You Get Three Hours

A time limit of three hours has been gradually introduced to on-street disabled parking bays across Surrey.

People wishing to use a Blue Badge to park in on-street parking bays across Surrey are limited to three hours before they have to move on. This is the policy that Surrey County Council has rolled out over the last few years across the county. SDPP members have told us that this policy seems to have been introduced without proper consultation or publicising the change. On some occasions, Blue Badge holders have received a fixed penalty notice for overstaying in a parking bay. One member told us “I was totally unaware that there was a three hour limit and was shocked to find a penalty notice on my window screen”. She went on to say “It takes me a while to get around the shops and do what I have to when I go in to town. It doesn’t seem fair to put a time limit on people who take longer to get around”. SDPP would strongly recommend that anyone using a Blue Badge in on-street parking bays should;  Check the information displayed on posts by bays  Display your Blue Badge correctly and the clock card showing the time you arrived

We will be asking the council to meet to discuss this issue with representatives from SDPP and report back. If you have come across problems with the on-street parking time limit, please let us know.

A Very Tasty Way to Spend a Morning Matthew Seaby reports on the recent Coffee Morning organized by Morrison’s Solicitors in Woking to raise awareness of SDPP

Picture above: attendees at the Morrison’s coffee morning

So far in my time helping to produce the SDPP newsletter, rarely have the team found me as keen to do a story as I was when it came to covering the Morrison's Solicitors Coffee and Cake morning on Friday 7th September.

Morrison's very kindly allowed us the free use of their office space last Friday morning. The aim was to raise awareness both of SDPP as an organisation and our services.

This also gave Morrison’s and SDPP the opportunity to inform people of our partnership. Morrison’s are keen to work with and support disabled people as well as organisations such as SDPP in whatever way they can and as often as they can. It was with this in mind, that SDPP was very pleased to work with Morrison's in offering monthly drop-in sessions at our Woking Citizens’ Hub.

The sessions offer free legal information across a range of issues and take place on the first Tuesday of each month however appointments do need to be booked in advance.

As a practice, Morrison's do not offer legal aid but are able to put clients in touch with solicitors who do. The coffee morning was well attended by representatives from a wide range of organisations and businesses across Woking. Woking’s Deputy Mayor Cllr Anne Roberts was also in attendance.

In addition to proving to be a good opportunity to raising SDPP’s profile, £85 was raised through donations from those who went along. A bonus for me was the raffle, in which I won a bottle of Champagne.

. Picture above: Matt holding his raffle prize

Pictures Speak LOUDER Than Words Disabled Parking Bay Abuse Article by: Sharon Lawrence – SDPP Member

Pictures above: Lorry parked in disabled parking bays at County Hall

How many times have you gone out and tried to park your car only to find the majority of the bays are being abused? For me it’s every time. I don’t want to go out anymore; I can do without the grief.

On a visit to my doctors, I couldn’t park as both disabled bays were being abused. One car was from Italy, the other was a young woman. I asked her to move and I got “why should I” the young man in the Italian registered car said his elderly mother, who was sitting in the car, was disabled but didn’t have a badge. Even legitimate people with disabled badges must use normal spaces if they are not getting out of the car. We must also ensure we use the badges correctly and not abuse them. Unless we all do this, then we can’t get bad press and lose so many of our limited rights

My worst experience was at an Aldi supermarket in Camberley, where the milk delivery lorry parked across all 5 disabled bays at 8.40am. Aldi open at 8am. The rest of the car park was virtually empty and this car park is vast, yet he decided to take all the disabled bays. The supermarket staff didn’t seem to care. As far as they were concerned I was the problem. So I took loads of pictures got home and loaded them on Aldi’s Facebook page, then the real action started. I called Wiseman Dairies and started the ball rolling there. Well pictures certainly do speak louder than words, Wiseman didn’t seem that bothered because their driver told them a different tale, so I emailed them the pictures I had taken on my mobile phone and stayed on the phone until the transport manager had received them. Well, talk about a change of tone in his voice. He promised it would never happen again and the driver will be spoken to.

