Speaking Out Story: Malcolm

Malcolm is supported to live as a tenant in flats with five others in South East London.

He is chair of the South Region’s Service User Forum and also a member of the National Forum. These have been established to give the people we support a real voice in the organisation. They talk about a wide range of subjects, such as what’s going on where they live, how they want to be supported, what’s wrong with their environment or support etc. Ideas and comments are fed back to the Directors and the Trustees.

Malcolm says: “I would like to see more service users being involved in making some of the more important decisions within the organisation, and then being able to see things through to the end.”

Malcolm is also a member of the Local Partnership Board which represents the best interests of people with learning disabilities in Bromley, and is a member of Bromley Sparks, a self advocacy group that aims to help people gain independence.

In 2009, he graduated from the “Tomorrow’s Leaders” course run by the Valuing People Team. He won a place on this prestigious course over many hundreds of other applicants and really enjoyed meeting new people and hearing about their experiences. The course demonstrated to Malcolm the value of involving service users in an organisation’s decision-making process.