Guardian letter: Adults with learning disabilities should be able to stay up late
We are delighted that The Guardian published the open letter from our Stay Up Late Ambassadors during Learning Disability Week 2021. We are also grateful for the huge number of self-advocate groups, support providers, charities and individuals who shared the letter and supported our campaign.
You can read the letter on The Guardian’s own website here
The letter is reproduced in full below. Thanks to our ambassadors for making their voice heard and thanks to everyone for your support. We will win this!
Adults with learning disabilities should be able to go out and stay up late
We are a group of campaigners from around the UK who all have a learning disability and/or autism. As lockdown restrictions ease and pubs and other venues begin to reopen, we want to make sure that adults with learning disabilities are not left behind.
We know of some great support providers who have flexible staff rotas, meaning that people with learning disabilities can be supported to live the lives they choose – including going out and staying up late.
Sadly, we also see lots of examples where support is inflexible. Before lockdown you could go to any club night for people with learning disabilities and watch the dance floor empty at 9pm. The Big Bedtime Audit found that at 8.30pm on a typical Friday evening, 69% of people with learning disabilities were either in bed or ready for bed. Only 7% were actually out.
We believe that support should be flexible so that people with learning disabilities can decide what time they go to bed. We have been writing to every local authority social care director in the country to ask them to make sure that all the support providers they sign contracts with operate flexible rotas.
We are also asking everyone to contact their own local councillors, too. Please support our campaign for No Bedtimes!
Jason O’Neill
Dania Bey
Nicole Bird
David Briggs
Sas Granville
Sophie Hinksman
Aaron Hume
Robert Kocaba
Leanne Mcallister
Michael McEwan
Ffion Poole
Daniel Randall-Nason
Simon Richards
Em Shanahan
Victoria Smith
Fiifi Tetteh
David Weir
Ambassadors for the Stay Up Late charity
To find out more about the #NoBedtimes campaign and to write to your own local councillor visit our campaign page here
Help us by donating
Our community need you! Help more more adults with a learning disability get out and have fun. And help learning disabled people have their voices heard. All donations make a huge difference. Thanks a million for your support from The Stay Up Late community. Donate here