I’ve never had such a response, now I have a theory that “pictures speak louder than words” as words have made very little difference to politicians, perhaps we need to give them a picture of “Disabled Bay Abuse”. As most of us have cameras on our mobile phones why don’t we take pictures of cars, vans and Lorries abusing disabled bays? When we have lots of photos, produce a montage made of the photos and send it to Transport Ministers, disabled Ministers and our MP, so every time they look at the montage they will see abuse and see what we have to put up with every day.

I’m prepared to do the work involved. The project could involve the whole county but emailing different groups, the effect would be bigger.

If you would like to take up Sharon’s suggestion, contact the SDPP office and we will pass on your details.

To any budding journalists out there If you would like to submit an article for consideration for future editions of ‘Partnership, please email: [email protected]

From Your Toes to Your Fingertips

Many of you will know that SDPP provides a home visiting basic foot care service across Surrey. It’s not all about feet though.

How many of you knew that as well as treating your feet for every day care needs including cutting toenails and the ever popular and relaxing foot massage. Our Foot Care Worker can also take care of your fingernails, for a small additional cost of £6.

The home visiting service is the only scheme we charge for. This is to cover the cost of running the service. The fees we charge are as follows;

First Visit  Foot Care Kit (Which you keep): £18.00  Foot Care treatment: £15.00  Treatment of hands: £6.00 (optional)

Further Appointments  Foot care treatment: £15.00  Treatment of hands: £6.00 (optional)

Our Foot Care Worker can also put you in touch with our information service if you want to find out about other services you may be interested in and entitled to, community groups, local authority services and welfare benefit advice.

The demand for the Foot Care Service continues to be very high. Our only Foot Care Worker covers the whole of Surrey and as you can imagine, this is no mean feet (excuse the pun). We hope to have some good news about additional support for the Foot Care Service very soon and will update you in our next newsletter.

To find out more about the Home Visiting Foot Care Service

Telephone/Text: 01483 750973 Visit: www.sdpp.org.uk Pop in to the Citizen Hubs in Woking, Redhill or Epsom Opportunity to be a Website Tester

Article by: Graham Armfield

I am a website developer and a web accessibility consultant with my own business Coolfields Consulting.

I am sometimes asked to carry out accessibility tests/audits on websites and web-based applications. Mostly I carry these tests out myself but sometimes clients wish to have disabled people (visually impaired/motor impaired etc) end-user testing carried out. Up until now I have outsourced this to an associate's operation. However, it would be more convenient if I could run this tests myself more locally.

The tests would involve me observing and videoing a person's interaction with a website in response to a series of questions or tasks. I'd be looking to see how easy it was to carry out these tasks with the users using assistive technology or whatever other methods they use to browse websites. From the interactions I would write a report for the site owner. I would be able to pay the end users for their time.

To let Graham know of your interest, please contact him directly (www.coolfields.co.uk) M:07905 590026 T: 01483 856613

You Can Follow SDPP on

www.twitter.com/sdpp2

Keep up to date on all the latest news and gossip Trek to Macchu Picchu

Vicki Atherton, our Operations Director has only weeks to go now before her Charity Challenge trek in Peru. Vicki is doing this to raise money with a close friend, for ‘Barts and the London Charity’, a cancer charity based at the hospital where her friend was successfully treated for Leukaemia. Picture above: aerial view of trek through Andean mountains They leave at the end of September for a few days acclimatisation (it is extremely high altitude) and then they embark on their 5 day trek through the Andean mountains to (hopefully!) reach the amazing Macchu Picchu.

Picture above: Macchu Picchu Vicki tells us she has been training for her challenge; we hope this has been a little more vigorous then walking Nelson, her cairn terrier!! By her own admission she is terrified of heights so let’s hope those giant mountain passes don’t scare her too much.

I know modesty prevents Vicki from asking/begging you to support her in this adventure anyway you possibly can. I however don't mind putting aside any modesty to blatantly ask those who were able to visit her Just Giving web page and give as much or as little of a donation as you can after all the trek as well as being fun is there to raise funds and awareness for a very good cause.

