My name is Leeanne, and I am a person who has a background in the Care system and has lived experience of a Learning Disability. Over the years I have made a life for myself where I have been involved and worn all different kinds of hats in different parts of my life - to help and encourage other people to get their voices heard in different parts of the world and other organisations to try and make a difference worldwide and beyond!
I want to tell you a little bit about my experience. Our Human Rights are no different to other people. People with a Learning Disability in particular who are also facing a care-experienced background face more barriers than most. More than a few people who have a Learning Disability do not get our Human Rights respected. This needs to be changed by listening to us who have lived experience and what we know. Those barriers are highlighted by services that are meant to be a support system in our lives. The choices, for example, to have a family in the future is another set of hoops to jump through and more. When I was younger my birth family treated me as an outsider and did not want to see me as part of their family. I always thought I was on my own with this but through the years I came to realise that there are more people that I have met in different places such as people in organisations and friends that I have come to know over the years working alongside them. I tend always to say you never know who has been through the same thing as you until you speak up. I would like to see the Scottish Government leading the way to educate those needing advice from someone who has firsthand experience of a very challenging childhood. The Scottish Government must work closely with those who have lived experience to do this the right way. What we need to say is very important, educational, and inspiring to other people! I have written a book that combines my lived experience in one giant puzzle. The book is called ‘My Journey Through Life – The Real Me!’ I am also writing my second book which will reference a lot of important learning and lessons to be learned. Yes, the two books will highlight a lot of things. But the important message is that everyone is unique and important, and you need to understand that everyone is different. Today I would like to ask one vastly important question. To me, it is very important in today’s society: What do you think you would do to support people with a Learning Disability and care-experienced background to communicate better? For example, I would say communication is first and foremost and that people need to communicate with us to ensure that we get the right help from the right people and services. In my time as a trainer, I have always looked at my Learning Disability differently from others or I have questioned myself. Most of the time people have often told me when I was younger that I do have a Learning Disability but to be honest with you I do not see me having a Learning Disability. I see someone who learns differently and who has a mild difficulty. Being part of the Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodivergence LDAN Bill as one of the Leap members who help and advise the Scottish Government has made me question whether or not I have a Learning Disability. While on the Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodivergence LDAN Bill I was allocated by organisations that I have been working with over the years to be on a panel of people with Learning Disabilities to advise what was best for us to the Scottish Government. We worked very hard for over a year and still are to ensure that the voices are heard for people with Learning Disabilities in this bill. People with Learning Disabilities must be at the front of the bill instead of the back pages. There was a time during the process when we thought we were losing our voices. It is still a great opportunity for those who were on the Leap panel. People with learning disabilities attended over 56 meetings to ensure that people with Learning Disabilities are more than just heard in any part of the bill and their lives. Most people who enter the care system have several issues that are very important and unique. Most of these people do not have a voice or it is hard for them to stand up for themselves. The people with a voice do try their best to stand up for other people and not just themselves. Jenny is a working age unpaid carer, living in a rural area. This is her story.
My wife suffers from severe mental health issues, has attempted suicide on several occasions and cannot be left alone. I care full time for my disabled wife, providing full-time personal care, emotional support, finance management, shopping, mobility assistance and help with medication and transportation to and from medical appointments. Most unpaid carers are women and the cost of-living-crisis is having a more harmful effect on them due to the persistent inequalities in pay. The cost-of-living crisis has meant that household energy costs and transportation costs have risen dramatically. We consume more energy as we are at home most of the time and we live in a rural area where longer journeys are necessary to access services. This means that our household finances are pushed to the limit. No particular thought seems to have been given to unpaid carers’ vulnerability to the rising household energy and transportation costs. I do not receive any means tested social security payments and thus did not receive any of the £900 payment to help out with rising energy costs, and carer’s allowance was not a qualifying benefit for any additional support in response to the cost-of-living crisis. Because of my restricted ability to work - due to my care commitments – I do not have the flexibility to get a job or increase work hours to offset rising costs. In addition, the social security net, on which we rely, has not kept up with inflation in previous years. This means that that even before the start of the cost-of-living crisis, our finances were stretched to say the least. The constant money worries and anxiety have resulted in deteriorating mental health, isolation and exhaustion at a time when previously helpful support services are being scaled down or closed. What do you get when you bring together 22 women from disparate backgrounds? You get the potential for power and a united purpose that comes from real lived experience.
