Introduction.

The Service Users Advisory Group report.

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The Service Users Advisory Group has been working with the Department of Health for the past year on a new strategy.

The group includes representatives from People First, Mencap, Change and Speaking Up. Their names are at the back of this report.

This is what the user group is saying to the Government about what should be in the new strategy. It does not mean everything will be included, but it will be looked at carefully.

The 'user' group was set up to make sure that people who knew about using services were able to give their views about the future of those services.

This is the first time that people with learning difficulties have been involved in advising the Government on a strategy. New strategies don't happen very often, so this was a rare opportunity to get involved.

As one member said "everyone has done so much work on this" that "it is one of the hardest bits of work" and "I am proud of being included in this group".

They were supported by Andrew Holman and John Hersov.

The group met before and after the main DoH Advisory Group meetings. Members were also supported outside of those meetings.

The group then sent representatives to speak at the main meetings. We had the right to speak when we wished and had our own slot to speak after lunch.

The group also travelled around the country listening to local self-advocacy groups. Other people with learning difficulties were involved in other meetings.

This is the user group report for the Minister.

We hope you will see lots of the things you told us on our visits, even though we might sometimes use different words.

This report is quite long to make sure we get lots of points across.

This does not mean that all of these things will be in the final strategy, but we hope so!

The strategy will be out in Spring 2001 and it will have an accessible version as well.

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