Angela Walker In Conversation - Inspirational Interviews, Under-Reported News
For news lovers everywhere. Join former BBC reporter and broadcast journalist Angela Walker as she engages in thought-provoking conversations with inspirational individuals about current affairs and under-reported issues. We examine stories mainstream media don’t cover: issues of social justice and campaigns that aim to improve society and the world we live in. We look at issues around government, climate change, the environment and world around us. In this podcast, we aim to shed light on important topics that often go unnoticed, providing a platform for insightful discussions with our guests.
From activists and social entrepreneurs to academics and community leaders, these individuals bring their expertise and experiences to the table. Through their stories, we explore the challenges they have overcome, their motivations, and the lessons they have learned along the way. We examine issues of social justice and campaigns that aim to improve society and the world we live in.
If you have an inquiring mind and enjoy BBC Radio 4, The Today Programme, PM, The World At One, Panorama, Despatches, documentaries and interview programmes then this is the place for you.
Listen to be inspired and informed.
Note: please note that it is not technically possible to reply to fanmail via the Buzzsprout webpage, it simply sends me a message, so if you would like a response then please add contact details or send me a message via my website www.angelawalkerreports.com.
Music: Moment of Inspiration from http://www.purple-planet.com
Follow Angela on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela-walker-53333622?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
#SocialJustice #CurrentAffairs #humaninterest #Activism #ClimateChange #Environment #Government #InspirationalConversations #CommunityLeaders #ExpertInterviews #Motivation #CampaignsForChange #ThoughtLeadership #InformedListening #PodcastDiscussion #BBCRadio4 #Panorama #Documentaries #InterviewPrograms #InsightfulTalks
Angela Walker In Conversation - Inspirational Interviews, Under-Reported News
DISABLED, NOT STUPID. Young Disabled People Are Being Let Down. Jane Holmes from Building For The Future
Many young disabled adults are not fulfilling their potential because of a lack of government support. That's according to the founder of a charity that helps those young people achieve their ambitions. Jane Holmes set up Building for the Future because of her own experiences after her daughter, Kitty, was born 24 years ago.
Building for the Future supports around 500 families but is running out of space and plans to expand by 2026 to better serve young adults transitioning from education. These young people often face isolation when care packages prove insufficient, leading parents in their 50s to abandon careers to provide necessary support. With the charity receiving no government funding and concerns about proposed cuts to disability benefits, Jane calls for longer-term thinking from policymakers.
https://www.bftf.org.uk/
Hi listener. I thought you might enjoy Don Anderson's podcast. Missing Pieces - NPE Life is a podcast that curates stories of and about people who find out, usually through a home DNA test, that someone in their family tree isn't who they thought. They also tell stories of adoptees who've found lost family, or are looking. The host, Don Anderson, found out in 2021 that his dad wasn't his dad. It changed his life. NPE stands for Not Parent Expected or Non Paternity Event.
https://www.angelawalkerreports.com/
Many young disabled adults are not fulfilling their potential because of a lack of government support. That's according to the founder of a charity that helps those young people achieve their ambitions. Jane Holmes set up Building for the Future because of her own experiences after her daughter, Kitty, was born 24 years ago. I'm journalist, Angela Walker, and in this podcast I talk to inspirational people and discuss under-reported issues. Jane, welcome, thank you. You've done so much to help young adults who've got special needs, and I want to hear all about the charity in a short while, but first I'd like to ask you about Kitty. What can you tell me about her?
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:Well, kitty is. She'll be 24 in November. Actually she has severe athetoid cerebral palsy, which means that her movements are completely uncontrolled. So she has very little functional movement of her body at all. She is unable to walk, she uses a wheelchair. Her body at all she is unable to walk, she uses a wheelchair. She is non-verbal, which means that she communicates via a communication aid. She is tube fed. She's always been nil by mouth because her swallowing function is is uncoordinated, her hands are. She can do some things with her hands, but but basically she needs help with everything. Um. But she is bright, um, inquisitive and and good fun to be around and in addition to all that she's a real achiever.
Angela Walker:So I know she's got a lot of physical disabilities, but academically she's done really well, hasn't she?
