About the Lambeth Learning Disability Assembly (LLDA)
- It grew out of the Lambeth Learning Disability Partnership Board (which was developed during Valuing People)
- It was started (after Partnership Boards were disbanded) by People with Learning Disabilities, Carers and Professionals
- It was constituted in 2015. It runs as a semi independent group, supported by Healthwatch Lambeth (who hold their funding)
- It has funding to run meetings and support the Reps from Lambeth Council/Commissioners and its own fundraising (eg Community Fund, Lottery)
“The Assembly meetings are open to anyone with an interest in the support and services for people with learning disabilities in Lambeth and how we can make sure they are the very best.”
The Lambeth Learning Disability Assembly (LLDA) meetings are four times a year and include an Annual General Meeting. The agenda for these is planned by the Reps group—made up of the Learning Disability Reps and the Carer Reps (supported by Laura, Liz and Jane)
The LLDA also holds monthly forum meetings.
These are specifically run by and for people with a learning disability where participants can learn about useful services, local updates and talk about things that matter to members.
Generally the Forum meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of the month.
They take place at different venues across Lambeth from 11-12:30. In 2024-25, we visited the We are 336, L'Arche, and the Crescent Day Centre and Community Room at Coburg Crescent.
The agenda is planned by the Learning Disability Reps Group supported by Laura (and Liz and Jane).
Projects
LLDA Projects (Most recent first)
Our Year 2024-25
You can find our more about the LLDA's achievements in the 2024-25 financial year by reading the article below.
Lambeth Learning Disability Assembly: Our Year 2024-25
Some of the topics covered by the LLDA this year included:
- Improving services for when people are dying, including a visit to St Christopher’s hospice.
- Staying healthy, including looking at Health Action Plans and Annual Health checks. They also continued working with local hospitals in Lambeth on a Red Flag project, looking at how people with learning disabilities are recognised and supported on hospital admission.
- Updates on local activities from members and partners, including presentations from organisations like L’Arche, Stockwell Park Community Centre, Books Beyond Words, and the Estia Centre.
- Preparing for elections, including information on local and national elections and their own LLDA representative elections.
The Friendly Ear Project
The LLDA receives funding from the council, which is used to cover their monthly meetings (including planning). They continue to look for funding to enable them to develop projects. In 2024-25, they ran one special project.
The Friendly Ear project was a pilot of individual informal coaching and mentoring held at a local GP, where people could come to a dedicated space and time and talk through anything worrying them. It was much appreciated by the people who came but was sadly unable to continue after the pilot phase due to lack of funds.
Past projects
The Red Flag Project
The Seniors Project
The Roadshow Project
The Health Ambassadors Project
The Assembly was active partner in the SE London Health Ambassador Project by hosting/supporting an Ambassador for PWLD and Autism in Lambeth. We co-hosted a couple of events in 2022 including a Big Health Day for people with a learning disability or autism in Lambeth.
The IT project
Over Covid, we ran an IT project to support Reps and other members to use IT. The Reps learnt to use tablets and Zoom and WhatsApp. The Co-chairs learnt how to host meetings, and over the lockdown, the Assembly and forum meetings went online. The funding for this was from the Lambeth Community Fund and aimed to support individuals who were disadvantaged by the digital divide.
The Advance Care Planning Project
Some of the Reps were trained as peer supporters to run sessions in Forum meetings to help people to do their own Advance Care Plan. We are part of a consortium in Lambeth to target people who might need some extra support to be able to do this.
The LLDA Newsletter
Before Covid, a newsletter was produced by LLDA members, for members. Its aim is to promote ownership and to address inequalities from the roots – by engaging members to create their own stories.
The newsletter gave members access to relevant and useful information to stay well and healthy. It also worked as the minutes of the latest forum to keep members informed about the work and progress the LLDA makes. It was produced in an accessible, learning disability friendly format.
Finding our way around King's College Hospital
In February 2018, three teams visited Kings College Hospital to assess effectiveness and accessibility of signage for people with learning disabilities within the grounds and hospital. The teams explored how good their experience of signage in the hospital would be. The aim was to find out whether people could find their way around in the hospital easily.
Right for Everyone Programme
The Right for Everyone programme which ran from autumn 2015 to 2017, was a partnership initiative with the Lambeth Learning Disability Assembly and Lambeth Mencap, supported by NHS Lambeth Clinical Commissioning Group. The project involved training learning disabled adults to become Enter and View visitors in order to visit healthy living pharmacies, GP practices, dentists, opticians and foot clinic to see how accessible services is,the quality of information and advice provided for dealing with long-term conditions and how the kind the service is.
Want to get involved?
To find out more about the Lambeth Learning Disability Assembly, get in touch at
lambethassembly@healthwatchlambeth.org.uk
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