Within This Issue
Welcome to the Spring Edition of PMLD Link – a little late to press but so worth the wait! This issue is dedicated to the new Core and Essential Service Standards for Supporting People with Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities, a document that is rapidly becoming a catalyst for positive change in the care received by people with PMLD.
This issue opens with a clarion call from the editorial team to see standards of care raised for people with PMLD. Every article in this edition of PMLD Link is full of hope for change. The bar set with regards to what best practice looks like will be raised!
Contributions in this issue demonstrate the applicability of the standards across the whole range of provision. Dreenagh Lyle shares her use of the Standards to audit the care provision received by her daughter in their own home; Sam Newton and Launa Randles share their approach to using the Standards as a reflective tool to develop practice within their school and Katie Hobson gives valuable tips on introducing the standards in a youth club setting. Teachers Lou Fraser, Eleanor Gibson, and Jessica Newcombe share their responsive practice to sensitive issues, whilst Elly Chapple talks about the life of Exceptional Learning, Lifeskills and Achievement lived by her daughter Ella. Claire Cocquyt offers insight on how the development of a multi-disciplinary care pathway for people with PMLD in Cornwall reflects the best practice described in the Standards.
We hear from Sarah Giles (Teach Us Too) and Martin Goodwin who both presented at the first Raising the Bar, the conference which launched the standards last year, about their work to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard and listened too.
The development of the PMLD Standards was very much a team effort – one many PMLD Link readers were involved in. Their adoption is similarly a team effort. We want your help in getting the word out there so that families can use the standards to advocate for best opportunities for their loved one and settings can use them to ensure they are delivering best practice care. Our issue ends with an article from Esther Veale describing the adventurous life lived by her sister Mary, and her legacy which will enable others to do the same.
We hope you will join us on our adventure promoting the standards and raising the bar!
Jo Grace, Michael Fullerton, Thomas Doukas and Annie Fergusson, Guest Editors
