Vlognotes #7 Weeknotes S3 Eps 7 Autism, the remote winter and systems

Bit of a ramble chat today. Slightly diverse week: notes below on thoughts/questions we are starting to roll out in aims to make sure we are doing as much as we can to look after each other in the winter of lockdown.

Also notes links to the Autism stuff. I think I will try and do a couple of stand alone vlogs or blogs on this at some point as I’d like to expand on my own thoughts on this.

Questions for chats with colleagues (be great to see how others are doing this? please comment or ping some good ideas if you have them?) Aim is to ensure people aren’t dropping through gaps and also know where to access info/support in a personal way (rather than email/corporate) not an exhaustive list but a bit of a crib to make sure everyone is thinking about this stuff.

• Hey how are you doing, how is the working from home/part working from home going? (Social interactions/family/isolation/workloads)
• Have you got everything you need this week for work how’s the life/work balance going? (What factors are impacting use of workplace/hub etc.) if there is a desire to do so? i.e. caring responsibilities, schools, shielding, underlying health condition, workplace not yet open etc.
• How’s your health? (Opportunity to discuss support, physical and mental i.e. running clubs, mental health support and training, virtual social events) For managers to consider colleagues have access the right kit for working i.e. DSE (Physical & psychological risks to consider (Medical & Physical, Musculoskeletal, Psychological) Follow up with links to accessing remote support/training/kit.
• What have you got planned for the week? Anything I can help with?

Links to the emerging Autism Strategy work and the National Autistic Society stuff including the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) work here…

• The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Autism (APPGA), shows that two in three autistic people still do not get the support they need. This could mean up to 327,000 autistic adults aren’t getting help to do things other people take for granted, like socialising, managing money or getting out and about. This suggests that the services that autistic people need have not been developed, partly due to not having enough funding
• Link to the report is here: https://s4.chorus-mk.thirdlight.com/file/1573224908/61601577629/width=-1/height=-1/format=-1/fit=scale/t=443899/e=never/k=a402a7d4/nas_appga_report.pdf
• Further notes on the APPG from the NAS https://www.autism.org.uk/
• https://www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/campaign/england/how-we-work-with-parliament/all-party-parliamentary-group

Have a great weekend all………