Good Lives: Stronger, Louder, Together!

Drew Edwards shares highlights from the 2025 Learning Disability England Conference

This week I was lucky enough to be amongst a group of people from Certitude at the ever-lively Learning Disability England Conference in Manchester, to take part in discussions led by people with learning disabilities around the theme of “Good Lives: Stronger, Louder, Together!”

The day was packed full of people sharing their experiences and ideas about what it means to have a good life. Top concerns that people voiced were about having more flexibility to support enjoying a social life, more opportunities for paid employment and working together to break societal assumptions in our communities.

Highlights from the workshops included the ‘Keys to Citizenship’ session presented by Simon Duffy and Wendy Perez talking about their co-authored book ‘Everyday Citizenship’ which describes 7 interconnected keys to a good life. Illustrations and information in the book are based on Wendy’s own experiences. She feels strongly that the book should be read by all people who work in social care, adding that 'I want it to be part of people's induction'. Fortunately, our CEO, Aisling, managed to buy three copies for colleagues to read before the book sold out during the event.

Building on the theme of Good Lives, The ’Tree of Life’ session delivered by Crystal, Frankie and Clayton from Campaign 4 Change talked about the societal changes we need for everybody’s ‘Tree of Life’ to grow big and strong. Crystal explained that when people are given the opportunity to grow, just like with leaves that fall to the ground and enrich the soil, people are able to give back to and enrich society. However, Clayton added, that in order for this to become a reality, 'We need to be ready to learn about things we don't know'.

There were many other different workshops, performances and discussions so I asked our Certitude group to share their highlights from the day.

Helen Watkins, from the Treat Me Right! team said, “it’s the networking opportunities and getting to meet lots of different people from all over England and hear about what they are doing.”

Quality Checker Douggie Catterall said he enjoyed the day and was pleased he got to pet a dog.

Operations & Community Manager, Paul Kilburn, said that the session led by International Mixed Ability Sports (IMAS) made him “reflect on the success of our own Stepping Up football group where colleagues and people we support of all abilities come together that’s more than inclusive – it’s a regular part of people's lives where everyone is peers”.

For others it was all about the performances

Maria, who we support in Bexley, enjoyed the dancing as did Rob Frier who was particularly moved by the solo performance from David at DanceSyndrome. “I thought David's solo dance was beautiful and really captured the essence of nonverbal communication and expression.”

“I liked the Leaping Frogs performance the best” Anne Corrigan, Treat Me Right Trainer

For me, the overwhelming thought I was left with was how aptly named this year’s event was. It’s the sheer joy of people being Stronger, Louder, Together.