Learning Disability Partnership Board

Wednesday 21 June 2017, 11am – 3pm

March Community Centre
Station Rd, March PE15 8LE
Minutes

1.0 People at the

meeting
Neil Adams Speak Out Leader,
Young People, Co-Chair
Claire Bailey Service Manager, LDP
North & Fenland, Locality
Lead
Paul Belliere-Wilson Senior Solicitor, Buckles
Solicitors
Sally Cleghorn Development Officer,
Cambridgeshire Alliance
Tracy Gurney Head of LD Partnership,
LDPB Co-Chair
Russell Henke Speak Out Leader, High
Support Needs Committee
Jill Johnson Service Manager
(Countywide)
LDP Young Adults Team

Fen House, Fen Road, Cambridge, CB4 1UN

Tel: 0300 111 2301 Email:admin@cambridgeshirealliance.org.uk
Registered Charity No. 1132290 Company limited by guarantee No 06861653
Bill Jones Speak Out Leader,
City & South
Elspeth Jones Speak Up Spectrum
Leader
Michelle Mansfield Speak Out Leader,
Fenland
Lee McManus Service Development
Manager LDP
Sean Nightingale Speak Out Council Leader,
Hunts and East Cambs.
James Sheard Total Voice

Joseph Simon Carer Representative

1. Welcome, introductions and apologies

People who said they could not come: Debbie
Drew, Anita Hewson, Siobhan MacBean, Graham
Lewis, Keith Mead, Chris Swarbrick.

2.0 Speak Out Leaders Reports

2.1 General
Michelle apologised that there were no slides to show.
VoiceAbility is in the middle of moving offices.
James said the new date for Speak Out Council is
likely to be 23 July but they will keep everyone
informed.
The advert for a new Young People’s support worker
has gone out.
Michelle thanked James for his support.
2.1 Fenland
The Staying Safe Places has had a good response in
Wisbech. They want to sign up more places.

Page 2 of 13
Action: Michelle to send the list of places to Claire.
She is building a good relationship with Club 82. 10 –
15 people came to the drop in there.
She had a drop in at Eddie’s last week but feels they
are struggling for space. Someone from the Council
came to talk about work and employment

2.2 Hunts and Fenland

Sean has had drop ins at Dreamers Bar and Larkfield.
He did consultations at Branching Out in Littleport and
St Neots.
The crossing at Saxongate should be done in
September.

2.3 Young People

Neil is still trying to get into Huntingdon Regional
College to hold drop ins.
Lee added that he was really pleased that all the
Speak Out leaders have talked about employment.
He will meet the County Councillors in the next few
weeks to try and increase the number of people with
learning disabilities who are employed by the Council
and by the providers that have contracts with the
Council. He also hopes to get more funding for staff to
help those who get employed by the Council.
Michelle said the number of people they have spoken
to is the highest ever.

2.4 High Support Needs Committee

Russell also asked about employment when he visited
Snakehall Farm. He will email everyone with what he
found out.

Page 3 of 13
2.6 City and South
Bill has done 6 drop ins.
He talks to the Addenbrookes learning disability nurse
regularly.
He met 2 employment advisers including Clive Diver.
He did a consultation on employment and education at
the Owl Centre, Sawston.
He is on the panel for planning the different phases of
the new town Northstowe.

2.7 Speak Up Spectrum

The Spectrum is running but still small.
Elspeth did a consultation at Rowan and over 10
people came. It was on employment and education.
There was some confusion over being employed and
doing some unpaid work. She feels they should
broaden the definition.
She went to the Adult Social Care Forum.
She went to the Cambridge Hustings run by the
Jubilee Centre. She had mixed feelings about it.

3.0 Carers Feedback

3.1 CAIL had a question from a parent asking if staff
with the Learning Disability Partnership in Huntingdon
are being cut.
3.2 Sally said that a parent had asked about how
much time someone should have to change their
financial plans after a Financial Assessment. Was 2
days reasonable?
Tracy said there is a policy about the time scale and
she will look into it.

Page 4 of 13
3.3 Joseph talked about how to increase the numbers
of parents who go to Locality meetings. Is there a
better way of getting their voice heard? Where there
are local drop ins and the carer goes along as well
that might be the time to ask carers about any
problems.
Action: Lee will talk about this with Graham.

