Big Chat returns to Tameside

YOUNG PEOPLE with a learning disability and/or autistic people and their family and carers, are invited to share their views on how to improve local services.

The Big Chat, which aims to give people more choice and control over services and their development, is back in Tameside from 10am – 3pm on Wednesday 21 September and finishes with a performance by the Hallé Orchestra.

Held at the Tameside Wellness Centre, Denton, activities on offer on the day include have your say, health and wellbeing checks, access to swimming session before the event, singing and taster music sessions, a chill out space, wheelchair dancing and much more.

It is important that people with lived experience and families and carers have their say on the future direction of support services.

The priorities in the first year of the Autism and Learning Disability Strategies are advocacy, belonging and good health.

It’s estimated there are over 5,500 people in Tameside with learning disabilities and more than 22,000 with an autism spectrum disorder.

Any ideas or suggestions will be included in the strategies as pieces of work to focus on over the next three years.

Cllr John Taylor, Tameside Council executive member for Adult Social Care, Homelessness and Inclusivity, said: “I’m so glad to see the Big Chat being held in the borough, as it provides a vital voice to people with learning disabilities and autistic people, as well as their families and carers. We’re working to ensure people have more choice and control over services and their future development.

“Our core aims of both the Autism and Learning Disability Strategies is that people with lived experience can inform future priorities for change. This is the only way that services can be truly inclusive and provide the best possible outcomes.”