Merton Centre for Independent Living

Thank you to all our members who came to our recent Craftivism and Chat group and responded to Merton Council's consultation on the Local Plan. We have put together a consultation response with the support and input of our members, and shared this with Merton Council. Member's 25 key suggestions, across infrastructure, transport, environment, housing, economy and more have been passed on and we welcome further engagement and conversation on these matters.

Thank you to all our members and supporters who helped us feed back to Government how we feel about plans to ban plastic straws. In summary, we said we want to save the environment too, but, please don't ban plastic straws until there is a real alternative (there isn't one yet), because some Disabled People need them to drink!

We're thrilled to be able to send you thisshare our special 10th anniversary edition of CIL Matters. We hope you enjoy reading it and please do get in touch to share your own memories of Merton CIL! 

In September, the Merton CIL Craftivism and Chat group got together to respond to the Local Government Association (LGA) green paper on adult social care and wellbeing. The group's response was one of 500 responses sent to the LGA.

You can read our draft response to the consultation on plastic straws. We would love to hear from you if you have any further comments. Deadline 30th November 2018

Merton CIL has reviewed the current position of adult social care in the borough. We are bringing together a panel of speakers who will reflect on best practice locally and nationally, which can be built on to support Deaf and Disabled People to live independent lives. Following on from our AGM on 25th October, we will be hosting this panel event to discuss the future of social care. 

Our full report is now available: Choice, Control and Independent Living

An easyread summary is available here: Choice,_Control_and_Independent_Living._Easy_Read_Summary_Oct_2018.pdf

The Local Government Association (LGA) recently launched a nationwide consultation on how to pay for adult social care. The consultation, which has just closed, was seeking the views of people and organisations from across society on how best to pay for care and support for adults of all ages and their unpaid carers, and aimed to make the public a central part of the debate. The LGA intends to inform and influence the Government’s upcoming green paper and spending plans. It also intends to start a much-needed debate about how to shift the overall emphasis of our care and health system so that it focuses far more on preventative, community-based personalised care, which helps maximise people’s health, wellbeing and independence.

This is a great opportunity to join our dynamic user-led Deaf and Disabled people's organisation in Merton and to support our continued growth, strategic direction and governance on the trustee board.

Merton CIL are delighted to announce that we have been selected as Sainsbury’s Local Charity of The Year. We were selected by Sainsbury’s customers and colleagues as a charity that they wish to support as we make a big difference in the community.

Do you have what it takes to join a growing and dynamic user-led Deaf and Disabled People’s organisation in Merton? We have been described by our evaluators as an organisation that “contributes significantly and positively towards enabling its services users to grow in confidence, self-advocate and assert their rights toward a more independent life” and we are proud to be finalists in the Best Service Excellence category at The Merton’s Best Business Awards 2018.

In 2018, Merton Centre for Independent Living (Merton CIL), is celebrating its 10th year of supporting local Deaf and Disabled People in Merton. And, there is now cause for another celebration as Merton CIL is a finalist in the Best Service Excellence category at The Merton’s Best Business Awards 2018.

On July 5th, Merton Centre for Independent Living (Merton CIL), celebrated its 10th anniversary of supporting local Deaf and Disabled people with a party at The Everyday Church in Wimbledon.

Merton CILs engagement with the local community was evident from the crowd that turned up on the day to celebrate all that it has achieved, with nearly 100 people partying with us! The Mayor of Merton, Councillor Mary Curtin even came along to help us cut our birthday cake. There was an exclusive screening of Merton CILs new short film - #Here2Stay on the day. If you missed out you are able to watch here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecTQIfU4Doo&t=

Some of you were worried that banning plastic straws was going to have an impact on Disabled people who use them to drink independently. It was felt that maybe we could do our bit for the environment in other ways, and here at Merton CIL we've bought glasses instead of plastic cups for our water. But, we still provide bendy plastic straws for anyone who needs them! 

In May we let our members know about the outcome of a complaint we had made to the Compact Board. Since then we have been following up with Merton Council about the three recommendations made by the Compact Board.

Here at Merton CIL we welcome the confirmation from Merton Council that a Changing Places facility will be included in the new Morden Leisure Centre, due to open this Autumn.

This year sees Merton Centre for Independent Living (Merton CIL) celebrate its 10th birthday! Over the past 10 years, Merton CIL has grown into a vibrant local organisation, promoting the inclusion and independence of local Deaf and Disabled People.

Merton CIL’s 10th anniversary will be celebrated at their annual My Voice Matters event. It will be held on 5th July 2018 at The Everyday Church in Wimbledon from 11am to 1.30pm. Everyone is welcome and it is all free. There will be fun activities, lunch and an exclusive screening of Merton CIL’s new film.

Merton CIL are surprised and disappointed to discover that Merton Council have removed the planned ‘Changing Places’ accessible facility from the new-build Morden Leisure Centre.

We are pleased to announce that Merton CIL was recently re-awarded the Advice Quality Standard (AQS)

We are pleased to have the opportunity to respond to the National Planning Policy Framework consultation[1]. We are an organisation run and controlled by Deaf and Disabled people, delivering services within The London Borough of Merton. We are a pan-Disability organisation championing the rights of people across the full spectrum of disabilities. We take the view that that society creates barriers that ‘disable’ people with impairments from participating fully and on an equal basis with others, for example, by creating and perpetuating physical, information and attitudinal barriers. These barriers must be removed in order to support the independence and inclusion of Deaf and Disabled people, and the National Planning Policy Framework has a role to play in that.

Merton CIL welcomes the findings of the Compact Board which has upheld our right to raise issues at Scrutiny. This outcome reaffirms the independent position of Merton CIL, and of our colleagues in the wider voluntary sector. It reinforces our right to raise issues of concern with Merton Council, regardless of any funding arrangements in place.

Merton CIL recently submitted evidence to the Long term funding of adult social care inquiry by the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee. The inquiry is being held ahead of a planned green paper on social care. We have made similar submissions to Government inquiries before, and here at Merton CIL we felt a bit frustrated to be responding to the same questions over and over again. So this time round, we told the inquiry that they were asking the wrong questions. We said that there needed to be a better understanding of Disabled people using social care, as well as older people. We said that the inquiry should look more broadly about how to support people to live independently, rather than focusing just on social care.

Welcome to the 'Access and Inclusion Issue' of CIL Matters. We are so proud to present this newsletter which has a record number of contributions from you, our members and supporters, thank you! The theme for this edition is “Access and Inclusion” and it is jam-packed with news and views, and we could have said so much more. We’ve covered access to elections, access to information, access to justice, health, benefits and decision-making. And of course access to travel and getting out and about and using local services.

As Merton Council prepares to set their budget for the year, local Deaf and Disabled people are angry at not being consulted on plans to cut another £2.2 million from the adult social care budget. This includes cuts to support to live independently, and changes to support to get out and about. Worryingly, the budget also includes plans to increase Council income through charges for social care for Disabled people and older people.