Leading the way in improving South Tyneside’s services

We are very proud to be part of South Tyneside’s Learning Disability Strategy that aims to improve the services and support that are available to people with learning disabilities in the area.

Central to the strategy is making sure that people with lived experience of learning disabilities are given the chance to have their say and play a real part in creating change. Experts by Experience are at the heart of our organisation so we recently led a ‘You Said, We Did’ event linked to the strategy. This was a chance to get people who work in services in South Tyneside together with people who have learning disabilities to talk about the improvements made so far and give people the chance to share their views about what still needs to be done.

The Your Voice Counts Equal People South Tyneside group (pictured right) played a big part in the event, with one of the group members, Derek, opening and introducing the day. Equal People South Tyneside is made up of people with learning disabilities and they ran a session asking people who work in health services direct questions about their work and had conversations around what action needs to be taken to stop people with learning disabilities dying young.

Shaun Armour is an Expert by Experience working for Your Voice Counts who is Commissioning Officer for the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System in South Tyneside. He’s leading on the Voice of the Person part of the strategy so delivered a session on the day alongside colleagues from the Commissioning Team. This prompted some insightful discussions around the strategy and gave everyone the opportunity to have their voices heard.

David Woolley, Chief Executive of Your Voice Counts, said: “Well done to everyone involved – what a fantastic showcase of the great work you all do! Thanks to everyone who put time and effort into representing us so well and showing everyone what we’re about – people with lived experience front and centre, exactly as it should be.”

Look out for further updates on our website about the Voice of the Person work. To find out more about South Tyneside’s Learning Disability Strategy, visit High Level Priorities - South Tyneside Council