News

Juliet Stone
The mobility21 Project
Launch of the new MISE website
Mobility/Rehabilitation Degree UCE Update
Mobility Curriculum Update
The Disability Equality Duty comes into force in December 2006

Juliet Stone
Dear everyone, I am so sorry to have to share with you the sudden and very sad death of Juliet Stone, earlier this morning. Juliet will be known to so many of you - she was course tutor on the Birmingham course in the eighties, has been working in the Braille and mobility fields for a long time, and regularly worked with children in Eastern Europe. I think that Juliet managed the first peri service in the UK! I know that lots of you reading this will have
Juliet memories and stories to tell.

Juliet was a tough lady and a fighter - she insisted on working right till the end.

Juliet had had a number of health problems in the last couple of years, and was unfortunately diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. Our thoughts are with her sons, Steve, Richard and Pete and their families. Jenny Fletcher, from Sense is Juliet's daughter in law and you are welcome to contact her, via email jenny.fletcher@sense.org.uk

Funeral Details below
Juliet died peacefully on Sunday 28th September. Her funeral will take place on Wednesday 8th October
2pm at the Christadelphian Hall, 39 Dudley Rd Rowley Regis B65 8JH 3.15pm at Rowley Regis Crematorium, Powke Lane, Rowley Regis. and afterwards at Halesowen Christadephian Meeting Room, Bromsgrove Rd,
Halesowen B63 3JL

Everyone is welcome.

Family flowers only please.

Donations in memory of Juliet may be sent to MENCAP and Sense.

Jenny Fletcher is making a book of remembrance for Juliet and would welcome responses by email to: jenny.fletcher@sense.org.uk

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The mobility21 Project
The mobility21 Project is about teaching visually impaired children and young people mobility and independent living skills.  It is a new joint project between the Institute of Education, University of London and the RNIB, funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF).

The project aims to establish national standards to train people who do mobility and independent living work with visually impaired children and young people in England; to establish courses leading to nationally recognized qualifications for those doing mobility and independent living training with children and young people and to undertake related research work.

As part of the project we asked children and young people to help us by designing a series of logos for our website.

If you have any queries about Mobility21 please contact us at k.wall@ioe.ac.uk or mobility21@rnib.org.uk

Please click here to download the Mobility21 Project - first briefing pack 2007-2008.pdf

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Launch of the new MISE website
Well at last we have moved into the 21st Century! As Chair I have been determined that we should have a website as a focus for all our work. We are in fact the largest curriculum group which was set up under the guidance of the RNIB all those years ago. Lesley Newton and I have been meeting for several months now to pull together all the information about MISE, hopefully raising our profile and possibly capturing some unsuspecting new recruits! Lesley's son Simon has been the technical wizard behind all our good ideas so a big thanks to him. We have tried to cover all the areas that you have suggested in your feedback but at the end of the day the success of the site will be down to all of us. If you know of any events, courses, links or news that would be of interest, just contact Joyce – llsmobility@hotmail.com or Lesley – Lesley.newton@cambridgeshire.gov.uk to add to the site.

We are hoping that when the Forum is up and running it will provide us with a good way of chatting to each other, sharing challenges and good ideas. The password will only be available to members although of course it is always necessary to protect our service user's privacy, so keep that in mind when you use the forum.
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Mobility/Rehabilitation Degree UCE Update
It is envisaged that the Diploma and a degree-level programme will be validated early in 2007 for presentation in 2007 (1st Year), 2008 (2nd Year) and 2009 (3rd ‘Degree' Year).

For further details please contact John.Irvine@uce.ac.uk
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Mobility Curriculum Update
Following the research of “Steps to Independence” a couple of years ago a small working group from MISE (Peter Hings, Rob Odams, Nicole Middleton, Sue Mort and Lesley Newton) got together and have been working on a mobility and independence assessment and evaluation scheme/curriculum.

The purpose of this is to help promote and standardise (with some flexibility) a mobility scheme in order to raise the profile of the important work done by mobility and rehabilitation specialists in education and social care.

Copies of the draft of the scheme, together with a small questionnaire, were sent out for evaluation with a deadline of 15 July. This date was set in order for the scheme to be introduced in the new academic year, September 2006 and in line with all schools having to produce a Disability Equality Scheme by December 2006.

It is hoped to be used as a “training scheme” to support future curricula and could be used by both Educational and Social Service Sectors.

A copy of the mobility and independence assessment and evaluation scheme can be found on the download page.

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The Disability Equality Duty comes into force in December 2006
This new legal duty requires all public authorities to actively look at ways of ensuring that disabled people are treated equally.

DRC overview guidance:

The Disability Equality Duty (DED) is an important new duty aimed at promoting disability equality across the public sector. The DED, also referred to as the general duty, sets out what public authorities must have due regard to in order to promote equality of opportunity.

Most public authorities are also covered by specific duties, which set out a framework to assist authorities in meeting their general duty. All public authorities covered by the specific duties must:

publish a Disability Equality Scheme (including within it an Action Plan)

involve disabled people in producing the Scheme and Action Plan

demonstrate they have taken actions in the Scheme and achieved appropriate outcomes

report on progress

review and revise Scheme.

The DRC has produced overview guidance to help you get started on your Scheme.  In terms of Education, Secondary Schools have to produce a scheme by December 2006. Primary and Special Schools have until December 2007.

Visit the Disability Rights Commision website http://www.drc-gb.org for useful information.
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