At Health Education England working across Kent, Surrey and Sussex (HEE KSS) we want to create a sustainable and secure workforce supply, for people that have Intellectual Disabilities (ID), who require support from and/ or access to services.To do this we have asked many questions and found out lots of new information about the workforce. All of this has been freely shared via our web blog www.idhekss.wordpress.com.
A key question that we did not feel we knew enough about was
“What do individuals who have an intellectual disability want from their workforce?".
We wrote to a number of organisations asking for their support in answering this question and were pleased that the foundation for people with learning disabilities (FPLD) wanted to be involved.
They agreed to write a report that would give HEE KSS a better understanding from the perspective of individuals from across Kent, Surrey and Sussex of what they would like their workforce to know. The FPLD used a range of approaches to ask this question of 70 people from across the region.
The full detailed report can be downloaded from our weblog or via this link https://goo.gl/l2EPO9.
In summary, they found that people wanted a workforce who held positive attitudes and considered the people they supported or cared for as equals. They also wanted a workforce who could support them across both a Health and Care setting, with a range of physical and mental health needs, and who could also help them develop skills to become more independent.The individuals who took part in the project were able to tell HEE KSS for the first time via the FPLD report that they wanted a workforce that know about them, just as any other person might reasonably expect when they are wanting support or help from services.
A stand out quote from the front page of the report from a participant said that they wanted the workforce to “recognise them as a person and not just a disability”.
Armed with this very clear and powerful message HEE KSS are using the findings in the report to ensure that any work that they support to develop this workforce also links directly to what the people who experience the workforce want and need.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank every person who took the time to contribute to this report. Your messages were humbling and the findings will be key to guiding the continued development of the Intellectual Disability workforce programme based here at HEE KSS.
We also hope that this will become a national resource, as our other reports have, and help work going on elsewhere in the country.