Hello, thank you for thinking about joining our Learning Disability and Autism Advisory Group.
This information tells you about our group and about how you tell us you would like to join.
Please read this information pack before completing the form.
If you want any help with reading this information or filling in the form, you can contact us on engage@nhs.net or phone 0113 824 9686.
The group advises NHS England to make sure the work we do improves the health of autistic people and people with a learning disability.
It aims to include more voices of people with a learning disability, autistic people and family carers in the work of the NHS.
We want to improve people’s health and the healthcare they receive.
You can see some examples of the work the group has been involved in and the difference it has made at You said we did.
There are 2 documents in this information pack:
1. Information about filling in the expression of interest form.
2. The expression of interest form to tell us about yourself and why you want to join the group.
Who we are looking for
We would like 11 new members to join the group.
We are looking for autistic people, people with a learning disability and family carers.
People may be a combination of these. For example, an autistic person who is a family carer or someone who is autistic and also has a learning disability.
We are looking for people
- who can share their experiences with others to improve the health system
- who can work with other people
- who want to make a difference to healthcare
- with experience of different health and social care services
- with links to groups and networks of people from all backgrounds and communities
- We are looking for members with lived experience rather than professional experience.
We do not usually have members who work on the frontline in the NHS or work in healthcare.
People can only have up to 3 voluntary engagement roles at NHS England.
In the free text box near the end of the form, please write about these things described in the bullet points.
Also explain why you would be good to have on our advisory group.
You can write up to 500 words for the answer to this question.
Please be careful as you cannot save your answers as you go along.
Make sure to write up your answer in a document first, and then copy and paste into the online form.
We want lots of different people on the group, with different life experiences
For example:
- people of different ages, including young people
- people from different ethnic backgrounds. By this we mean people who are Black, Asian or from other groups who are not White British
- people who have experienced inpatient mental health care, either as patients or as people whose loved ones have stayed in mental health hospitals
- people of different genders for example, male, female, non-binary or other
- we will ask for your pronouns for example, he, she, they or other. This is so we know how to refer to you
- people of different sexual orientations
- family carers of children or young people
- family carers of people whose voices are not often heard, for example, people with a severe learning disability or who don’t or can’t speak
- people with a learning disability or who are autistic who are also parents
- people or family carers of people who have 3 or more support staff with them, all of the time
- people from different parts of England
- people who have had a loved one pass away within the last 3 years
- people who take psychotropic medication. This is medication for the mind. For example, medicine for epilepsy or depression
We need members to be available
You must attend at least 3 meetings each year.
Some of these meetings are half day meetings online. We can help you set this up.
Some of these meetings are full day meetings in person.
We can make reasonable adjustments if needed to help people to attend meetings.
In person meetings are usually in Leeds.
Advisory Group members can stay in the group for up to 4 years.
You can choose to leave before this if you want to.
What will you get out of joining the group
- It’s a chance to make a difference to the NHS.
- You will meet interesting and supportive people who also want to make the NHS better.
- You will develop your skills.
- We will pay the costs of your involvement in the group.
This can include travel, accommodation if needed, support worker costs and an involvement payment.
We may be able to support with costs for a personal assistant or support worker to help you with meetings.
We are unable to pay unpaid support such as family or friends for their time, but we can pay their expenses.
How we choose people to join the group
Tell us about yourself and why you want to join the group.
There are 4 ways you can tell us that you are interested in this role.
Only do one of these things
You can:
1. Fill in the online expression of interest form: Expression of interest form
or
2. Contact us to arrange a videocall or phone call for a member of the team to help you fill in the form on engage@nhs.net or phone 0113 824 9686
or
3. Print out the form, fill it in and post it to:
NHS England
Learning Disability and Autism Engagement team
The Post Room
7 and 8 Wellington Place
Leeds
West Yorkshire
LS1 4AP
If you would like us to send you a paper copy of this information and the form, we will post them to you.
or
4. Answer the questions in the form by making a video of yourself. You can be on or off camera.
Phone or email us and we will help you send the video to us.
If you would like more information or have any questions, we really encourage you to get in contact with us at engage@nhs.net or phone 0113 8249 686.
You need to send one of these types of your expression of interest before 9am on Monday 30 September 2024.
We will contact you to let you know we have got your form.
This will usually be by email unless you have told us to contact you a different way.
We will use the information you give us to decide who should join the group as not everyone can join.
We will choose a group of people with lots of very different experience, skills, knowledge and family backgrounds.
We will let you know if you have been chosen or not by Monday 4 November 2024.
This will usually be by email unless you have told us to contact you in a different way.
The law tells us that we must keep your information on record for at least 6 months.
If you are not chosen, we will keep your form for 2 years if you have told us this is ok.
Your information will be kept safe. We will only use this information to contact you, if we have more places to offer.
We do this in case another space comes up in the advisory group and we can invite you to fill that space.
We need to do a DBS check. DBS stands for Disclosure and Barring Service. This lets us check if you have a criminal record if we want you to join the group.
Next steps to joining the group
The people we choose to join the group will be invited to come to a trial, online advisory group workshop.
We will ask you before the meeting if you need any reasonable adjustments or can’t attend online.
This is to meet the team and some current advisory group members and get a feel for what the meetings will be like.
After the trial advisory group workshop, we will have a call with each new member to discuss:
- how the workshop went
- if there is anything we can do to support people in future meetings
- if they still want to be part of the advisory group
References
A referee is someone who knows you and can tell us how good you would be if you joined the group.
We need to have 2 references for you.
They should not be family members.
Please include the name, job title, address, telephone number and email address of both of your references.
We will contact the 2 people you have given details for, to give references before you can start work with the group
Thank you for thinking about joining the group!