4.0 Wills and Trusts

Paul introduced himself. As well as a solicitor he is a

trustee for Lincolnshire Parent-Carer Forum and
through his wife is involved in Driving for the Disabled
with the Unicorn Trust.
Action: Paul will send Sally his presentation to send
to everyone.

 As long as someone has mental capacity

they can make a will
 He talked about the problem of someone
giving a straight gift of money because that
could affect their right to benefits. Someone
might give the money to a child who does
not have a disability in the hope that they
would look after the person with a disability.
This could be misused.
 The solution is to make a Discretionary
Trust. That means everyone who is named
has to be considered before any money is
spent.
 An executor of a will looks after the debts
and payments after someone dies. A trustee
can be both. The person making a will can

Page 5 of 13
 choose who to have for both these roles.
They can also say what should be done.
 As an example Paul said the trust could say
that a house should be bought which does
not belong to the person with a disability.
This means the house would not count
towards their care costs.
Michelle asked if she does not make a will does her
son inherit.
Paul – a will makes sure that your money and property
goes to the person you want it to go to.
Neil asked about his parents and brother. Paul said
there is a free consultation at first. It would cost about
£1,000 to set up a trust.
Michelle – would you support someone with a learning
disability to make a will?
Paul – yes, as long as a person can understand what
they are doing they can make a will. Also for someone
with dementia there may be a chance to make a will
while they still can.
Claire – if someone dies without making a will can it
delay the nearest person from receiving the money.
Paul said it could do and this depends on the family
tree.
He added that Buckles also give employment advice.

5.0 Safeguarding
No particular issues were reported. Elspeth had one
case she wasn’t sure about but she will talk it over
with James first.

Page 6 of 13
6.0 Locality updates

6.1 Hunts and Fenland

 Last week Claire invited all the providers that
have a contract with the Council to come and
discuss but only one came. She will think again
about the best way to contact these providers.
 They had a good meeting on employment.
Graham from provider day services talked about
openings for employment. They talked about
Train to Gain. The people who work to maintain
day services such as the receptionist will be paid,
like at Hereward Hall Community Centre in
Fenland. Shared Lives has started a successful
tuck shop at Hereward Hall and is looking at
other opportunities.
 They had a walk round FACET. Through the Big
Lottery they run Breaking Barriers scheme to
provide employment training. They’ve had
success in getting some people into employment.
They made a link with a small holding so people
can learn to work with animals.
 Adult Education has courses on CV writing and
other employment skills
 She will link in with the Speak Out Council to ask
someone to speak about Health Checks
 Michelle is going from 3 to 4 days a week
 Helping Hands. Michelle has sent the leaflet to
James
 Staff – Claire said several people have left the
Learning Disability Partnership so they are
recruiting some other staff. They are

Page 7 of 13
 concentrating on high priority cases until new
staff have arrived. It’s business as usual and they
are actively working with people.
6.2
Helen Duncan has been appointed as new Principal
Social Worker.
Tracy said with drop ins the latest idea is to work with
the mobile libraries in more rural areas.
 Jill and Claire’s IT systems are going to change
in 2018 so they need to prepare for that. City,
South and East have some problems with
business support
 James and Sean suggested at the Locality
Network meeting that Bill should attend the
Tesco Bar Hill drop in. Bill agreed he should.
 Jill said that changes in the law mean they have
to develop a 0-25 Service for all people with
learning disabilities. The consultation for this
goes out on 18 June. It is likely the Young Adults
service will move to be managed by Children’s
Services so they can all work more closely
together.
James asked Jill if she had linked up with Neil through
Helen Phelan. It’s a good idea to include the Leaders
directly
 She is working on a co-production strategy for
SEND to work with Pinpoint. It is in draft and will
be due out soon
Action: Jill to feedback to colleagues that Speak Out
Council leaders are keen to be involved in future co-
production of SEND service.

Page 8 of 13
  Mimi Vidot-Blanc retires in October. Jill is staying
with the Learning Disability Partnership but will
also cover adults with Autism and assessments
of Young Carers
Action: Agenda changes - Neil asked for a short
break in the morning. All agreed.