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:she has done really well, all things considered. So she's she's very good at maths and she's currently studying coming to the end of her studying towards an access course. She completed several photography qualifications while she was at her special school. She's got gcse maths, unlike her mother, and she's she's completed very many entry level qualifications as well, but she is on track to start an undergraduate course in September.
Angela Walker:That's amazing and, from a practical point of view, how does she take part in academic studies and so on?
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:Well, she needs a helper because she she can. She communicates two ways um. One by pointing to letters of the alphabet on a board, um, or, in the case of her math studies, obviously a board with figures on it, um, but she needs somebody to um input um anything that she says into a, into a computer. And sometimes she needs help um holding her arm steady because, as I said earlier, her movements are quite uncontrolled. So, whereas you and I would be able to point precisely, she's a bit sort of like that, and so she needs someone to steady her arm for her. And she also has an eye gaze communication aid which, as the name suggests, she works by. It picks up the movement of her eyes on a screen and she can communicate that way. But that's terribly slow and quite frustrating for her. So she actually prefers the, the sort of what we call low-tech method of communicating and just pointing to letters on a board and, um, I mean, she's done so much.
Angela Walker:She's done quite a variety of things actually. Does she enjoy studying, then she loves it.
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:I mean, when she got fed up towards the end of her time in full-time education, I think lockdown didn't help because of course she was home for six months and then back, and then home for another few months and she sort of was over, over and done with it.
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:By then, you know, she was um 20, 21 years old, um, and it was incredibly difficult for her to settle back into her studies. Um, the teacher that she really liked had gone, and so on. So, um, she just sort of lost, lost the reins really, um, but it didn't take long after she'd left full-time education, uh, for her to decide that she wanted to go back to it. So, really pleased about that, um, because she is creative. She's written some fantastic short stories. She's even written a film for the BBC, a short film under the New Creative Scheme. But to make a career or any kind of fulfilling work out of that is obviously very competitive, very difficult. So she still has that as an interest and she may go back to it later on, but at the moment her mind is on her studies.
Angela Walker:I want to ask you, jane do you think, because Kitty's got obvious physical disabilities, that people underestimate her mental capabilities?
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:Oh, 100 percent. I mean, it's just so frustrating. Even people that have known her for quite some time talk to her in a sort of baby voice and go hello Kitty, are you OK? And she sort of puts up with it. She finds it frustrating, of course, and sometimes she does get cross. People that get to know her and actually dig a little deeper soon start to realise that actually she is age appropriate in very many ways, certainly socially, academically, emotionally, and they soon adjust their pitch.
Angela Walker:Well, I mean Kitty's fortunate in that she's got you as a mum, who's you know advocating for her for all these years and helping her to achieve her potential. But I feel not everybody's in that situation, and I know that you feel that the support isn't always there to enable everybody to fulfil their potential. What do you think could be done to help?
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:well, I mean it is. It is um very difficult. I mean it. You know, the love the love obviously for your child drives you on.
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:But we are very fortunate in our family, because we are a two-parent family and a one-child family, um and the us parents, we're still together and and um, and so it's made um things a lot easier for us than it is for some other families. I think it's important to say um it's very true that um, as they say, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. The more you, you you hassle service providers um, the better service you get. And those of us with more time and more energy as a hassle um, it's quite clear that um families with with more more push, if you like, um more time and more energy, uh do get um provision for their children, which is strikingly unfair, because there are families who are managing, you know, parents who are managing on their own with several other kids, and so on, um, so part of the reason for setting up the charity was to provide parent support because of those situations. I mean, we meet families all the time who are really struggling and constant feeling of guilt and they should be doing more.
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:I mean, every parent feels that to an extent, I think, but you know, it's compounded when your child has an extra need because the service provision is very limited. I mean, you know councils and health authorities are cash strapped. They spend a huge amount of money on disability in one form or another. I think the adult social care bill for our local council, for example, is the biggest bill they have. And you know a lot of children are not able of school age and not able to be educated in the borough, so they have to be sent away, which is not what families want actually, but it's very, very costly. I think my daughter's school fees were about three or four hundred thousand pounds a year and she was there for 10 years. I mean it's a ridiculous amount of money, um, to have to spend on one child, um, when actually, um a provision could have been made in borough so you'd like to see what perhaps more special schools like locally.