Finally on the half of all her friends and colleagues at Surrey Disabled People's Partnership, I would like to which Vicki good luck. We know you’ll do great.

If you want to find out more, you can see details of Vicki’s preparation and fundraising at www.justgiving/Vicki-Atherton

Meet Martin Not only is Martin a valued member of the SDPP team, Martin Renouf is an avid sailor.

I started at SDPP just before Christmas 2011, so by the time I was introduced to what SDPP does, it was the Christmas break. I began the New Year at the new office now called the Hub, working Tuesday mornings on reception. The job has become busier throughout the year as the Hub has become more known and has taken on more work. I now juggle phone calls for staff with telephone enquiries and drop in visitors. Sometimes nearly it seems at the same time but mostly with the support of other staff. Occasionally, I can complete a full enquiry however at the start of the shift there is usually time for a chat with my colleagues.

I started sailing again in 2009 at Frensham Pond Sailability Club in what are called Access Dinghies. They are boats designed for disabled people that do not capsize but can be knocked flat with the mast parallel to the water and so you can fall out. The Access 303 offers a good sailing experience and good fun racing on Thursday afternoons in a fleet sometimes of 10 boats sailed by one or two people. There are Tourist Trophy meetings held at other clubs and in 2010 I took part in the World Championships at Rutland water. Contestants came from Europe, America, Japan and Australia. I didn’t win but came 10th out of 20.

Picture above: boats at start of Rutland World Championships 2010 Would be like to find out more about joining the SDPP team as a Volunteer?

Contact Norida Mohammed Telephone/Text: 01483 750973 Email: [email protected]

Advocacy in Surrey Our First Review At the end of July, SDPP had our first quarterly meeting with the Advocacy Review Panel, to see how the service was progressing

As part of the monitoring process for the new Advocacy in Surrey service, the Review Panel, which is made up of service users and Commissioners had their first meeting. This was an opportunity for SDPP to update the panel on the progress of the service. The group heard about the referrals dealt with so far. The figures show that referrals are being received from all over Surrey and from people of all ages, and that the central point of contact for the service is working well. The group were also given some case studies showing the types of issues which Advocates are helping people to resolve. The service user representatives are all linked to other groups including; the Empowerment Boards, Surrey Vision Action Group, Surrey Hard of Hearing Forum, Surrey Coalition of Disabled People and Headway Surrey, The monitoring meetings will be held on a quarterly basis and will be a good opportunity for feedback on the advocacy service given by service user representatives and for SDPP to report on how the service is developing. Keep up to date with SDPP Visit our Website www.sdpp.org.uk

Home Adaptations Save Money

Social care provision for the growing population of older and disabled individuals, who need support, is insufficient. There isn't enough money in the country’s budget to pay for current requirements, and demand is growing. Some radical solutions are needed.

A recent report from the London School of Economics' Personal Social Services Research Unit suggests that we could be making savings already by making existing resources work more effectively. They found that spending money on home adaptations where they are needed to enable people to live independently, results in net savings to the taxpayer.

The Government estimates that 568,000 people currently require an adaptation to their home. If these needs were met a saving of £625 million on social care would be made, such as:

Quantitative savings:  a reduction in falls, hospital stays and operations required as a result of accidents in the home

Qualitative benefits:  a better quality-of-life  increased confidence

The British Healthcare Trades Association have made three core recommendations to the Government in light of the report's findings:

 prioritise the preventative role of aids and adaptations in forthcoming social care reform  increase investment in the Disabled Facilities Grant to enable longer term savings to be made to the public purse  ensure local Health and Wellbeing Boards quantify unmet need for aids and adaptations in their area and have a clear plan to provide for them.

For further information, visit the Independent Living website http://tinyurl.com/bt4a6xl

SDPP’s New Promotional Film

If you visit our website, you will be able to watch the new promotional film that has been produced for SDPP. Co-ordinated by Matt Seaby, one of our Trustees, the film gives details of the services we provide and the stars of the show are volunteers and staff. This time next year, we could all be at the Oscars, or perhaps not!. Go to www.sdpp.org.uk to see the film. History of the Paralympics

The most successful Paralympics have just come to a close in London. Aldona Hernandez looks back at where it all began 50 years ago.