Lunch Break

7.0 Assessments
The Speak Out Leaders did a role play to show what a
bad assessment was and then how it could be made
better.
 Tracy made it clear that assessors have a legal
duty to respond to assessed needs.
 Jill said the assessor could also ask “have you
thought about how you could meet your needs
differently?”
 Claire said she would have had a conversation
about ‘What can you do?’
 The assessor should check with the support
worker to find out if they are an official advocate.
 The Care Act says how fair assessments should
be done.
James explained that at the pre-meeting Speak Out
Leaders talked about making a video. Would the
professionals find this useful?
Tracy and Keith could support them by saying what a
good assessment is.
Claire – often the assessors have not been through an
assessment themselves. A video would help them

Page 9 of 13
understand.
She also said where a person who has high support
needs can’t speak for themselves it’s important not to
speak over them.
Action: The Board agreed that Speak Out Leaders
would make a video with support from Tracy and staff.

8.0 Good News

 VoiceAbility is moving offices between
Cottenham and Oakington on June 26. It’s on the
guided bus route near the Oakington bus stop.
The Old Granary
Westwick
CB24 9AR
 Michelle said she was pleased today’s meeting
was in Fenland
 Tracy said all the in-house providers have now
had Good ratings
 Sally said that Graham Lewis is now the
Development Officer for the LD Partnership
Board. This is her last meeting as minute taker.
The Board thanked her for her support.
 Lee has changed jobs. He is now the
Commissioner for Learning Disabilities, Physical
Disabilities, Sensory Impairments and Family
Carers. He might do less with the LD Partnership
Board but he will let them know.

9.0 Feedback from other meetings

 Lee spoke about the Health Strategy Group.
When Marek came to the last meeting he had

Page 10 of 13
 some ideas. The Board wanted time to discuss
these. As the HSG met at short notice there
weren’t many people there but they agreed that
the Group should continue to cover
Transforming Care, Health Checks, Health
Action Plans and the Self-assessment
Framework.
The Board agreed that the Health Strategy Sub
Group will discuss this.
Lee suggested that Mark Hall, Chair of the
Health Strategy Group should speak at the next
LDPB. They talked about whether the group
should cover Peterborough as well but Mark
strongly believed it should only be
Cambridgeshire unless there were some cross
issues.
Michelle thought there should be a different
name and will talk to Chris about this.
 ASCF
There were concerns across all client groups
about the lack of engagement by the CCG.
The CCG is reviewing its budget. There were
questions about how people will be consulted on
this.
Break

10.0 Health Sub Group update

Lee covered this under Item 9.

Page 11 of 13
11.0 Minutes, Action Log and Matters Arising
Minutes were agreed.

Action Log
Neil ran through this. Some of the Actions had been
completed and the Log needs updating.
Action: Graham will review and update the Action
Log.
Action: Graham to find out who is Tracy Smith’s
replacement.

Action 48 Lifelong Planning- Lee thought this is more

suitable for CPB, Clair said it applies to both.
Action: put Lifelong Planning on the Agenda.
Who is best person to invite? James said they had
had a lady speaker and he’ll find out her name and let
GL know.
Action: JS to send speaker’s name to GL.

Action 49 Home care concerns.

Lee said that the ASCF had taken this up and
organised some meetings around the County so that
people could drop in and express their concerns.
Unfortunately not many people turned up. Carol
Williams agreed with Lee that maybe having providers
there was a barrier. She will look at other ways of
getting some feedback about home care.

12.0 Any other business

 Voices for Choices – leaflets were handed out,
Sally explained what this was about learning
more about Direct Payments and asked people
to spread the word.

Page 12 of 13
  CAIL is holding a meeting on July 18, 2pm – 4pm
for all Partnership Board members so they can
talk about what themes they would like for the
next large cross partnership board event. Neil
apologised that he can’t be there.
Next meetings:
 September 20 2017, 11am – 3pm,
Orchard Park Community Centre, Central Avenue,
Cambridge CB4 2EZ. Co-Chair Michelle.

 December 13 2017, 11am – 3pm,

Papworth Everard Village Hall, Ermine St South,
Papworth Everard CB23 3RD. Co-Chair Elspeth.

Page 13 of 13