To all our supporters,

We at Our Life Our Choice want to express our gratitude for signing and supporting the campaign. It has been great to see so many engaging with the petition and sharing their personal views and experiences with the issue at hand. Your support and lived experiences are what will help us achieve our campaign’s ultimate goal: to change CQC policy to include choice in all types of care and accommodation for people with learning disabilities and/or autism.

Since the petition launched, we have had our second meeting with the CQC to discuss their policy and the detrimental effects policy wording is having. Overall, they agreed with us that strict models of care should not take precedent over individual needs and preferences – such as the choice of where to live. Our dialogue with the CQC will continue and in two months’ time we will have another meeting with them to continue working to address the misleading policy wording. Ultimately, our second meeting with them was successful because we achieved common ground that something needs to be changed about the policy wording to not restrict the freedom of choice for people with learning disabilities and/or autism, and their families.

We are still continuing to raise money to support the campaign and to fund a part-time Campaign Officer. We recognise that not everyone is able to donate, but if you can we ask for donations to ensure all campaign costs are secured and we can continue our work together. For more information about how you can donate, please visit our donations page of the website: https://ourlifeourchoice.co.uk/donate/

In other news our social media is fully underway and we are on Twitter and Instagram. Please follow us for the latest discussion points and information about the campaign:

Instagram: @ourlifeourchoicecampaign

Twitter: @CampaignOLOC

We now have a subscribers mailing list and space for you to formally pledge your name as a supporter of Our Life Our Choice, and get the latest news about what the Action Group have been working on.

Just click the link here if you wish to subscribe: http://eepurl.com/imMxcg

Alternatively, you can visit our website and click the button ‘Pledge Your Support’: https://ourlifeourchoice.co.uk/  

Finally, we ask that you please keep sharing the petition and spreading word of the campaign to as many as you can.

If you have any questions please feel free to email us at contact@ourlifeourchoice.co.uk  

From all of us in the Action Group, thank you.