What has changed since you began as chair?

Since I joined we’ve expanded across seven London boroughs. One of the things we’ve really concentrated on is raising funds so we can expand our charitable activities, so we can really focus on some of the issues that people with learning disabilities face. That includes things like social isolation, health, employment. And for families just knowing where to go for some kind of support and assistance for their child with SEND, as they move from being a child into adulthood.

If I look back to the board now none of the current trustees were board members when I joined. So over the period we have replaced the entire trustee board! We have looked to different skills to the ones we had that served us really well before.

What has surprised you during your time at LDN?

The first was how little the public at large understood about learning disability. I probably also fell into that category, but actually I think if you ask people in general they use the words learning disability and learning difficulty interchangeably, and they are quite different.

The other thing that surprised me was just how neglected people with learning disabilities are in terms of public policy. If you want a recent example of that it was Covid: where people with learning disabilities were an afterthought in any kind of policy debate and discussion.

What have you learned in the role?

The thing that I’ve learned is that people with learning disabilities are consistently underestimated. People with a learning disability are just people with similar aims and aspirations as the rest of us.  And if they are young people they want to do all the things that young people do.

I have been surprised by the skills and talent of individuals. And I go back to the employment event we ran. The quality of the presentations people we support gave about their jobs was incredibly impressive. And that’s not an isolated thing, I’ve seen that many times.

What are some of the memories that will stay with you from being on the board?

I think seeing the organisation develop and hit milestones. I look back to the year of our 60^th anniversary and the celebrations around that. I think the incredible efforts LDN staff made during Covid to keep people we support safe and motivated. And celebration events like our Christmas event at Grand Junction. 

What are you proud of?

I feel really passionately about employment. It’s really great that, having spoken about it for a long time, LDN Eats is now a reality, offering paid employment opportunities to the people we support. As long as we can continue to get support then we should be able to expand things like that enormously.

What would you change about how society treats people with learning disabilities?

The things we’ve been talking about. As a society we need to recognise that people with learning disabilities are people that have the same hopes, dreams, desires as people who don’t have a learning disability. And we should ensure that they have equality of opportunity, whether that’s in employment, in health, or whether it’s socially.

Is there anything you’d like to say to trustees and staff?

First of all I’d like to just say to Gabby, the other directors and our staff a huge thank you for everything that they do.  We’ve got amazing people who are really working so hard to help the people we support live happy, normal lives. And I think that effort is incredible and you see it through everything we do.

I’d also like to thank the other trustees: One for signing up to LDN and also for all the support that they give to management and to me as chair.