Policy and Campaigns

The campaigns work is done by a Policy and Campaigns Officer who works for Respond, Voice UK and the Ann Craft Trust. His name is Robin Van den Hende.

We campaign so that people with learning disabilities who have been abused, and those who might be abused can still have a good life.

To do this we talk to MPs and Government to make them realise how things could be better for people with learning disabilities. Hopefully they listen to us and make changes!

We also speak to journalists so that they write articles in newspapers, and on the TV and radio. We want them to listen to what we are saying so that lots of people get to hear about our campaigns. Lots of journalists don’t know much about people with learning disabilities so we have to tell them! It is also good for people to get to know about Respond, and what we do.

We also write replies to the Government when they ask people what the law should be like on different topics, for example one was on victims of crime, saying that the Government should be more aware of victims of crime who have learning disabilities, and that they might need special help.

We have been campaigning on a new law called the ‘Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill’. (A Bill is something that will be law soon). This is all about people who work with children and some groups of vulnerable adults, like older people or people with learning disabilities.

It is to make sure that the wrong sort of people don’t work with children or vulnerable adults, for example if they have abused people in the past. They will have to be checked.

The Government listened to our concerns about their plans and they changed them so that people working with people with learning disabilities in sports or education will have to be checked against a list of people who aren’t allowed to work in this job.

They also made sure that the people that are barred from working with children won’t be able to work with vulnerable adults very easily either.

This was a success, and we think it will help more people with learning disabilities be protected from abuse.

We work closely with the police so that they know how to interview and how to listen to people with learning disabilities properly. They do not always get it right, but many of them are trying hard to improve. We are working with the police to make a handy guide about interviewing people with learning disabilities. We are trying to get funding to allow us to publish it.

It is really important that the police, and solicitors and judges are given training about people with learning disabilities so that they understand. I tell this to MPs and the Government so it will hopefully be law. We have done some work about intermediaries, who help people with learning disabilities give evidence in a police interview and in court – we think that there should be more intermediaries.

We are doing some research into people with learning disabilities in court who are defendants (the police think they did an offence). We want to make sure that they get treated fairly.

We have written some articles for magazines about our campaigning, and written lots of letters to Government and MPs about things that need to change. Please read the articles.

We have spoken at lots of conferences too, to spread the word!

It is important to campaign, otherwise things never change. It is good to play your part in making things better for other people.

Thank you.

Pictures courtesy of Change Picture Bank