Being seen, heard and valued

As part of the 2025 Learning Disability Week theme - ‘Do you see me?’ - we spoke to one of our Quality Checkers, Faye, about her new job working with Certitude.

Faye is one of two new Quality Checkers who have joined the team this year and with only 26.7% of adults with a learning disability in the UK being employed, we asked Faye why having a job was important to her and what she enjoyed most about her role.

Faye says that after seeing the job on Certitude’s website she felt it would be an important step for her because it gave her the chance to use her existing experience whilst learning new skills;

“I wanted to be a Quality Checker to meet new people and get a new experience. I was already helping at the Connect and Do sessions every Tuesday and I wanted to try something new. I’m really happy I did!”

Each member of the Quality Checkers team has expertise and experience of drawing on support. This has been used to continually develop the quality checking process at Certitude to explore what good support looks like.

Faye and the team talked about how they use clear, ordinary language, in both their visits and their reports, to make sure that everybody understands each part of the checking process. In a reverse of traditional reports, the team also use people’s names whilst keeping the names of support colleagues anonymous. Faye and the team explained that this helps keep the focus where it matters most – on the people receiving support. “We want people to be able to read their own reports and feel seen and heard and know that we’re talking about how they are being supported to live a good life.”

Faye said she loves having a job as she enjoys going out to meet different people, but what she likes most about this role is “asking questions and seeing if people are happy.”

You can find out more about our Quality Checkers on our Treat Me Right! page