Mencap Manifesto: Northern Ireland

We want people in Northern Ireland to be able to make sure that politicians do what they say they will. 

The government should make sure that the money Northern Ireland gets is enough to meet the needs of people in Northern Ireland.

We want to see a plan put in place to make sure that the government will not stop working.

There is a pot of money called the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

This is money is given to different projects like employment support projects for disabled people.
 

But this money is going to end in 2025.

We want all political parties to promise to keep giving money to employment projects for disabled people.

We want the Northern Ireland government departments to look at any supported employment projects that are being made in the rest of the UK to see if they would help disabled people in Northern Ireland.

We want the right support in the community to make sure people with a learning disability are not put in Mental health hospitals.

We want all the political parties to promise to give more money to social care.

Not everyone that needs social care is getting it.

This is because there is not enough money for social care. 

We want people in social care to be paid the same as people in the NHS who work in similar roles.

We also want a limit on how much money can be spent on hiring agency staff. 

Agency staff are staff who fill in gaps when there are no staff.

We want a national plan on how to make sure there are enough people working in social care across the whole country.

There are not enough learning disability nurses in the NHS. 

Learning disability nurses are very important as they can make sure people with a learning disability get the best healthcare and support.

Mencap wants all political parties to work with NHS to train more people to become learning disability nurses.

Mencap wants to make sure that the Oliver McGowan learning disability and autism training for all healthcare and social care workers is the best it can be.

We want all political parties to make sure there is enough money to do this. 

We want all political parties to promise that people with a learning disability will not have benefit sanctions anymore.

Benefit sanctions are when you have your benefits stopped. 

We want all the political parties to promise to look at  how much money people get paid in their benefits and work out if this is enough for people to live on.

Mencap wants all the political parties to make a Universal Priority Services Register .  

The Priority Services Register is a list of people who get extra support from different gas, electricity and water suppliers.
 

All political parties should promise to follow the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with a Disability.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with a Disability is a document that says how disabled people should be treated.
 

We want all the political parties to promise to do more to help young children with a learning disability and their families.

We want all the political parties to make sure that young people with a learning disability are supported by youth work services.

Youth work services can help young people with a learning disability learn new skills and meet new people.