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:Yes, I think I'd like to see more there's. I mean, when you take the whole breadth of um, children, um with disabilities, and by far the biggest group are children who are on the autistic spectrum, um and uh and slash, or children with learning difficulties, and so those um groups are understandably the groups that are um provided for um the most and that that does go into adulthood as well. Um, but there are um children and obviously adults, young adults and and and not so young adults, who have physical disabilities but are more mainstream in um socially, emotionally, academically, um, and and they need a specific type of provision. You can't shoehorn um somebody with no learning disability into a school that specialises in learning disabilities, yet that does still happen.
Angela Walker:So we need to see a distinction really between the provision and the disability that the person has got the person has got I mean the local area.
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:They are providing more special schools, but I think they are again for people with children with autism as opposed to physical disabilities.
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:But let's hope that the tanker is turning on, that one Does it feel like it's turned in. I think there's more of a long-term view being taken by service providers. So, whereas you know, we've seen I've been watching our local authority particularly for, you know, 20 years and they tend to work from one budget to the next without taking a longer term view. So I think that that is happening now. I think the council is thinking well, okay, it may take us five years to produce this provision, educational provision, but it's worth it in the long run because it will save money. I think that's how they're, how they're looking at it.
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:So, yes, there is a longer view being taken, which is which is good, I know you took maths into your own hands, really didn't you with a set up building for the future, which is just a fantastic center in wokingham, and tell me about it well, I mean, really, the charity came about I mean, it was by no means just me, uh, by the way, but we we originally, um, a group of parents, uh, got together back in, in fact, and we all had children with physical disabilities and we all together set up a charity called Peapods, and that was a very small support group for just for children families with children with physical disabilities and we just did really well and we raised lots of money and we started talking and we realised that there was nowhere where we could take our children, that we could hire church halls and so on, but there was nowhere that they could call their own. So a couple of us from PPODs got together with parents of children with different types of disabilities. So we were then covering a much wider spectrum and we set up building for the future in 2007, and that was with a view to opening a community center, play center for children with all different types of disability. And we achieved that. It took us seven years and we had lots of help and we had a very strong support from local business community and we opened the doors of our centre. Well, I say we opened our centre.
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:It was actually Prince Edward and the then Countess of Wessex, who opened our centre in 2014 and we are now bursting at the seams, and that you know the centre has been used on a pretty much daily basis for 10 years by children, so you know it's it's pretty trash now and, um, it's just not big enough. Um, we don't have much outdoor space. Um, there's not enough indoor space. We are now um reaching the point where we're having to turn we've already having to turn groups away. Um, we are nearing the point where we're going to have to turn families away, which we really mustn't do, because that is the whole point. We're inclusive. We don't turn people away, um, and so we are now um looking to grow, moving to a bigger center. We are in talks about that at the moment um, but um, yes, that's all in its in early day, early days but, yes, it's been a labor of love.
Angela Walker:It really has, and you'll need money for that, won't you? I'm going to put the details for your website on the show notes to this podcast, if anyone's listening and they've got some money and they want to help out. Well, yes, definitely they can contact you.
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:Oh, we are always raising money. I mean to run our run. Our charity is about £150,000 to £160,000 a year and that's sort of all in, if you like, which, when you consider that we are supporting over 500 families a year, that is cheap actually and we have been described by a lifeline by very many families. But we are always raising money. We always need money to operate.
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:We don't take any grants from um the council or the government or the health service. We all of the money that we we need to to run our charity, we we raise ourselves um, but we're also looking for helping kind um. I mean, we have a building that we are in the negotiation stages at the moment and if we get it which please let us get it then we will be looking for help with everything from legal support, flooring, bathroom fitting, kitchen fitting, painting, decorating, bathroom, garden clearing, you name it. So it's not just money that we we're looking for, we're also looking for anybody who might like to come and help us in kind um, which which is something that we obviously then that will help help, helps us save money in in the long run as well.
Angela Walker:You said just then that um people have described the facilities as a lifeline. Why is it so important to people, do you think?
