Wiltshire Learning Disability
Partnership Board Meeting
25th May 2012
Council Chamber, Browfort, Devizes
People who came to the meeting
Sandra Wells
Phil Powell
Caroline Cummings
Rhonda Ward
Caroline Loveless
Richard Smith
Mike Claydon
Viv Fortune
Patti Harrison
Richard Gamble
Ian White
Fiona Steven
Julie Baptista
Dot Kronda
Angie Carmichael
Co-Chair Partnership Board
Commissioning Lead, Wiltshire Council
Open Minds
Internal provider, Wiltshire Council
Salisbury Independent Self Advocacy Group
External Provider Representative, Homes caring for Autism
Voluntary Sector representative
Parent/carer representative, East Wiltshire
Parent/carer representative, Wiltshire Parent Carer Council
Portfolio holder for Public Transport, Wiltshire Council
Head of Service, Passenger Transport, Wiltshire Council
Transport Policy Team, Wiltshire Council
Commissioning Officer, Wiltshire Council
Programme Lead - Inclusion, Wiltshire Council
Inclusion and ensuring services are universal
Supporters
Lucy Key
Susie Morgans
Wiltshire People First
Salisbury Independent Self Advocacy Group
Facilitators/ Observers
Julia Davey
Department of community services (Notes)
People who could not come to the meeting
Niki Lewis
Susan Tanner
Wiltshire Council, Co-Chair Partnership Board
Children‟s services representative, Wiltshire Council
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Emily Denham
Margaret Greenman
Jemima Milton
Commissioning Manager LD, NHS Wiltshire
Parent/carer representative, North Wiltshire
Councillor – Adult Care
Introductions and Welcome
The meeting was chaired by Phil Powell and Sandra
Wells.
Sandra welcomed everyone to the board and asked
them to introduce themselves.
Before the meeting started, Sandra read out the
housekeeping rules of the meeting.
Caroline Cummings told everyone how the traffic light
cards worked and Caroline Loveless explained the
rules of the meeting.
Main Agenda
Learning Disabilities Network Meeting
Rhonda and Phil went to this meeting in Exeter.
Unfortunately the invitation arrived quite late and lots of
people were not able to go.
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People came to the meeting from all of the
areas in the South West of England.
Rhonda brought some of the information with
her for people to look at. The meeting looked at
how people could get jobs and how they access
their communities or Health support from staff
within the Community Team for People with a
Learning Disability.
They also looked at how to prioritise work
around housing, employment, keeping safe,
keeping healthy and relationships. The self
advocacy groups that were at the meeting
thought relationships are very important for
people with learning disabilities.
Rhonda also said that we have to do another
partnership board self assessment this year. Phil
said Julia would contact people about being
involved.
Everyone will be able to see the self assessment
and have their say about what is in it.
It needs to be completed by Friday 7th September
2012.
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Transport
Richard Gamble explained that he is the
councillor with responsibility for public
transport. This means that he is a member of
a group of councillors who make plans to
improve public transport. He talked about the
work that the Council is doing to improve
transport in Wiltshire.
Fiona gave a short presentation about the
work that she is doing in the Transport Team.
They are writing the Wiltshire Local Transport
Plan.
In this plan is an Accessibility Strategy. This is
a plan which will say how Wiltshire Council
aims to improve access to employment,
education, healthcare, supermarkets, retail
and other essential services.
It is a long document which can be found on
the Wiltshire Council website at this address;
http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/council/howthecou
ncilworks/plansstrategiespolicies/transportpoliciesandstrategies/local
transportplan3.html
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Fiona and her team are trying to find out what people‟s
needs are so that the Council can understand how
transport can be made better in the future.
Fiona then asked the board members to tell her what
they had found out about transport at their Have Your
Say meetings.
Have your say on Transport
In April, Wiltshire People First, Salisbury Independent
Self Advocacy Group and Open Minds worked
together to talk to people with learning disabilities
about their transport experiences.
They put together a questionnaire and
 Held 3 „Have your say‟ events in Trowbridge,
Salisbury and Marlborough
 Talked with members at their speaking up group
meetings and
 Spoke to some people on a one to one basis
At the events, people were supported to fill in
questionnaires and take part in workshops.