It is amazing to think that the Paralympic Games had their humble beginnings just over fifty years ago, in Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury. The earliest beginnings of the creation of athletic Games for disabled people can be traced back to World War II and the efforts of a doctor from England named Ludwig Guttmann. Known as the “Father of Sport for People with Disabilities,” Dr. Guttmann organised the 1948 International Wheelchair Games to coincide with the 1948 London Olympics. His dream was of a worldwide sports competition for disabled people to be held every four years as “the equivalent of the Olympic Games.” Twelve years later, his dream became a reality.

The first Paralympic Games were held in Rome in 1960 and involved 400 athletes from 23 countries. Originally, only wheelchair athletes were invited to compete. Since that time, the Paralympic Games have grown dramatically. The present-day Paralympic Games include five major classifications of athletes: persons with visual impairments, persons with physical disabilities, amputee athletes, people with cerebral palsy, people with spinal cord injuries and Les Autres - athletes with a physical disability that are not included in the categories mentioned above (e.g., people with Muscular Dystrophy).

The Paralympics are held in two seasons: summer and winter. Athletes with disabilities have been competing in the Winter Games since 1976. Sweden hosted the first Winter Games, which included 12 countries competing in Alpine and Cross-Country Skiing events. Initially the Paralympic and Olympic Games were implemented at different times, but in 1992 the approach was modified. Now the Paralympic and Olympic Games are held within two weeks of each other using the same venues and the same organising committee. Sir Ludwig Guttmann died in 1980, but his vision of sport for athletes with disabilities continues today. Clearly the value of sport in the lives of athletes with disabilities extends far beyond its rehabilitative benefits. Sportsmanship, camaraderie and an active lifestyle are other important benefits. The athletic talents of competitors with disabilities are becoming recognised worldwide, just as Dr. Guttmann intended. The skill and talent of high-performance athletics and competition are evident in the performance of today’s Paralympians from all nations.

Surrey Disabled People’s Partnership Annual General Meeting

Members are invited to attend our 2012 AGM

Tuesday 23rd October 2012 1.30pm – 3.45pm

Woking United Reformed Church Hall White Rose Lane Woking GU22 7HA

 Find out about SDPP’s activities in the last year  Future plans for SDPP  Elect Trustees from your fellow members

To reserve your place at the AGM please contact us Telephone/Text: 01483 750973 Email: [email protected] Advice & Information Sessions Citizen Hubs

One of the key aims of the Citizen Hubs is to provide an accessible location where people can access information, advice and support from a range of organisations. Here are some of the sessions that various groups provide;

The Citizens’ Hub – Redhill 41 High Street, Redhill. RH1 1RX Tel: 01737 761614 Text (SMS): 07704 288772 Email: [email protected] www.thehubredhill.org.uk

 SDPP Welfare Benefit Advice – 1st & 3rd Friday 10am – 12.30pm  Advocacy – Every Tuesday 10.00am – 12.00pm  Stroke Association – 2nd Tuesday of the month 10.00am – 1.00pm  Surrey Police – 2nd Tuesday of the month 11.00am – 12.00pm  First Point – 2nd Tuesday of the month 10.00am – 12.30pm

The Citizens’ Hub – Woking 51 Commercial Way, Woking GU21 6HN Tel/Text: 01483 750973 Email: [email protected] www.sdpp.org.uk

 Employability Job Club – Every Saturday 10.00am – 12.00pm (Term time)  Stroke Association – Thurs 1st November 10.00am – 12.00pm  SAVI (coming soon)  SDPP Welfare Benefit Advice – Every Thursday 1.00pm – 4.00pm  Morrison’s solicitors – First Tuesday of the month 10.00am – 12.00pm (by appointment)

The Citizens’ Hub – Epsom 131 High Street, Epsom KT19 8EF Telephone: 01372 744 479 Text (SMS): 07704 288 772 Email: [email protected] www.thehubepsom.org.uk

 SDPP Welfare Benefit Advice – Every 2nd & 4th Friday 10.00am – 12.30pm  First Point (Deaf services) - 10am to 12pm: Monday 10th September  Stroke Association - will be here at the Hub from 10am to 12pm on the following Mondays: 17th September, 15th October, 19th November, 17th December.

