The National User Group is made up of 14 service users from all over the country. The management commitee comprises 7 members elected from the National User Group.
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Peter Beresford is Chair of Shaping Our Lives and is a long time user of mental health services. Peter has been involved with Shaping Our Lives from the outset and has carried out research and written much about the best ways to involve service users in the services they receive. Peter is a professor of social work and director of the Centre for Citizen Participation at Brunel University.
Ann Nutt in my late twenties when my children were aged 3 and 5 I developed a serious long-term illness that was debilitating and I was no longer able to work. This was a life changing event and introduced me to the voluntary sector and social care. I have over the years held the following roles in my local community, I have sat on many committees and I am currently the: District Commissioner for Scouts Trustee of Rainbow Services, Vice-chair West Essex LINks, Independent member of the E&S LINks Countywide Coordinating Group, Vice-chair Essex Coalition of Disabled People
Maggie Brennan I’m good at advice, when people are feeling low they can come to me and I can talk to them. I am good at understanding people. I am a kind person, easy going. I’ve got loads of experience of meetings in different organizations. I am good at speaking up for other people. I listen to people. I understand other people. I’m good at listening. I can give a lot to the management committee, experience of meetings and things like that [and] research.
Patricia Chambers Patricia is a poet and is also one of 4 regional coordinators on the Shaping Our Lives project ‘Beyond the Usual Suspects: Developing Diversity in Involvement’. Patricia is joint treasurer of Shaping Our Lives and a member of the Management Committee.
Kay Malko I am a Disability Equality Trainer and Consultant and an off-site Practice Educator for social work students. I have been involved in the provision of Disability Equality Training for statutory and non-statutory organisations, as well as the design and implementation of a number of service user consultations. I am also a visitor for the GSCC social work course approval procedure. My work is informed by the Social Model of Disability, and by personal experience.
Michael Turner I have a long history with Shaping Our Lives. I was the worker on Shaping Our Lives’ first project on user defined outcomes which started in 1996 and went on to work on several other projects. I helped Shaping Our Lives develop from being a project to being an organisation/network and was a member of the national user group and management committee until 2008. I have also worked with a range of other user and disability organisations, along with a range of other organisations including universities, government departments, local authorities and charities. This has given me extensive experience of user involvement and management in a small organisation. I now work on user and stakeholder involvement at the Social Care Institute for Excellence
Graham Price chairs Sandwell Visually Impaired (SVI), a user led organisation. He likes to network, having developed close links with RADAR; his local deaf community; and those with learning difficulties. Graham sits on his council’s Disability Equality Project Board and he is a member of Birmingham University’s recruitment panel for new students for social studies.
Anna Sartori is a member of Surrey Users Network, a user-controlled group which aims to improve the quality of life for all users of health and social care services. Anna has been involved in training and education of social care staff for many years and is a member of Shaping Our Lives’ Management Committee.
Jennifer is a black woman with learning difficulties. She works for People First Lambeth in South London. She loves going to meetings and speaking up for people with learning difficulties who can’t speak up for themselves. She likes looking after people with learning difficulties as well. She is a member of the Partners’ Council at the Social Care Institute for Excellence. Sometimes she likes to socialise. She likes to chat to people about what is going on in their lives, what they are going through.
Sid Jeewa I am a freelance disability equality trainer and consultant working at both local and national level. My insight into the issues affecting disabled people in general, and Black disabled people in particular, are as a result of my own life experiences and professional involvement in disability issues since 1995. I am very much committed to ensuring that the views and opinions of disabled people from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds become an integral and critical part of the overall service user voice.
Paul is 57 and lives near Portsmouth, Hampshire. He has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He was a head of leisure at a local authority and was a director with a leisure company until recently. He has just gained an MA in creative writing. He is married with two children.
Don Brand has been a social worker, trainer, local authority manager, senior civil servant, policy adviser, and consultant to the Social Care Institute for Excellence. His work to promote independent living and improve social care practice and provision has been informed by own long-term experience of severe depression, and enriched by what he’s learned from the user movement. He is a trustee of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Residential Forum, and a past board member of organisations caring for children and young people, people with learning difficulties, those with mental health problems, and older people including those with dementia.
Colin Barnes is Professor of Disability Studies, University of Leeds; founder of Centre for Disability Studies, the Disability Press, and the Disability Archive UK; co-author of ‘The New Politics of Disablement’ (2012) and ‘Exploring Disability -2nd Edition (2010).
Colin Cameron has been active in the disabled people’s movement since the early 1990s within organisations including the Northern Disability Arts Forum, Inclusion Scotland, Lothian CIL and Disability Arts Online. He completed his PhD on disability identity at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, in 2010 and is now a senior lecturer in Disability Studies at Northumbria University. He is currently writing ‘Disability Studies: A Student’s Guide’ which is to be published by Sage in 2013.
Supporter for Maggie and Jennifer from Lambeth People First
