Margaret Martin ( – an independent consultant) has written a report evaluating Hertfordshire PASS’s pilot apprenticeship in ‘being an employer of PAs’ over its first 3 months; we’re really excited by this work – we hope you are too!

Please see EmployerABILITY final evaluation report  for more details.

The Government was asking disabled people/carers for their views to help form a disability strategy.  At Herts PASS we collected views of our staff team apprentices and PAs by having a discussion session.  We talked about how people have been treated in the past and the hopes for the future. One of the major things that everyone agreed on was that disabled people should be included in mainstream school.

We also talked about how we could improve the understanding of the challenges that disabled people face from society as a whole this we could do by disabled people delivering more disability awareness training and talking to other people about how their life is different because of the disability.

There was much more information gathered which is going to be sent to the government for their consideration.

Remap is a very special charity, working through a nationwide network of dedicated volunteers. They use their ingenuity and skills to help people with disabilities to achieve much-desired independence in some aspect of their lives, or to enjoy leisure opportunities previously closed to them.

Remap volunteered to support Herts PASSs organisation and here is our thank you please feel free to have a look at our Presentation we have given to Remap.

Here are some of our photos please see below:

(Thursday 20^th October 2011)

I was interviewed by Phil Richards on his radio show “Phil Richards in the Morning” on Radio Verulam on Thursday 20^th October 2011. It was the first time I’d ever been on the radio but I wasn’t at all nervous, I just talked about the work of Hertfordshire PASS. This focussed mainly on our two major projects, WorkABILITY and EmployerABILITY.

It went so well, in fact, that they asked me to do another slot on Wednesday 23^rd November! It was a good example of how I’ve overcome my barrier of talking to unfamiliar people on the phone over the last few years, this took me a very long time but I’m completely comfortable with it these days.

Report done by Patrick.

Nigel Fenner is manager of Hertfordshire PASS, a user-driven charity using employment and self-directed support to enable disabled people to live more independently.

He was given a grant from Social Enterprise East of England (SEEE) to write a paper (representing his views alone) on “User-driven social enterprise” based on his experiences of working with disabled people.

Summary

The person-system-role framework is considered an appropriate framework to understand user-driven social enterprises.

• The starting point for ‘user-driven social enterprise’, are the PERSONAL LIVED EXPERIENCES of ‘users’ and those who work with or for them, and those who don’t, because they are ‘scared, frightened, or ignorant of disability’.
• In transforming ‘users’ into ‘drivers of social enterprise’ it is important to focus on key ROLES, such as citizen, co-producer, expert by experience, and those who collaborate with them, such as “power sharer” and so on.
• Such personal lived experiences and the roles people strive to take up are set in a context or SYSTEM defined by the system’s purpose or aim.

In applying this person-system-role framework to case studies largely focussing on disabled people striving to be independent, the authors have identified the following main findings and conclusions for establishing and developing „user-driven social enterprise‟. These include the importance of

• Using the ‘person-system-role’ framework to understand and develop userdriven social enterprises,
• Valuing the lived experience of disability especially in relation to poverty and unemployment, and citizenship,
• Using such lived experience to promote sharing and networking, and to clarify the purpose of organisations,
• Exploring co-production as a catalyst for bringing together ‘user-lead’ and ‘social enterprise’, and
• Exploring and developing the means to measure and validate user-driven social enterprise.

Download the Paper ‘User Driven Social Enterprise’