Monthly Archives: November 2020

Derwen College @ Telford

Website: https://www.derwen.ac.uk/learning/satellite-sites/telford/

Email: enquiries@derwen.ac.uk

Telephone: 01691 661234 Fax 01691 670714

Address: Derwen College @Telford, Stafford Park, Telford TF3 3BD

Derwen College welcomed the first students to its new satellite provision in Telford in September 2020. The launch of the Telford site comes in response to a need for more options for young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in the local authority. Students working at the site will receive expert vocational training and independence skills learning.

Derwen College has converted the former business premises at Stafford Park into a new satellite site. From here, a team of expert staff will offer day students with SEND the specialist learning and work placement provision that they would expect from a college with an outstanding reputation.

As a learner at our Telford site you will work within small groups in a friendly, productive environment. Once you gain confidence and your skills progress, you will have the opportunity to work within the local community.

Entry Requirements

The Derwen@Telford Pathway is for young adults aged between 16 and 25 with learning difficulties, disabilities and challenging needs, who live in or around Telford and Shropshire.

Contact us if you are interested in Business Support related training, and are working at Entry Level or Level 1.

How to Apply

For further information contact the Admissions Team on:

Telephone: 01691 661234 ext 401 or Email: admissions@derwen.ac.uk

Or you can email Lucy Harrison, Area Satellite Manager on lucy.harrison@derwen.ac.uk

Find us on Face Book and Twitter

Derwen College is a Registered Charity No. 1153280

Draft Statement of Community Involvement November 2020

Start Date:
9th November 2020

End Date:
1st February 2021

Start Time:
0001

End Time:
2359

Shropshire Council is consulting on their draft statement of Community Involvement, November 2020

What is this about? 

The draft Statement of Community Involvement sets out how Shropshire Council will engage communities and organisations on planning issues. It provides information on how people can get involved in the preparation of planning policies and plan-making process and details how people can comment on individual planning applications.

The draft Statement of Community Involvement covers:

  • the range of planning documents and their purpose;
  • which community representatives the Council will seek to involve in the preparation of planning policy documents and in the determination of planning applications;
  • how this process will be handled;
  • when this involvement will happen;
  • and what methods will be used to encourage as wide involvement as possible.

Electronic engagement has grown in importance over recent times, influenced in part but the recent changes brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. This electronic engagement is proposed as a main engagement method for reaching a wide audience.

Shropshire Council would like feedback on the draft document for consideration before a final version is formally agreed and implemented.

The draft policy is in the link below:

How to respond to this consultation:

If you would like the survey in an alternative format, please use the email above to request a copy or telephone Shropshire Council’s Customer Services on 0345 678 9000 and explain any support you need to allow you to respond.

Is Society still disabling you?

On Sunday 8 November, it was 25 years since the passing of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), the first civil rights legislation in the UK relating to disabled people. The DDA came 20 years after legislation outlawing race discrimination and sex discrimination. It is thanks to the disability rights campaigners of the 1980s and 1990s for the fact it came at all.

There is still a lot wrong with the way society treats disabled people, negative attitudes to us persist, inclusive design is not the norm and the benefits, support and services that some of us rely on have been drastically reduced. But none of this should stop us celebrating the DDA and expressing our heartfelt thanks to those who made it possible, the disability rights campaigners and Parliamentarians.

Disability Rights UK is asking What has the DDA done for you? You can email Disability Rights UK  at tellus@disabilityrightsuk.org and tell them of your experiences.

Disability Rights UK asked disabled colleagues at Disability Rights UK what the DDA has done for them. Below are some of the replies-

  • It gave me the right to ask for reasonable adjustments to help me apply for and keep a job. 
  • It meant I could receive the first pay slip I could read
  • It enabled me to get braille bank statements
  • It gave me the right to assistance to get on and off trains
  • It meant I could stand up against hostility from the public knowing the law was on my side
  • It lets me get support at the gym to use the equipment
  • It empowers me to ask for accessible health information
  • It helped many disabled people to access buses and taxis and to be able to use different means of transport
  • It helps me to be able to work and make use of the Access to Work scheme
  • It meant that counters in banks and ATM machines had to be installed in a lower (wheelchair accessible) position
  • Hospital wards became more accessible to disabled people with more complex physical needs
  • It meant that schools had a duty to provide accessible education
  • It meant that transport became more accessible – I was no longer expected to travel in the guard’s carriage with some livestock
  • It was the ability to see that my hidden disabilities and my mental health condition were not matters to be ashamed of, that others had similar conditions and went about life to the best of their abilities.

You can read more here: https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/news/2020/november/what-has-dda-done-you

Many SDN members know their is still a long way to go to get level playing field for all people with disabilities enabling us to be treated equally in society.

A survey for the BBC suggests that two-thirds of disabled people feel they are losing their rights during the coronavirus pandemic. Nicky Campbell asked people what they think has changed since the DDA was passed. You can sign in and listen to the interview here at this link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08xvgjn

Useful Resources from Mobilise

Courtesy of Mobilise we share with you some useful resources that may help you while we are in our second lockdown. Thanks to some grant funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and InnovateUK, they are able to make our resources available to anybody supporting carers.

Here Mobilise share a short blog on dealing with change and uncertainty:   https://bit.ly/323TIX0 This blog includes a short video on how to manage anxiety, click on this link to listen/watch https://youtu.be/nJ8tIwYgDG8

To have routines in place can really help you when you are a carer. This link is A guide to some of the routines that helped a Carer get through Lockdown (Pt 1): https://bit.ly/324iJS6 By clicking on the following link you can watch/listen to a Suzanne a carers coach at Mobilise talk about her thinking on having routines in place. https://youtu.be/E9WkM-qYFaY

Emergency Care Plan is very useful to have in place at anytime but more so with this pandemic. This link will show you how to make a basic ’emergency plan’ https://bit.ly/382F4Dl

Mobilise are a community of people helping each other look after someone they love by sharing online resources.  To find out more about Mobilise and what the tools they can offer you as a carer, click here:  https://www.mobiliseonline.co.uk/