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:I think, because there is nowhere quite like it and we are fully inclusive and we're open all the time. I mean, our centre is used by various groups during the sort of school day when our clients, our guests, the children that usually use the Centre, arts School, but we run Saturday clubs every. We run four Saturday clubs a month and we have holiday clubs and so on. We don't require people to be members, we don't charge anything. So we don't even ask for people to book, because we know, as parents, how difficult that can be when you've got a disabled child. You don't want to have to book and pay for something only to find out that you've had a bad night and you can't, you know, or the child is ill or having a meltdown or whatever. So it's it's very easy for for families to use our centre and we, we, we, we are completely accepting. You know we there.
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:There are families that come and use our centre and we are completely accepting. There are families that come and use our centre that can't take their children anywhere else and often families with maybe two children, where one is disabled and one is mainstream. They often have to do things separately, so one parent will take one child somewhere and the other parent will stay at home with a disabled child or or take them for a drive in the car or whatever. But, um, where we are, um, our centre is called our house, because we want it to be a home from home, um, that is, um a place where families can come and be together, um, so that that, I think is is quite a unique experience for some families and within the house.
Angela Walker:I've seen some pictures. It's really bright and colorful. Talk me through the rooms in there and what kind of activities you do and how they help people sure well, um, it's, it's a wide open space with sort of um various partitions.
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:We we have um soft play area, a ball pool, we have various play areas, so many different toys. We have a computer pod with accessible switches for anybody who needs them. We have a gaming room with musical instruments, as well as two really good gaming chairs. We have a sensory room. We have a fully accessible bathroom, by which I mean there's a full-size changing bench and hoist, and then we also have a parents' quiet room and a kitchen and a parents' bathroom, oh, and an office and a little garden, lovely, quite, a lot.
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:And I think, think you know, children come, I mean, they know it. They the whole, the whole idea was for them to feel, um, that it was theirs, and I think we have achieved that because they know that there is a place that is just for them and they are in the majority and other people have to sort of, you, you know, ask to come in if you like. So it is for disabled children, our centre, we don't have any space for young disabled adults. It's one of the reasons why we want to move, because we're still hiring out halls and so on for them, but we hope to give them the same experience that they've been used to as children because they're moving into adulthood, experience that they've been used to as children because they're moving into adulthood. They will then have a place to call, to call their own as well.
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:So I think it's a sense of the sense of belonging that they don't often get, a sense of acceptance. And that's often the parent as as much, if not more, than the child, because often you see parents it it's heartbreaking who have struggled to take their children anywhere without getting stared at, tutted at, told they're a bad parent, or children with physical disabilities. They literally can't take them anywhere because they can't get in, because there's steps or the doorway's too narrow or there's no lift or whatever. But for them to relax and think, actually, actually, this is working and you're not going to judge me and you are going to let us in and we can use it, um, I think that's been. It sounds like something simple but, believe me, for families like mine, um, it isn't. I mean it is. It is not easy. Um, you know, to get away from, from the society's expectations actually, so to be able to be able to provide a place where children, parents, young adults can get away from that and just feel that it is theirs.
Angela Walker:Is is absolutely invaluable to parents and children and from a mental health point of view, what's it like for the families, for for the parents to have this space to go to?
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:Well, you tend to see parents group together quite quickly and talk. I mean, one of the services we run is a play school for the under fives and that's a really important group for the parents and it's nice for the children too, um, but the parents then it's very bewildering when having having a disabled child, um, and it's totally overwhelming and you know you're suffering from stress and lack of sleep and worry, and then you have to try and navigate the sort of benefit system, the education system, the council system, and so part of the service that we provide at the play school, if you like, is supporting parents. And there are some parents who are exceptionally exceptionally good advocates. Exceptionally good advocates. They're the parent group that's run, which exists in order to support parents with fighting for provision for their children. So there's a lot.
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:It's not just us, I mean, there are lots of things that are springing up that are really supportive. But parent to parent support is really invaluable and there's nothing you know. Number one, they understand, they totally get it. And number two, they've trodden the path. They know what you need, they know what you're entitled to, and for parents to say, have you applied for this or have you seen that, you know, opens up. I mean my daughter's, 24 this year, and I'm still learning from other parents about things and I'm hoping that I'm teaching other parents too Sounds like such a vital service you're providing.
Angela Walker:Jane, now we're under a Labour government for the first time in a very long time. What changes have you seen when it comes to helping families like yours?
