Number 10 Downing Street hosts Sense birthday bash
09 March 2011
Ten deafblind people from around the country joined long-time Sense supporter and ITV presenter Sian Lloyd for that privilege at Number 10 Downing Street and the House of Commons on 9 March to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Deafblind Guidance.
The Guidance was introduced ten years ago this month by the Department of Health to ensure deafblind people can access social care from their local authorities.
Roger Mulholland, a deafblind man from Devon, baked a 10th birthday cake for the special day to give especially to the Prime Minister.
The Cabinet Room, where the big decisions about the country are made, was packed with an eclectic mix of deafblind people, support workers, celebrities and Sense staff.
It's unlikely to have played witness to such a range of different communication methods before. Testament to the communication support deafblind people receive thanks to the Guidance, deafblind manual, BSL, hands-on signing, haptic, lip reading and clear speech were all being used as everyone soaked in the room’s history and significance.
Margot James MP hosted a thank you party where the ten deafblind people got to thank all those involved in getting the Guidance introduced and discussed the importance of the Guidance in a packed room filled with MPs, peers and local authority representatives.
Three local council deafblind specialists got a special thank you from Sense and the ten deafblind people at the party. Alec Porter, former Sensory Needs Services Manager at Bradford, Jackie Kidd, Deafblind Worker at Hertfordshire and Beryl Palmer, Manger for Sensory Disabilities at Kent all received awards for their longstanding commitment to deafblind people’s services.
Graham Hicks, a deafblind man from Peterborough who holds three open Guinness World Records and has gone faster than anyone on a quadbike, made an impassioned speech celebrating the Guidance but also urged the audience to remember the fight is not over as he said:
“As a deafblind person you spend your life fighting for your rights and it takes so much energy to get the support you need. It’s time the government recognises we are citizens not prisoners in the community.”
Lord Morris, who championed the world’s first piece of legislation (the Chronically Sick & Disabled Persons Act 1970) recognising disabled people and their rights, seconded Graham’s motion that more needs to be done and said we need to keep reinforcing the Guidance message to local authorities.
Malcolm Matthews, Sense’s former Director of Policy, who campaigned for the Guidance, spoke about how campaigning by deafblind people and their families led to the Guidance being introduced.