Annual Disability Conference combats marginalisation Monday, November 23, 2009 - 16:43

Recent policies have sought to reduce discrimination of adults with learning difficulties and/or disabilities and lift them from the margins of education. New legislation - Foundation Learning, Machinery of Government changes and the changes to Safeguarding - means that learning providers still have much to get to grips with. These issues were the focus of the annual NIACE Disability Conference - Learning Enabled - held in Sheffield on Tuesday 24 November 2009.

Learning Enabled was chaired by Rob Grieg, the Chief Executive of the National Development Team for Inclusion (NTDi) and the former Disability Tsar to the Government.

In addition the 4th Professor John Tomlinson Memorial Lecture - Why teaching matters? - was delivered at the conference by Toni Fazaeli, Chief Executive at the Institute for Learning. Professor Tomlinson chaired the committee of inquiry which resulted in the groundbreaking report, Inclusive Learning (HMSO, 1996). The lecture focusses on supporting teachers and other staff in better quality teaching and learning.

Also speaking on the day was:

• Jonathan Shaw MP, Minister for Disabled People;
  

  We must invest in the education and skills of all our people, including disabled people, developing skills and encouraging new industry and new jobs or we will all pay more tomorrow.

  Jonathan Shaw, Minister for Disabled People
• David Barker, Director of Adult Services, Percy Hedley Foundation, will be talking about Protecting the legacy of the LSC - particularly relevant in the current climate as the Machinery of Government changes begin to come into effect;
• Hannah Ostermeyer, a former FE and HE learner who has recently transformed her life through returning to learn, will be talking about her experiences of FE as a disabled learner - the good, the bad and the indifferent;
• Ann Jones - Director of Skills for Employee Development at the Learning and Skills Council which includes Skills for Life Policy Development and Implementation - and Julie Harrison - Senior Policy Manager, Learners with Learning Difficulties and/or Disabilities at the Learning and Skills Council - will be giving delegates a "Glimpse into the Future" of the Skills Funding Agency and the Young People's Learning Agency.

Jonathan Shaw, Minister for Disabled People, said:

"The Disability Discrimination Act has done much to increase employer awareness, but legislation alone does not open up enough opportunities for disabled people."

"We must invest in the education and skills of all our people, including disabled people, developing skills and encouraging new industry and new jobs or we will all pay more tomorrow."

Viv Berkeley, NIACE Programme Director, said:

"More than ever now in the current economic climate and with the impending Machinery of Government changes it is important to focus attention on learning for learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities."

"The conference offers an opportunity for delegates hear how it is from the government perspective, the funding body perspective and the learner perspective. It is providers who will need to plait the different perspectives into a comprehensive learning offer - the conference will offer a space for providers to have this discussion."