Jayne Leeson MBE

Knowing that the closer you are to the problem, the closer you are to the solution, Jayne has spent years investing time and resources into a range of coproduced initiatives within Changing Our Lives. As these projects are co-led by local people they tend to change over time based on local need and a desire to find ever more innovative and creative solutions. Some of these include development of the Quality of Life review programme which takes a person centred approach to checking the quality of services and community supports; community led arts based initiatives which explode disability and mental health myths; a range of projects that focus on the experiences of people with learning disabilities and autistic people from minority ethnic communities and projects that take an explicitly anti-racist approach. In recent years she has supported her team to work with people with learning disabilities and autistic people who find themselves trapped in locked hospitals, many miles away from family. There are at any one time over 2000 people with learning disabilities and autistic people in these locked hospitals, periodically scandals break on national news, so called improvements are put in place and the status quo remains. Being passionate about human rights and equality, this area ion work is a priority for Jayne. Jayne also advises on policy and strategic development in relation to co-production, leadership development for people with disabilities and what it means in practice to take a rights based approach to inclusion and citizenship.