Conference 2008

Spending time

Held on 3rd July 2008 at The Open University, Milton Keynes and followed the next day by our international seminar Spending time in institutions

Morning session

Introduction
Gloria Ferris and Lee Humber (co-chairs)

Keynote speech - Time and money: changing configurations in learning disability day services
Helen Graham

How much time you have to spare and how much money you have to spend define who you are in our society. Both time and money together affect where we spend our days and where we live as well as things like how we dress and what we eat for dinner.
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Time spent preparing for work: the experiences of students at a Further Education College in inner-city London
Lee Humber

College courses for learning-disabled people are changing. From now on all courses have to include some work experience. Colleges are expected to help students find jobs - more so now than ever before.
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Working inside and outside Leavesden Hospital
Patrick Delaney and David O'Driscoll

In my talk I want to tell everyone about my time working at Leavesden Hospital in Hertfordshire. Firstly inside the hospital then outside it, I lived there for over twenty years.
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Our free time
Kelley Johnson and Ross O'Neill

How do people with learning difficulties see free time? What does it mean to them? What do they do in time that they call 'free time'? What is the role of services in the free time of people who use them?
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Spending time
Paul and Sue Dumbleton

This presentation will examine the concept of leisure time for people with a learning difficulty. Leisure time is usually understood in contrast to work time. Leisure time is free time, time which we choose how to spend  - in contrast to work time over which we have less control.
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Afternoon session

Introduction
Lloyd McCann and David O'Driscoll (co-chairs)

(Please note: there is no audio available for the afternoon introduction.)

A 'thank you' to Mabel and Dorothy (unscheduled presentation)
Sue Dumbleton with Lisa Curtis from the Scottish Consortium for Learning Disability

Spending time – comparing the choices for young people with learning disabilities (16-19 years) now, with the choices we had when we were young – 40 years ago
Mabel Cooper, Gloria Ferris and Jane Abraham

We want to tell you about two projects we have been involved in over the last year. We have done a project with young people with learning disabilities in three special schools. We talked about dreams and choices about how they spend their time now. Gloria will share how we did this work and what we found out (using the report and examples from the work we did with young people).
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Viggo's difficult world – or: "Who Decides the Future?"
Frank Bylov

In 2007 ULF got a grant from the Danish governmental dept. of Welfare to develop 'a tool for dialogue on human rights, aimed at young people with (learning) disability'. And I, once more, became the external consultant. The official name of this project is "Who decides the future?".
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Cut Off: How we spent our time in a residential school
Sally French

My first job, from the age of 16 to 18 (1965 to 1967) was as an assistant housemother in a residential school for children with cerebral palsy who were also classified as being ESN. The school was run by the Spastics Society (now SCOPE).
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Summing up
Helen Graham