A blog by Dr Carla Barrett - Head of Research and Impact Mencap
"As an
organisation
An organisation are a group of people who work together.
, we want to be led by the things people with a
learning disability
A learning disability is to do with the way someone's brain works. It makes it harder for someone to learn, understand or do things.
tell us matter most to them. That’s why we’ve launched Mencap’s Big Learning Disability Survey 2022."
"This is a really exciting project that offers a chance for people to share their experiences of what everyday life is like if you have a learning disability. The findings from the
survey
A survey is when someone asks you to answer some questions.
will help guide our campaigns, services, and our overall direction. This means our decisions won't be based on assumptions, and this will enable us to make better choices.
We want to be an evidence-led organisation, which is why the Big Learning Disability Survey is so important. We will use best available information - given to us by the people we work with and for - to help us make key decisions in the future.
Carrying out
research
Research is a way of finding out information which could come from books, or asking people what they think.
, and evaluating our projects and programmes, are important ways Mencap is becoming more evidence-led as an organisation. Since our
strategy
A strategy is a plan to show what an organisation, or a person, wants to do and how they are going to do it.
- Our Big Plan - launched a year ago, the Research and Impact team have worked across the organisation to fill in gaps in our
knowledge
Knowledge is knowing a lot about something.
, and monitor and evaluate the work we’re doing across teams.
A key part of this has been creating and embedding our Evaluation and Monitoring Framework, a tool that will help us know if Our Big Plan is leading to positive impact for people with a learning disability at the individual,
community
A community is the people and places in an area.
and societal levels. This has been a vital step as we progress towards our vision for the UK to be the best place in the world for people with a learning disability to live happy and healthy lives.
The Big Learning Disability Survey 2022 is open now until the end of July for people with a learning disability in the UK; we would love to hear from more people than ever before."
Have your say!
If you have a learning disability we would like to hear about your experiences with healthcare, mental health,
discrimination
Discrimination is when someone is treated differently (usually in a bad way) because of things like their disability or their
religion
Religion is to do with the things you believe about the world. For example you may believe there is a god or something else. Examples of religions are Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism.
.
, and money and support.