You create a group of women who are willing to speak for those who do not have opportunities to present their needs themselves to those who can action the changes required to make improvements in their lives. The aim of the project is to tell Scottish Government about the views of women and girls and about their lived life experience in 21st century Scotland. Earlier this year I was privileged to be asked to join these women and collectively we are now the Empowering Women Panel. We have been tasked to report back to the Scottish Government via the National Advisory Council on Women and Girls (NACWG). Our current task is to explore then report on the impact the current cost-of-living crisis is having on the lives of women and girls in Scotland. The project is being facilitated by the Sleeping Giants Team and funded by the Scottish Government. The Sleeping Giants Team take responsibility for all the administrative aspects of the project, arranging face-to-face and on-line meetings and training sessions. The on-line platform called Basecamp is used to communicate, record and store all Panel activities. Our first face-to-face meeting was held in Edinburgh where we also met the NACWG members. This was a really successful meeting and the atmosphere of power and determination to work together to attain our stated purpose was palpable within the room. At this meeting we set out the parameters of how the Panel would function, ensuring they were aligned with the work being done by the NACWG. We put together our Panel Group Agreement We agreed to the following statements:
This was a very productive meeting and laid the groundwork for what was to come. The second face-to-face meeting was in Glasgow and it was at this meeting that the Panel really came together and as positive entity. We created sub-groups according to our individual skill sets and preferences and decided that our first main piece of work would be initiating Peer Research in relation how women and girls are being affected by the cost-of-living crisis. The bulk of this work would be carried forward by the Research and Evaluation sub-group, formulating questions, establishing means of recording feedback from interviews and storing responses. The other sub-groups – concerned with Events and Planning, and Reporting and Comms - started using Zoom meetings to complete various tasks. I believe we have made the Empowering Women Panel to be a safe and inclusive space for all and we will make sure that everyone feels respected, values and heard. No-one’s experience or voice is more important than anyone else’s and we can learn a lot from listening and supporting each other. Intersectional inequalities have disproportionately affected women and girls lives, like, forever!
With public/community services closing, up and down the country, nothing good or positive seems to be happening. protests from members of the public, including myself, feel like our concerns have fallen on deaf ears? Leisure / community centres in West Lothian where I live, closed despite local campaigning. We were told money was allocated but the local council and the Scottish government blamed each other for the money disappearing? Now, West Lothian public transport hangs in the balance! People’s livelihoods hang in the balance, and people are being plunged into increased poverty; women and girls being, again, disproportionately affected. Where is this going to end? There’s nowhere to go now, and even if you wanted to go somewhere how do you get there when public transports being cut, you can’t afford a car or taxis, or childcare, and there’s no police presence about or that you can trust! Your personal safety is continually at stake. Women and girls’ safety must be prioritised! But it’s not! What would you say to women and girls to give them some hope for the future and to let them know that they matter? Because there are women out there who have and are giving up! They say it’s pointless voting for any party because things will never change for them as ‘it’s still a man’s world’ were women aren’t valued or respected and the gap between rich and poor is growing at a horrific and scandalous rate. We live in increasingly unstable and dangerous times. I speak to women all the time and working on the Panel has piqued my interest in getting the views of girls and young women about issues affecting them. In a nutshell - and again, no surprise but still alarming - they don’t feel they matter, and they don’t feel safe! Online harassment/threats of physical/sexual violence, on a day to day basis by boys/men 24/7. They can’t get away from it. Toxic masculinity is pandemic!! Worse than a deadly virus. As well as help and support for women, it is important than men and boys have role models and accessible information about gender equality and how they can contribute positively. Obviously toxic masculinity takes its toll on women and girls' mental/emotional/physical/spiritual health but it affects men and boys, too. If women had equal representation in governments globally, do you think the world would be a more equal, peaceful place? Do you agree that ‘the system’ has to be got rid off? That there has to be a seismic shift of power and money? If so, how can we unite here, there and everywhere, across our country and indeed the world, to achieve this? DOWN WITH PATRIARCHY!! |
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