Benefits of co-production and self advocacy

Hi everyone,

Vicky and I are leading on self advocacy in the Wirral. 

We don’t get council support. It doesn’t matter to us because we are in control of our lives. We created our own support with our friends. It’s the self advocacy organisation in Wirral called Together All Are Able which we run and manage.  You can follow us on Twitter @able_together or Facebook Together All Are Able or email . We are also members of Think Local Act Personal National Coproduction Advisory Group.

We inspire people up and down the country with what we do and how we do it. We, as self advocates, are working with people all the time. This is from the beginning of something to the end of it.

We feel there is not enough space for people like us to be radically different about how people are supported. Organisations are too risk averse and don’t want to learn how they can work with people very differently so everyone is included.

If the same people are involved all the time nothing changes. Everyone needs to be listened to and included, and things need to be transparent so people can see and understand why people are chosen to do things.

Self Advocacy groups are disappearing up and down the country. If their voices are taken away they don’t have a say and nothing can be made real! 

We work hard to try to make personalisation real for everyone. If there was no Together All Are Able, Vicky would not have been able to go on the Zumba Cruise, and I wouldn’t have had the support to jointly win the Derick Russell Award for Outstanding Leadership and the lifetime member of Learning Disability England that I got for all my social media work.

Thanks for reading this! If you would like to find out more about co-production, contact TLAP's National Co-production Advisory Group.