About UR First

Who is UR First?

UR First is a group of people in United Response who are making sure the people we support are included in our work.

UR First is made up of the Inclusion Team at United Response and other people from all over England.

Choosing staff

Many people we support want to choose the staff who support them.

UR First provides training to help people we support choose staff.

We set out to involve half of the people we support in choosing staff. We have now reached our target.

People we support choose staff to work for United Response. This is a United Response policy.

A group of people who are trained in choosing staff now train other people. This is so that even more people can be involved.

Promoting Self-Advocacy and Informing our work

UR First has meant that many people have gained in experience and confidence.

Some people we support have set up their own groups. UR First can support these groups if they would like it.

One self advocacy groupdeveloped their own constitution and elected their own officers.

There are other groups all over England.

The UR First team consults people we support about the United Response's plans, like the Corporate Plan.

They asked people questions to find out what people using the services thought of United Response.

UR First held its first major conference with directors and trustees last year.

The conference was organised by a group of people we support, with assistance from the Inclusion team.

It was a great opportunity for everyone to work together. It was good for people to get better at being equal and to listen to each other.

People we support have been involved senior manager team meetings. They have worked together to improve the way we work.

Accessible Communication

Part of the UR First project is to provide information to the people we support in accessible formats.

Most information that reaches people with learning disabilities is not accessible to them.

We have listened to self-advocacy groups and the people we support and decided that this must change.

We know that most of the people we support prefer communication with pictures.

UR First and the Inclusion team have been training and sharing skills with staff. So we can all make information easier to use and understand.

We are developing tools like multimedia to support people so they can be in control of their lives.

We make information accessible. This could be audiosigned video, simple text with pictures and whatever people choose.

Accessible information helps other groups too, including people who do not have English as their first language.

We want to raise the importance of accessible communications.

We can work with you to provide accessible versions of your information. Please contact us for more information.