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The group looked at;
 Using the bus
 Bus timetables
 Using taxis
 Other types of transport
It is really good that so many people are
using buses and taxis to travel, but there
are things to learn from this work;
Drivers of buses or taxis are generally
thought to be helpful and friendly but lots
of people have also said that this depends
on particular drivers.
Lots of people need support to start to use
or continue using public transport and this
is true even for those who have had travel
training in the past.
Only a small number of people use
community transport. More people said
they would use community and voluntary
transport if they knew more about it.
People said they would like easy read
information about these other forms of transport.
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Mike reminded everyone that people who cannot
read or tell the time can also be trained to travel
independently.
A full copy of the report is included with these notes.
Councillor Gamble thanked the board for their helpful
report. He said the things we talked about were also
important for people who do not have a disability.
He said that the Council would talk to the bus
companies about these issues.
Ian White from the passenger transport team said
that he was surprised that people did not know about
the link transport scheme as they are advertised well.
People at the meeting thought this might be because
the information is not always easy to read.
He also told the board about the key fobs which are
used in Salisbury. If you have one of these fobs and
go to a bus stop it will “talk” to you and tell you when
the next bus is going to arrive. He said this was only
in Salisbury at the moment as it is an expensive system.
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Patti Harrison asked if members of Wiltshire Parent
Carer Council could be involved in future Have Your
Say meetings? Phil and the disabilities team will
talk to Wiltshire People First about this.
Patti also talked about the work that Wiltshire
Independent Travel Support (WITS) do. She said it
was really good but concentrates on training people
to get to one place and does not help people to
travel to other locations.
Ian said he was worried that people think some bus
drivers can be rude and impolite. He said it would
be difficult for Wiltshire Council to do much but he
could talk to the bus companies.
Phil asked Ian how the bus companies could be
encouraged to use some of the ideas from the Have
Your Say meetings?
Ian said they can take the findings to the bus
companies and ask them to use this in their training.
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Sandra told Ian that there was also the “I‟m a
person too training” which is run by Wiltshire
People First.
Ian also talked about the bus timetables and said
that his colleague Michelle, had made some more
easy to read but a lot of bus companies write their
own and they do not make them easy to read.
Summary and actions – What we need to do next
People said they would like more electronic bus
systems but know they are expensive and this will
not happen quickly
Members of the board would like to know
where they can find out more about the
electronic key fobs in Salisbury. The key fobs
can be collected from the Council offices at 37
Endless Street, Salisbury. You may be asked to
give your name and address but you don't need to
bring any papers to get a key fob.
Ian will take the issues from the Have Your Say
meetings to the bus companies.
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People also asked for more easy to read information.
The self advocacy groups will work in their local areas
to make this happen. Wiltshire Council will support
this work.
Housing update from January meeting
Julia told everyone about the work she is doing with
her colleague, Hazel which will get people together to
talk about what housing is needed in the future.
This will include people from the new housing teams,
and the operational teams (the Community Teams)
and others who can really plan for the future.
The next Have Your Say event
Sandra asked what the board would like to talk about
at the next Have Your Say event?
People decided that they would like to focus on
Keeping Safe. This was chosen as it is also one of
the priorities from the Learning Disabilities Network
Meeting which Rhonda talked about earlier today.
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The Have Your Say meetings will be arranged by
Wiltshire People First, Salisbury Independent Self
Advocacy Group and Open Minds.
The report from these meetings will be talked about at
the board meeting.
Any other business
Phil closed the meeting and thanked Councillor
Gamble, Fiona and Ian for coming to the meeting.
Date of the next meeting
The next Board Meeting will be on Wednesday 26th
September 2012 and will talk about Keeping Safe. The
meeting will also include updates from the actions
agreed at the meeting today. This meeting will be in
Devizes at the Town Hall.
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Actions from the partnership board meeting
We made a list of all the actions that have to be
looked at before the next meeting of the board.
The actions are included in these notes. The
people wrote their names by these actions will tell
us what they have done when the board meets
again in September.
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