New recruits at Lewisham, Greenwich and Bexley police have been trained about learning disabilities by the Lewisham Speaking Up Hate Crime Trainers.
We taught them about how they can communicate better with people with learning disabilities.
We talked about giving victims of crime or people being questioned by the police more time and using easier words.
The new police recruits gave really good answers to the questions we asked them. The Hate Crime trainers feel good about how the training went.
Oliver, who is a trainer, said ‘We are trying to make them understand that people with learning disabilities need time – they might be nervous or get agitated if they are being asked lots of questions. I think it went well, the police took it really well and they interacted with our activities. I felt good doing it, we are teaching them that people need time.’
The new recruits said they know it is important to be patient and let people with learning disabilities take their time to explain what they mean. They think it is important to make sure the person they are talking to understands what is happening.
We are looking forward to doing more training with the police. We think it is important that new police recruits are trained about learning disabilities.
Lewisham Speaking Up offers free training on learning disability hate crime to groups and organisations in the borough. We are also currently piloting learning disability inclusion training.
To find out more about the training that we offer, see our training page on the website: https://lsup.org.uk/services/training/
If you are interested in booking our training please get in touch using our contact page: https://lsup.org.uk/contact/
