The history of inclusion at United Response
United Response has always sought to be inclusive and to involve people in what we do. But our first major step to make the organisation really inclusive came thanks to a grant from the Big Lottery Fund (which was then called the Community Fund) for a project called UR First. UR First saw us setting up a team of communication and inclusion specialists to work with the people we support and our staff so that people can have more say and be at the centre of their own lives.
The UR First team developed tools and techniques so that people could be involved at the heart of decisions affecting both their individual lives and how we run the organisation.
Communication
The UR First team worked with people we support to:
- Find out how they like to communicate
- Put together action plans to improve communication
- Develop communication aids
- Train staff in communication skills
- Share knowledge and skills within the organisation.
After nine years, we have now mainstreamed the work of the inclusion team across the organisation, putting inclusion truly at the heart of everything we do. This work is supported by an inclusion link co-ordinator, who works with staff and people we support at a national level. This includes supporting the work of the National Users’ Panel which feeds directly in to the trustee board, with further input coming from Quality Checkers from across the organisation.
