Blog: What is seasonal greetings?

At this time of year, I think about the wonderful diversity of our country and the people our work supports. For many it’s a time of celebration and spending precious time with family and friends, whilst for others every day throughout December is just another day.

For me, it’s a time when we see out an old year and look forward to a new one, reflecting on the challenges we continuously strive to overcome and the change we collectively help create.

However you celebrate the season, including everyone who doesn’t, I want us to be mindful of those in our communities who might need some extra support at this time. That’s those of us who are on our own, those who may not have a home, or are struggling to stay warm and get a hot meal, those who aren’t getting the support or opportunities they want or need to live an equal life. And, I want us to be mindful of those providing those essential supports and frontline services. In fact, these are all things that I want each of us to be mindful of year-round, not just at this time of year.

I’m looking forward to a new year, continuing with our change, development, research and evaluation work, to enable people at risk of exclusion, due to age or disability, to live the life they choose.

We can’t create change alone, and I really value the many excellent partnerships we have. We are constantly seeking and collaborating with others, in an effort to deliver our shared values and goals, actively creating change together that leads to better lives. Throughout December we’ve been sharing some of our partnership work from the past year on social media and it’s been a pleasure to be reminded of the breadth of great organisations, groups and individuals we partner with.

When I think back over the year, here are just a small number of highlights from a very long list:

• Developing a new programme with our partners the British Association for Supported Employment and DFN Project SEARCH to drive up the numbers and quality of supported internships through Internships Work.
• Starting new work to support 20 areas to grow Small Supports, human rights based, person-centred support in communities for people who are at risk of being placed out of area as part of a collaboration with Beyond Limits, C-Change and Positive Support for You.
• Working with the Research and Improvement for SEND (RISE) Partnership, which includes the Council for Disabled Children, the University of Warwick and Isos Partnership, on new work to support Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) improvement in local areas.
• Hearing how young people, who after a year of growing in confidence with support through Time to Talk Next Steps, are now advising us on the programme and providing training to professionals. We’re now rolling out a pilot in Scotland with Children in Scotland and Contact.
• Seeing the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training in Learning Disability and Autism being rolled out across the NHS following our evaluation of the trial in partnership with bemix and My Life My Choice.
• Seeing the overwhelming support of over 40 advocacy organisations along with the British Institute of Human Rights for Advocacy Awareness Week, this year extending its reach to over four million people and trending on social media.

I want to say thank you to everyone within the NDTi family, our team, our associates and Board and all those external partners who have worked tirelessly with us on these and so many other projects throughout the year. As a team we will continue to work through the challenging times ahead and create change where we can, celebrating difference and striving to include those who are at risk of exclusion.

Whatever you’re doing to see out the last couple of weeks of this year, I wish you a restful time and look forward to connecting with you again in 2023.