Partnership work

Good Life Collaborative

The Good Life Collaborative is made up of 8 voluntary sector charitable organisations.

  • Adapt

  • Bridge creative

  • Darlington Association on Disability (DAD)

  • Inclusion North

  • People First Independent Advocacy

  • Skills for people

  • Sunderland People First

  • Your Voice Counts.

We are all working together to improve the lives of people with a learning disability and autistic people across the Northeast and Cumbria.

The collaborative will work together to deliver projects and improvements to the lives of those we are in place to support. You can find out more about our work here.

Logo of Good Life Collaborative with "GLC" initials in green, and "Good Life Collaborative" text in black and green.

We Are Human Too

We Are Human Too is a campaign group of self-advocates, made up of people with learning disabilities and autistic people, from the North East of England.

In 2019, self-advocates and colleagues from Skills for People, Speaking Up Together at Your Voice Counts, and Sunderland People First came together after we heard about the abuse that happened at Whorlton Hall, in County Durham.

We were angry and upset about the abuse that some people have experienced Assessment and Treatment Units (sometimes called ATUs) and in secure hospitals.

The We Are Human Too group created a petition in 2021 in response to the high numbers of people with learning disabilities and autistic people detained in Assessment and Treatment Units and secure hospitals, and the ongoing abuse that some people are experiencing.

‘We are sick, angry & upset; we wonder who cares about our lives?’

We believe an independent body led by people with lived experience should be created to work with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to monitor secure settings such as hospitals and assessment and treatment units (ATUs) and hold them to account.

The group made a #We Are Human Too video in 2020 to explain the campaign work they have been doing, which can be viewed here.

Logo with two hands forming a circle, one hand open and one raised fist, text "We Are Human Too" in green and purple.

Humanising Healthcare

We are working with Sheffield University, the University of Plymouth and other self-advocacy groups from around the country, as co-researchers on the project.

This project is to look at the uncomfortable truth that, we would usually think that the NHS is humane, caring and healing, but the fact that some people do not experience healthcare in these ways is often ignored.

We will be asking for a new way of working and thinking to ‘Humanising health’ care that looks at the NHS becoming more caring, kind, person centred, respecting people’s dignity, with a focus on people with a learning disability and and/or autism.

You can find out more about humanising healthcare here, or visit the project webpage here.

A purple background with a white emblem featuring a crown, open book with "Disce Doce" text, crossed arrows, and a decorative floral element.