Mark has decided now is the time to change the blog's focus to personal development & motivation.

For the past couple of years I have blogged updates on emerging publications that affect the health social care and education sectors. Partly to be a useful resource for people but also, if I’m honest, to keep myself up-to-date with these changes as I work in, and with staff from, these arenas.

During the quieter output of the last month (thanks to the general election) I have reviewed this and decided that there are better ways in which this information can be gleaned and so have decided it’s time for a change.

Most people who know me will know that my passion is supporting others to reach their fullest potential and so future updates will now start to reflect this change in content. I see much more comment, thoughts and opinion from me and less update/announcements type posts.

You are invited to also get involved in the process and I encourage you to leave a comment to this and any future posts, good bad or indifferent, I’ll just be happy to know you are out there.

I expect the shift away from published policies etc and more towards information that will help us all with our personal development and the motivation to engage in this process may lose me some readers/browsers of this blog. If this holds no interest for you I would just ask you drop by a couple of times of the next month and give it a go, but thanks for getting this far with me.

As a professional I want to deliver products, service and advice that is evidence based, i.e. that has some credible research behind it to back it up as in some areas of the motivational & personal development I find this to be lacking and more about personalities of people who go on to become “gurus”. With this in mind I will strive to post articles & references to information that support all elements of my development and that of the advice and support I give to others.

Don’t forget my invite…leave a comment.

Via RADAR Website -  http://www.radar.org.uk/

In 2009 RADAR, with the support of Lloyd’s Banking Group, set out to answer some key questions on career progression, seniority and disability: is there a pool of people living with ill-health, injury or disability working in senior jobs? If so, who are they, what factors have enabled them to progress in their careers, what sectors are they in, what are their experiences?

To answer those questions we surveyed over 1,400 people and conducted 50 face-to-face structured interviews; we are now delighted to publish the results of that survey.

On Wednesday 31st March RADAR Chief Executive Liz Sayce discussed Doing Seniority Differently on BBC Radio 4′s You and Yours.

Click here to listen via BBC iPlayer

Download Doing Seniority Differently – A Study of High Fliers Living with Injury, Ill Health or Disability

The third edition of the National Mental Health Development Unit (NMHDU) news briefing is now available to download. As well as a round up of NMHDU programme developments; this edition has a particular focus on employment and mental health.

Some items covered in this edition include

Key Developments in Policy & Practice

Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) supporting people back to work

Download Briefing 3 here

This joint good practice guidance published by the Putting People First and Valuing People Now teams has been developed to help local areas understand how person-centred planning can help to deliver Putting People First. It is one of the commitments in Valuing People Now.

It includes a range of tools and good practice examples on person centred planning and support planning to help give people more choice and control over their lives.

Download Personalisation Through Person-Centred Planning

Other advice for download includes:

Advice for Professionals

Advice for using person-centred thinking, planning and reviews in schools and transition

Advice for Commissioners

Advice for Providers

The Valuing People Now: Delivery Plan for 2010-11 was recently published together with a range of materials to support the implementation of Valuing People Now, the cross government strategy for people with learning disabilities.

The Delivery Plan 2010-11 marks the progress made in the first year. It also recognises that there is still more to do to improve the lives of people with learning disabilities and their family carers. The delivery plan sets out the key priorities for 2010-11, in particular, to improve employment and housing opportunities and better health outcomes for people with learning disabilities and their family carers.

Download the Valuing People Now: Delivery Plan here

Other resources published include

Housing rights resource pack

Human rights training materials and human rights resources

One of the Housing Rights Resources

One of the Human Rights Resources

The latest national statistics on Attitudes to Mental Illness produced by the Department of Health were released on 30 March 2010 according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

Since March 1994, the Department of Health has placed a set of questions on TNS’s Face-to-Face Consumer Omnibus about public attitudes towards mental illness. From 1994 to 1997 the questions were asked on an annual basis and then every third year up until 2003.

Since 2007 the survey has again been carried out annually. (see last year’s blog post) The surveys serve as a benchmark, enabling measurement of whether attitudes are improving or worsening over time. The questionnaire included a number of statements about mental illness. Respondents were asked to indicate how much they agreed or disagreed with each statement.

Download the research document here

Do you think you know where the parties stand on health?
Take part in the Kings Fund rapid fire fun test to check just what you know.
Once done spend some time on their site following other UK election news stories realted to health.
Take your election check up here
http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/general_election_2010/index.html

The Official Autism Trust “Hello Boys” Campaign Video

A call to action for everyone in the worldwide autism community.

You don’t have to be British to do this
WE NEED YOUR HELP wherever you are in the world

Tell the British politicians what they need to do to help families and individuals with autism
Help us to make them listen.
Please Email

Conservatives laurence.mann@conservatives.com

Liberal Democrats douglas.dowell@libdems.org.uk

Labour Party bobby.pratap@dh.gsi.gov.uk

Read more information and contact this campaign here

http://www.facebook.com/autismtrust.campaign2010

http://www.theautismtrust.org.uk

http://www.twitter.com/PollyTommey

http://www.pollytommey2010.blogspot.com

Fulfilling and rewarding lives sets out the Government’s Strategy for adults with autism. It draws on the findings of the National Audit Office report Supporting adults with autism through adulthood (2009) and the recommendations from the Public Accounts Committee’s report (2009) of the same title.

From the document
‘All adults with autism are able to live fulfilling and rewarding lives within a society that accepts and understands them. They can get a diagnosis and access support if they need it, and they can depend on mainstream public services to treat them fairly as individuals, helping them make the most of their talents.’

Download Fulfilling & Rewarding Lives here

SCIE – At a glance 22

This At a glance briefing examines the implications of the personalisation agenda for community-based health and social care staff supporting people with a learning disability.

Key Messages – Personalisation for community learning disability staff means:

• all staff work to develop a partnership between themselves and those who want a personal budget
• staff perform an enabling role which gives people with learning disabilities choice and control
• work to support users to undertake a self assessment, make best use of the Resource Allocation System to secure funding and help people to develop a support plan
• ensuring people have the right information about what they can purchase
• collating unmet needs and giving this information to commissioners to help them develop greater choice in the market
• the task includes the development of community and natural supports to promote people’s independence, autonomy and active citizenship
• all staff should have good training, support and development opportunities to enable

Download this briefing via SCIE site here