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:Not much, to be honest. I mean, there's a huge worry, um over the cuts and benefits that are coming up and that's overwhelming some people with stress. Um, I think it's very wrong. Um, I think they could be recouping money elsewhere. Um, you know, labor the labor government is supposed to be, um you know, not shy of um, uh, getting tax from people, so I don't know why they're not pursuing that and they're instead punishing disabled people. It's actually absolutely appalling and I'm quite shocked. Um, so, um, I'm not very impressed. Our local government is liberal democrat. Um, they, uh, they are certainly, uh, uh, quite warm. They will listen, but again, unfortunately, I'm not seeing an awful lot of results so far. Let's hope that that's on its way.
Angela Walker:One of the things is about reapplying for some benefits. Is it the PIP?
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:payments. Yes, well, that's exactly it. I mean, they are talking about making people reapply, and all but the most severely disabled people will lose it, and that's how the government is getting money together quickly. I think the knock on effects of that will be highly detrimental. I think it will end up costing the government much, much more.
Angela Walker:Have you got a message for Keir Starmer about that?
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:much, much more. Have you got a message for kia starmer about that? Yes, um, I suppose I have really take a longer view, is my message, because you know this has been tried before. Uh, the conservative government tried to reduce benefits for disabled people. It didn't work. This is a short-term fix, um, and it's going to have a very detrimental long-term effect, not only on the people involved but on the government itself. So it's exceptionally short-sighted. I'm quite surprised, really. I thought they had better brains than that.
Angela Walker:Thank you, Jane, and just coming back to your new building that you really want for building for the future, how much is it going to cost?
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:Well, we're going to lease the building. If all goes to plan, we're going to lease it, um, and the rent is about 60 000 a year for the size that we need. We do make quite a bit of money from letting subletting space to other organizations. So, for example, reading college use our building for a provision that they give for, um, young, physically young, disabled adults with profound and multiple learning difficulties, um, and we, we, we, our space is so accessible, um, and that we we're not short of people who want to rent it when our children aren't using it. Um, so that helps us to pay for quite a bit of it, um, but yes, it is expensive.
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:We have a bit of money ring fenced um, but yes, it's, uh, it's certainly, and we, you know, the thing is, when we get the new building, we're still going to have to run our existing building, for, you know, there's got to be an overlap, so we're going to be running two buildings at the same time, because we can't afford for there to be a break in our service. Um, so that's going to be quite challenging, but it has to be done, it just has to be. And how many?
Angela Walker:people are you helping and how far you know geographically are they coming to your centre?
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:well, funnily enough, I mean, we we don't ask people to register because we want to take all pressure off families, um, but we've, we've a rough estimate. We've about 500 families walks through the door over the course of the year, um, actually, I think it's probably quite a bit more than that, but without making people sign up we can't be sure. So I'm being conservative when I say about 500. The young adults that we help, that's a smaller number. We've probably got about 30 to 40 at the moment, but that number is growing all the time and people are coming forward.
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:The problem with young adults they leave full-time education, they go home often, um, and their care provision package is not sufficient. So you quite often see um, parents in their 50s giving up careers to care, to supplement the care, uh, which is extremely hard, um, and it's it makes it means that those young adults find it difficult to access things because there's transport issues, there's care issues, exhaustion issues. So those young adults have taken time to come forward. We are working on it, working on supporting the family so that they can. But that's been a slower burn, if you like, but I have every. I'm certain that you know, once we get our base and families know that they can bring young adults and then that that will explode. But we are, we're keeping it quiet. At the moment we're not. We're not really pushing it because we don't have anywhere for them to go and when do you hope to get up and running with the new centre?
Jane Holmes, Building For The Future:well, I think you know, if we were to sign over, sign on the dotted line today, I think it would probably be six months to kit it out, um, to get it. Get it all ready so by 2026. Yes, I think that's realistic. I mean, I'm hoping I would. I would hope sort of september, october time, with a view to open properly probably you're right in january. Great well, good luck with it thank you.
Angela Walker:Thank you so much for telling me all about your work, jane. Thank you, and you can find out more about the charity building for the future by going to the show notes of the podcast. I'm going to put a website link in there. You've been listening to angela walker in conversation. Please take a moment to subscribe, comment and like the podcast so the algorithm shows it to more people. I hope you've enjoyed the programme. You can find more of my work on my website, angelawalkerreportscom. Until next time, goodbye.
