We recently shared our views on the NHS long term plan which was published on 28 January. We’ve asked some of our staff for their views on the issues that were covered by the plan in relation to their areas of work. One of our team leaders, Heather Arthur, sits on a Health Action Group (HAG) in Gloucestershire which aims to help the NHS deliver better healthcare for people with a learning disability, autism or both.

Hello readers, I’ve been invited by Brandon Trust (the organisation that Julia, my brilliant support worker, works for) to write a special blog to go on the Brandon site. So here goes… I thought I’d share some of my experiences of growing up without the knowledge of having autism.

I work for Brandon as a support worker and I’d like to share my personal story with you. My beautiful daughter, Elsie Sky, was born on 9 October. She is perfect. My pregnancy was an emotional rollercoaster which began for me when I received a screening result of a 1 in 20 chance that Elsie may have Down’s syndrome.

This week (13-20 October), is National Hate Crime Awareness Week. In my role at Brandon, I deal with disability hate crime reporting and training in Bristol. We’re part of a multi-agency team coordinated by the police, that plan awareness events, and aim to encourage people to report incidents of disability hate crime. We engage people through drama, theatre, and performance.

Last month, a team of energetic volunteers from Morgan McKinley, a professional recruitment consultancy in Bristol, headed to our social enterprise, Elm Tree Farm, to help the market garden team. Read Sadie's blog to find out why they volunteered with us and how they got on.

In February 2015, Brandon Trust started to support Greg in his home. He had been let down by his previous provider. How to communicate support plans, and keeping his anxiety levels low, was not shared or handed over to us. His home life because of this was extremely challenging, however, from the day we took over it was a fresh start for Greg.