People with learning disabilities need to be in control of their lives, and of their own support staff.  This is the key message at an event, ‘Skills for Support’, taking place in Bristol this Friday [25 May].

This week marks the end of ‘Skills for Support’, a 30-month national research study, funded by the Big Lottery, about direct payments and how personal assistants (PAs) can give good support to people with learning difficulties.

Bristol University’s Norah Fry Research Centre has worked in partnership with the West of England Centre for Inclusive Living (WECIL) on the research study.  Lisa Ponting and Kerrie Ford, two people with learning disabilities, worked as researchers on the project, together with University researcher, Val Williams.

It is absolutely vital, in this kind of research, that the voice and perspective of people with learning disabilities take centre stage.  At Friday’s event, Lisa and Kerrie will be talking about the project and demonstrating some of the products that have been made.  Lisa and Kerrie both feel that it is important for people with learning disabilities to train and support their own staff.

Lisa Ponting and Kerrie Ford, commenting on the study, said: “The PA can step back and not take over, but support the person where needed, so that they have a chance to speak.  It is vital that they are listened to.”   

Disabled people are moving increasingly towards a model of individual support, where they can choose and direct their own support staff.  This is often done via a direct payment from social services.  Government policy is also encouraging people with learning disabilities to take advantage of direct payments, and to be ‘in control’ of their lives.  People with learning disabilities enjoy the freedom, choice and autonomy this new kind of support gives them. 

This project coincides with a surge of interest in the new workforce of ‘personal assistants’.  Disabled people, including people with learning disabilities, are employing PAs who may come from a variety of backgrounds, and will no longer be steeped in institutional practices.  Instead, people with learning disabilities have shown they want respectful and personalised support which is delivered in a friendly manner.  However, these new PA’s will need training and support. 

‘Skills for Support’ is an important project for a number of reasons:

· It is an inclusive research study, in which people with learning disabilities have been employed as researchers.  They worked for an organisation of disabled people (WECIL) in a team that included a university researcher. The whole team has pushed back the boundaries of inclusive research, and shown how valuable and intellectually respectable it can be.

· The project team made videos of people with learning disabilities working with their PAs. Through interaction analysis, we can see exactly how people communicate together.

· The final products will include a training DVD and other materials, which will be published in the autumn by the British Institute of Learning Disabilities (BILD), along with a final report entitled ‘A New Kind of Support’.

Dr Val Williams, Research Fellow in the Norah Fry Research Centre, said: " ' Skills for Support’ was about the way communication really works, and one of the most exciting parts of this research was including Kerrie and Lisa  in video analysis. Their point of view was absolutely central, and through this project they will help other people with learning disabilities to have better lives."