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County Care Independent Living has turned 10 and despite celebrations being cancelled they still celebrated, lockdown style! County Care, who have offices in Lincolnshire and Surrey provide support for many individuals with learning disabilities, autism and mental health, so have been thinking of ways they could celebrate their upcoming birthday over the past year. Their birthday, which was on Friday 21 s t August was due to be honoured in true County Care style with celebrations throughout the month in all their offices and community and even a whisper of a party was heard. So when the government announced lockdown, their plans were sent into disarray. Lockdown has been particular hard for outreach support agencies. Director of Care, Alex Noakes, has been at the forefront of the team during Covid, trying to keep the balance of staff safety whilst continuing to support the clients. Alex said “T he outbreak of Covid brought with it the biggest challenge I have had to face as a re...

  Being a law student and never having been to the Supreme Court, it was something at the top of my ‘to do’ list. Now for any wheelchair user the first step is preparation so I rang up the enquiries line at the Supreme Court to make sure I could gain access first and to see what I could and couldn’t take in.   Upon phoning, I was greeted by a lovely cheery lady on the other end of the phone who could not have been more helpful and advised that gaining access was not a problem. Step one, tick Some court buildings, especially when court is in session, do not allow phones or food to be taken in. Luckily, the Supreme Court do allow these things, within guides of course!   Step two, tick So planning the day precisely, packing everything but the kitchen sink into my bag, booking my support worker for a very long day and booking the taxi to get me there, I set off on my journey. Step three, tick. Preparation is key! Now the next bit of information, whilst is slightly e...

Students sitting this year’s bar exams are alleging they are being discriminated against as reasonable adjustments and basic rights are not being met.  Due to the Covid pandemic, the exams for aspiring barristers, which were due to be sat in April, are now due to be held throughout August. This leaves many with concerns who are due to start pupillage in September. Many students are sitting their exams at home via ‘remote proctoring’.  This means sitting in front of a computer for three hours, sometimes more, at a time without moving. Moving away from the situated camera would render the exam a failure.  Students who have already sat their at home exams are already complaining that they had an hours wait before the exam commenced. For those who would be unable to sit their exam at home for various reasons, they will need to sit their exams at a test centre or defer until December. This means some students would be unable to commence pupillages or employment as planned. Vis...

The new 'normal' is frightening Not many things frighten me, and ask anyone and they will tell you, despite my disability I try to be as independent as possible (with a few trusted individuals by my side), so then why please tell me has this pandemic made me into a person that is too frightened to leave her front door. Too frightened for her friends to come round and sit in her living room and too frightened for her to go shopping, because for me this is not normal. It’s far from normal. I’ll be honest with you here, it is frightening the hell out of me. When the country was still 'normal' Before Covid-19 hit, I wasn’t one for sitting indoors. Now don’t get me wrong I wasn’t trekking about town from dawn to dusk doing hikes. I can’t. My disability wouldn’t allow for that unfortunately. My disability would get so overwhelming on a daily basis that I wouldn’t cope and my outlet would be, my support worker, myself and my pink power chair getting out for a small outing. W...

By Victoria-Jayne Scholes Remote Working Alicia Alina (40) is the Chief People Officer for leading law firm Slater & Gordon . Although she has only been in her position for ten months she has certainly made her mark. One of her visions, initiatives and big changes for the business is remote working. Escalated by Covid-19, this is something that she has advised will continue long after the pandemic. Alicia’s vision has been backed by a very forward thinking board who allows her to express her ideas and run with them. The trial of remote working has been immensely successful and in a recent engagement survey with staff most of them asked for remote working to be made permanent. On listening to their staff this is what they have done. One area this will help with is diversity, especially disability. Alicia informed me “There is no sense of inequality and it treats everyone the same. It allows them to make decisions that is right for them”. Come September when the lease ends on...