About the Training Group at People First Lambeth

Hello we are the Training Group from People First Lambeth. We do training because some people with learning difficulties don't get a choice and get treated badly.

Sometimes people with learning difficulties don't get the right support. Some people with learning difficulties find it hard to talk to staff because they find it very stressful, and some staff don't listen to them.

"We know what it is [like to have learning difficulties] because we have been living our whole lives with it".

"Some people treat you with respect. Some people don't".

"Some people have the wrong attitude. They talk to you as if you are a child or as if you are small".

"People call you names".

"They [some staff] should understand that people have got learning difficulties and not treat you as a child. They don't want to look at you and give you eye contact. They don't listen, they will hear their views first and shut out yours, or push you to one side.

It's when they talk to you they make you so little and so small [as] if you haven't got a mouth of your own. If you stand your own ground they say you are rude. They can say you are too domineering, too bullying too bossy and I think it is very unfair how they treat people with learning disabilities.

It is not only just [people working in social care] could be anyone that is just talking to you in general.

Families can be like this. You have to stand your rights about something�Sometimes it feels like you don't have a right or choice. "If you have got a voice sometimes they won't let you say it".

"They shouldn't treat people with learning disability like this. They should treat them a bit better with respect, as an adult".

"I don't want staff to tell me to tidy my room. It's good that staff support us to go to the doctors and the dentist. Sometimes staff say you have to do what you're told [and I don't like this]". Some people get bullied a lot on the street and at work".

"Well in my case when I went out for a job and I went to [a training organisation] and I got the job. The people they were just normal they didn't exactly understand where I was coming from doing jobs. They just gave me jobs washing up, they didn't come to me with any other jobs. It was boring.

Basically I don't think the manager understands my needs. It was only when I said I was leaving they gave me a job frying chips. Apart from that they didn't do nothing. They had two managers, one was nicer than the other. They didn't understand where I was coming from. I thought it was out of order I thought why do I have to do that work when I can do something better".

One woman with learning difficulties said she ended up doing everyone's dirty work when she worked in a laundry (running to the shops for people and doing other jobs like that). Some one said this about the place where she worked: "They were supposed to support people but they never".

Another person said this: "That's what a lot of them do. They treat people with learning difficulties as slaves".

One woman said this: "That's why we are doing this training. People with learning difficulties should have jobs like anyone else".

Some people can treat us like children. One woman said people call her "a naughty girl" and it is out of order.

"[Sometimes] people without learning difficulties don't understand people with learning difficulties sometimes they see us as something that we are not. They see us as little children sometimes. They see people with learning difficulties as less than they are. They see people with learning difficulties as being not as good as other people".

Someone said "people should not give us dirty looks".

"Some people [without learning difficulties] say do this do that do this do that do this do that".

"Some people treat us like we are idiots".

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