Speakup has been given a grant by the Department of Health to look at and help advocacy groups to employ people with learning disabilities.

Advocacy groups need to employ people with learning disabilities as equal members of staff. There are several hundred advocacy groups that could employ people with learning disabilities. Through our national work we know there are only a few advocacy groups doing this. Speakup, as one of the largest employers of people with learning disabilities, employs 34 people who have a learning disability!

This toolkit will help advocacy groups to employ people. We will be making a friendly and accessible toolkit that can be used for training and information. It will include real stories and show how advocacy organisations can get the money they need to grow and employ more people with learning disabilities.

We started this project by looking at how many people with learning disabilities are employed now. We have made a questionnaire to ask groups if they employ people, for how long and what stops other groups from employing people with learning disabilities.

To read this toolkit
click here

We will be producing a DVD showing lots of good examples of how people with learning disabilities work in advocacy. This DVD will show some of the skills people need.

Click here to watch the DVD online