UK Links
Some aspects of the opportunities and services that effect children and adults with a learning disability in Wales are influenced by the national assembly, others are influenced by UK Government departments.
These departments continue to have some “non-devolved” responsibilities for Wales. Learning Disability Wales’ trustees felt it important to have a community of interest that connects to developments at an England and Wales and UK level.
Currently this community of interest is filled by Arc UK.
ARC
ARC is a UK membership organisation that supports service providers
for people with a learning disability. ARC’s members provide
a wide range of services – education and training, supported
employment, specialist holidays,
respite and residential care, and support for people to live in their
own homes. Uniquely, ARC’s members come from all 3 sectors –
voluntary, statutory and private.
ARC works to increase the independence, inclusion and wellbeing of service users with learning disabilities by:
- promoting best practice in services
- providing information and support to members
- campaigning on behalf of members
ARC believes that a diversity of provision is essential if we are to achieve excellence for people with learning disabilities.
ARC and Learning Disability Wales
Being a UK organisation, ARC is able to use its well-established networks to provide a four-country perspective on a wide range of learning disability issues. ARC actively gathers examples of good practice and cutting edge initiatives from Scotland, N Ireland, England and Wales as well as a comparative view of policy developments from the wider UK and Europe. For Learning Disability Wales and its members, this means that ARC can contribute a view of both the wider arena and cross-sectoral issues closer to home.
ARC Cymru
ARC Cymru represents learning disability service providers across Wales. As well as benefiting from the many services provided by ARC UK, service providers in Wales can access specific services such as the weekly e-bulletin. The e-bulletin informs members of updates in regulatory or statutory requirements as well as providing the latest information on a wide range of operational and service user issues. There are regular branch meetings that have recently covered topics such as death and bereavement, sexuality, access to secondary care and person centred planning.
We also have a training partnership that has developed a programme of shared training for member organisations in South East Wales. The Training Partnership has recently developed an induction framework for new managers, and a “Training for Trainers” pack to help organisations grow their own trainers.
ARC members in Wales can also benefit from Wales-specific projects. Our current projects are: Active Support, providing free training for organisations in this model of support to increase the participation of people with severe learning disabilities in every day life; Our Good Health/Ein Iechyd Da , producing accessible resources about healthy eating for people with learning disabilities; and the National Learning Disability and Ethnicity Network (Wales), extending the successful NLDE network into Wales. We were recently commissioned by the Welsh Assembly Government to conduct research into the support given by social care staff when service users are admitted into hospital. As an impartial voice, we are also able to offer a person centred planning auditing service to both service providers and local authorities.
What does ARC do for its members?
Being part of ARC means being part of something much wider than an individual service. It is easy for individual service providers to feel isolated and under-represented in the larger social care sector. Because ARC focuses exclusively on learning disability services, organisations joining ARC gain a stronger collective voice. They also join to take advantage of the many member benefits:
- They become part of best practice initiatives in learning disability services
- They join with others in influencing UK, Welsh and local government thinking
- They gain priority access to training that is specifically designed for the learning disability sector workforce through our Management, NVQ and LDAF centres
- They update practice and talk through the key issues at ARC’s conferences, seminars and special interest groups
- They ensure they stay up to date through ARC’s comprehensive e-forums and bulletins
- They become the very first to hear about the many ARC projects and initiatives
- They use ARC’s local meetings to share good practice with other local providers
- They enjoy preferential access to our CRB and POVA service
- They get a wide range of ARC publications at special member-only rates
- They are reassured that advice and support is just a phone call away
ARC projects
ARC has an established reputation for running quality projects into a wide range of matters concerning people with learning disabilities. Recent projects have included: My Money Matters, Banking Matters to Me, Equipping my Supporter, Managing Medication, ARC National Induction Project, European Care Licence, Telling it Like it Is, Banking my Time Too, Our Lives Networks (Scotland), and Promoting Opportunities for Inclusion In Social Care (POISE).
Contact us
To find out more about ARC visit www.arcuk.org.uk.
To contact ARC Cymru, email arc.cymru@arcuk.org.uk,
telephone 01248 361990 or write to ARC Cymru, 3a Mentec, Ffordd Deiniol,
Bangor LL57 2UP.
To contact Arc’s representative on our Management Committee
please click here.
