Claire Morgan 15/10/2025 Joe's SoapboxNews

During Advocacy Awareness week I have reflected on the work of All Wales People First over the last year.

In addition to the work, we usually do with our National Council, to identify the concerns they want to raise at a national level, we have also done many other things.

The Co-Chair of our Board of Directors Sophie Hinksman and I have co-chaired a Learning Disability Ministerial Advisory Group (LDMAG) meeting on Homes not Hospitals.

The meeting was between members of Stolen Lives and members of LDMAG. We produced a report for Welsh Government.

The report is about:

• Getting people with learning disabilities out of hospital settings when they shouldn’t be there.
• Preventing people with learning disabilities being placed in those services in the first place.

This is self-advocacy in action, but it is going to take time to make the changes we need.

We will continue to monitor progress.

I will be speaking about Homes not Hospitals at a workshop I am running for Learning Disability Wales’ National Conferences.

They are happening on the 6^th December in Conwy and the 13^th December in Swansea.

All Wales People First have also worked with other Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) on demonstrations about:

• Welfare reform.
• Changes to the Mental Health Act.

All of our campaigning priorities are set by our National Council.

We have been working with the Henry Smith Foundation and other organisations to produce a report on Advocacy across the United Kingdom.

Our members and groups have fed their concerns into this group.

We continue to liaise with and work alongside the Henry Smith Foundation.

Last year we did work with the Associated Directors of Social Services (ADSS) to produce a report recommending changes to save advocacy and self-advocacy services in Wales.

This year we are trying to progress this with the Welsh Government.

Advocacy in general is in crisis.

The basic reason for this is that local authority funding has been cut and they are struggling to provide services in the way they used to.

This means less services or services needing to change in ways that may not be learning disability friendly anymore.

People First and other self-advocacy groups continue to struggle.

We are aware of this and will be speaking to our National Council in our next meeting in November, about what All Wales People First’s role should be.

I will be talking about the general state of advocacy at the cross party group on Learning Disability on the 15^th October.

This year our National Council wrote a new Manifesto which will be launched on the 4^th November 2025 at the Future Inn Hotel.

It will outline their priorities for the next Welsh Government to take on board.

We will share this with the Welsh Government as part of their work to prioritise their new learning disability action plan.

Advocacy will be one of the themes addressed in our Manifesto.

At All Wales People First,  advocacy awareness week is every week of the year.

But during Advocacy Awareness week it is good to reflect on what we have done and still need to do.

The fight goes on.

Victory for self-advocacy!