Posts tagged newcastle
Summary of the Public Services seminars: trying to find a ‘lingua franca’ …
The Newcastle and Cardiff Public Services seminars brought together researchers, autistic people and family members and service professionals working in government, NHS, education and charities.
Our first goal was to create an opportunity for engagement, and forge new partnerships. We know that people from these communities tend to operate in separate worlds. So we equalised the numbers attending from each community - being able to bring people together across the two days to talk about the same questions was itself an accomplishment! Across the two days of each seminar we heard different views, different interpretations and debate. But we also saw real connections emerge, and attempts to understand and share a common purpose. Engaging with those who have different views and experiences can lie outside our comfort zones and this was a learning process. As Lynda Morgan points out in her comments, the different groups each have a different vocabulary and a different culture – but a real desire to make progress toward a common goal – that of improvements in people’s lives. There was a sense that we were trying to find a ‘bridge language’ (what is called a lingua franca) so we could communicate with each other to achieve a common level of understanding amongst the difference.
One thing I want to know more about is …?
At the end of Day 1 at the Newcastle and Cardiff Public Services seminars, we set everybody the task of completing the sentence, “One thing I want to know more about is…..?” Read people’s responses here.
Public Services Seminar Outcomes: Small Group Discussions
We asked groups of ten people who were from different backgrounds (researchers, autistic individuals, parents and professionals from health, government or charity sectors) to discuss these questions;
- What new partnerships and ways of working are needed to undertake high quality public services research? (Newcastle)
- How can we reduce disparities in access and entitlement to adult services? (Cardiff)
- How can we ensure that evidence-based services are being provided for children and their families? (Cardiff)
Here is an example of the themes that emerged from one of these questions (Cardiff).
Our second seminar in Newcastle - what were we trying to achieve?
In November 2015, we held the second in this series of six seminars in Newcastle. The seminar programme provides more details about the structure of the seminar over the two days and Jeremy Parr’s introduction slides explains what we set out to achieve.
Autism research is very important to our community. Partnership working is essential.