Read the Wolverhampton People's Parliament blog

The Wolverhampton People’s Parliament was established in 2010 with a core of seven MP’s.

Their first major piece of work began in December 2010 when they presented their Employment White Paper to the Adults and Communities Team.

Here, they asserted what they felt was needed to be support into employment and to ensure that adults with disabilities were on the agenda in relation to employment. There was great concern, what with the economic downturn, that the learning disability community would be marginalised even further.

Following this event, there will be two Employment Select Committees to ensure that what the people from the Council promised to do was being done. The White Paper will also be presented to Cabinet for the key themes to be adopted by the City Council and turned into policies that will have a long term and beneficial effect for all adults with a learning disability in Wolverhampton.

This piece of work will finish with an event in December 2011 that will bring together all of the work that has been completed and act as a way to present the skills that people with learning disabilities have to the attention of local employers.

During the first Parliament meeting, the MP’s also put forward the creation of a Safe Places scheme. This is where local shops, businesses and public buildings are nominated as a ‘Safe Place’, or somewhere a person with a learning disability would go if they feel threatened, have been a victim of a crime or have become lost and confused.

The Red Telephone sticker is displayed on these buildings and people know they can go there for help. Everyone with a learning disability in the City will be given a card where their name and the contact details of their family or people who support them are written. They will then be supported to make contact with the people on their card. If the matter is serious, the people at the shops or businesses will support the person to contact the police.

We are currently finding ways to secure funds that will help us to set up and run this scheme in Wolverhampton. We have the support of the City of Wolverhampton Police, as well as the City Council and we hope we can start this project in the near future.

Click here to find out more about the Safe Places Scheme

Members of Wolverhampton People's Parliament:

• Andy Howell – Joint Lead on Employment and is Co-Chair of the Learning Disability Partnership Board.
• James Millard – Leads on Hate Crime
• Jessica Bromley – Leads on Health Matters
• Matthew Roberts – Parliament Co-Secretary
• Sara Gorman – Parliament Co-Secretary
• Gregg Silvester - Joint Lead on Employment
• Winsome Clarke – Supports work on Hate Crime
• Christian Hamilton – Lead for Young People
• Michael Hopkins – Leads on Public Transport

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