Supporting People to Vote

Hundreds of people supported by Community Integrated Care took part in the General Election, following a significant internal campaign aimed at empowering the people we support to understand the upcoming election and make an informed choice about whether they wish to participate in it.

This campaign saw our Quality Team provide advice and accessible resources aimed at helping the people we support to understand how and why to vote, and to independently decide the right political party for them. It effort was supported by our regional teams and services hosting sessions for our colleagues and the people we support, to prepare them for the big day.

As part of the project, Community Integrated Care’s Peer Reviewers – people supported by our charity, who are also employed to assess quality of our services – developed a unique guide about supporting people to vote. This was shared with all of our colleagues, and provided for free to fellow providers, our commissioning partners and people who worked across the social care sector. It was also featured in several care sector publications, including Learning Disability Today. In total, it received several thousand downloads.

Community Integrated Care would like to thank all of the staff, volunteers and partners who helped make voting possible for the people we support.

Here are a few highlights….

The Peele

Almost 60 residents from our Peele Care Home in Manchester, which provides specialist dementia care voted.

The home arranged both transport to local polling stations and postal votes for residents. The home was ably supported by Manchester City Council and partners from Manchester City Council’s Social Services team.

Charlotte Grange Care Home

Residents from our Charlotte Grange Care Home in Hartlepool were featured in a report on Swiss National Radio, where they discussed why they wanted to vote and their hopes for the next government.

They were interviewed for a half hour feature called ‘International’, which looks at topical global issues. 

Charlotte Grange is a 46 bed care home that supports older people, including people who live with dementia.

First time voters

Many of the people we support voted for the first time, particularly younger members of our community. This was the case for both our young colleagues and the people we support at Spencers Villa service in Durham, which supports three young men with autism. Together they used a host of person-centred practices to help voting come alive for the team – including arranging One-Page Profiles for local candidates.

Scotland

Our services in Scotland also championed voting, with many of our older people’s care homes in Dumfries and Galloway partnering with their local council Election Teams to ensure that residents were registered and appropriately assisted to vote.