To check the dates and times of the above and other sessions contact the Hub closest to you.

Join Your Local Empowerment Board The five Empowerment Boards in Surrey meet every two months. They enable disabled people, of all ages, to come together to hear about and discuss matters of importance to them both locally and across Surrey.

For more information and to book transport to attend a meeting, please contact Yasmin Broome, telephone 01483 517294, text 07812 104490 or email [email protected]

Dates for Your Diary

SPELTHORNE TOGETHER ASSEMBLY

Thursday 27th September 2012 between 11.00 am and 4.30 pm at Kempton Park Racecourse on Market Day Stalls and exhibits on local services - just go along (Come and say hello to us at the SDPP stand)

SURREY ASSOCIATION OF VISUAL IMPAIRMENT 90th Annual Meeting Thursday 11th October 10am – 3pm Leatherhead Leisure Centre Contact SAVI for more details Tel: 01372 377701 Ext 207 (Come and say Hello to us at the SDPP stand)

SDPP’S AGM The 2012 AGM of Surrey Disabled People’s Partnership will be held on Tuesday 23rd October 2012 1.30pm to 3.45pm Woking United Reformed Church Tel/Text: 01483 750973

SURREY COALITION OF DISABLED PEOPLE AGM Thursday 15th November 10.30am – 3.30pm Leatherhead Leisure Centre Contact The Coalition for more details: Tel: 01483 456558 (Come and say hello to us at the SDPP stand)

WEST SURREY MENTAL HEALTH FAIR Friday 21st November 2012 from 11.00 am to 4.00 pm in HG Wells Centre, Woking To book an exhibition stand, email [email protected] OUR SERVICES Advocacy in Surrey

A FREE independent, confidential, support service to empower disabled and older people across Surrey aged 18 and over Tel: 0300 030 7333 Text: 01483 735893 Email: [email protected]

Welfare Benefit Advice

We provide detailed and helpful advice on all aspects of welfare benefits. This includes comprehensive benefits checks and assistance and support to complete claims, including home visits.

Brokerage

We provide a free external brokerage service for people living in Surrey who have support needs and are eligible to receive this support through Self Directed Support. Tel/Text: 01486 750973 Email:[email protected]

Information Service

Free information service for disabled people, carers and others We can find out what you want to know about support, equipment, benefits, transport, groups, leisure, holidays, education and lots more

Tel/Text: 01483 747400 Email: [email protected] Surrey Heath Line: Tel: 01276 707294

Foot Care

We provide a great value home visit foot care service to disabled people aged 16 and over across Surrey.

Tel/Text: 01483 750973 Email: [email protected]

Helpful Contact Details

Surrey Coalition of Disabled People Tel: 01483 456558: Fax: 01483 456561 www.surreycoalition.org.uk

SILC: (Surrey Independent Living Council) Tel: 01483 458111: Fax: 01483 459976: Minicom: 01483 459977 www.surreyilc.org.uk

SAVI Surrey Association for Visual Impairment Tel: 01372 377701 Minicom: 01372 361517 www.savi.org.uk

FirstPoint Hard of Hearing, Deaf and Interpreting Services Telephone: 01372 376558 Text Direct: 18001 01372 376558 Fax: 01372 363239 SMS: 07854 238787 E-mail: [email protected]

Surrey LINk (Moving to Surrey Healthwatch The voice of health & social care service users in Surrey Tel: 0845 0949497 www.communityvoicesonline.org/LINks

Surrey Information Point Website www.surreyinformationpoint.org.uk

Surrey LINk (moving to HealthWatch Surrey) Telephone: 01483 447131 www.thesurreylink.org