break there were more productions by
the “Forum Theatre”.
http://blog.pathwaysassociates.co.uk/drama-workshops/
Pauline Doyle talked to us about
the 5 Steps to Well-being.
There was then more feedback from the roving mic.
John Boyington CBE (Transition
Director, Greater Manchester NHS)
helped us close our conference for
2013.
The voting results were given
out by the conference Master of
Ceremonies Jason Rhodes.
Your new reps are:http://blog.pathwaysassociates.co.uk/north-west-representatives/
Health Sub Group
Darren Hayward
Lisa Frith
Future Visions
People First Sefton
Employment Sub Group
Joanne Kennedy
Jonathan Hurley
Salford Being Heard
Advance PSS CIC
Housing Sub Group
Paddy Burke
Caroline Grimshaw
Darren Hayward
People First Merseyside
E.L.S.U.N
Future Visions
Friendships, Relationships and Citizenship Sub
Group
Sam Hirst
Becky Gammon
People First Tameside
Voices for All (BOCS) Chorley
Finance Sub Group
Paddy Burke
People First Merseyside
North West Valuing People Now Group
Paddy Burke
People First Merseyside
And your new National Forum reps are:-
Lisa Frith
Mark Shackleton
People First Sefton
NWTDT/Pathways
Your reps for 2013/14 - old
and new.
Well done
After lunch it was time to say goodbye to our old
friends as well as the new ones as we wait to meet
again next time.
HOPE YOU HAD A GREAT TIME AT THE
CONFERENCE AND HOPE THAT YOU
WILL JOIN US AGAIN NEXT TIME.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
During the conference we had several people taking photographs
for our newsletter. Unfortunately we cannot use all of them (there
are hundreds). But on the next few pages there is a Rogue’s
Gallery that includes some of our favourites.
WELCOME TO THE
ROGUE’S GALLERY
John enjoys his favourite
I would like to talk to that
hobby
person over there
I think Mark is quite
happy about being on the
National Forum
“Great Scot”!! John is wearing
his kilt for the disco
MORE ROGUES
A sparkly Birthday present
Is this the latest entry for “The
for Mark and Danielle
X Factor?”. OH DEAR!!
It would not be karaoke
without a bit of Gary Glitter
Go straight along the coast
road, and then……
Look, it’s the new cast for Die
Hard (Yippee – Ki - Yay)
There was so much hard work at
conference Jeanne was on the
floor
As usual this conference was a
Lee says “If I look cool I might
work of art
get to do the roving mic again”
Cathy gets the first round in and
Judith has her eyes on the booze
“OH! Suits you sir” But this
doesn’t really suit me at all
Is this meant to be the
Tin Man
NO! This is the Tin Man.
Time to go back to Oz, Mike
It won’t be long before this
Derek shares the
appears on Crimewatch
secret of his success
Before we finish I think there are a few thank you’s
to do
Thank you to all the NWTDT/ Pathways and ICJR
Limited team for all their help over the 3 days.
Thank you to all the speakers, Workshop facilitators
and the Mayor of Blackpool.
Thank you to all of you who came to the conference.
This would not be able to happen without your
continued support.
Thank you also to Derek Russell
for all he has done
Finally, a big thank you to all the staff at the
Imperial Hotel who looked after us all during our
stay.
After all this there is still one question to be
answered.
Are you sure that this is easy read ?
Thank you also to Pip Horne for her brilliant artwork
(Pictured below) over the 3 days