For all posts surrounding IAG (Accessibility, Education, Benefits and Covid-19)
Since 2010, BuDS has helped its volunteers towards work. Our Reach4Work project, created in 2018, codified and developed that help, creating a professional wrap-around service for our disabled volunteers who want to move into or closer to work.
BuDS is exceptionally successful at moving disabled jobseeker volunteers into or closer to work…
Please note that the BuDDies scheme is currently on hold due to ongoing challenges facing charity funding across England. Find out more at the button below.
Are you feeling lonely or stressed at home? Need a friendly chat with someone who understands? The BuDS BuDDies are here to help!
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BuDS publishes some of our articles in EasyRead format. These articles are produced by our volunteers, and so our capacity is limited. Over time we will publish more EasyRead articles. Please be patient with us whilst we grow this project.
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The BuDS Enquiries Team answers questions and queries from disabled people about a very wide range of issues. We try to fill the gaps left by other support services and helplines, so we often support disabled people with complex and difficult issues.
Any disabled person in England can contact the Enquiries project for help. Parents, carers, and supporters can also contact us on behalf of a disabled person. We don’t have strict rules about who we can help: we will always do our best to support you and will let you know immediately if, for any reason, we can’t.
The Enquiries project is staffed entirely by volunteers, many of them disabled people themselves. We are often very busy and there may be a delay in getting back to you. We are sorry about this, but we can only do so much. The Enquiries project is not a crisis or emergency service.
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The BuDS SEND Transitions Service is a three-year project funded by The Rothschild Foundation. The purpose of the SEND Transitions Service is to improve the experience of disabled children and young people moving through key transitions within school education and from school education into work or further/higher education. It will do this by:
The SEND Transitions Service is made up of workstreams from a number of BuDS projects, principally Fair4All Education and Reach4Work.
To learn more about the Reach4Work workstream, which is looking at disabled young people’s transition from education to employment, click here.
Fair4All Visitors is a BuDS project to help visitor attractions to be more accessible and inclusive for disabled people.
The Fair4All Education project tackles the most important educational issues facing disabled children and young people, and their parents/carers, in Bucks.
The core of the Fair4All Education project is a ‘working community’ of professionals, parents, carers and disabled young people who are passionate about making a real difference. Working under the BuDS umbrella, the Fair4All Education team works together to define an agenda for action and plan how change will be made to happen.
Read MoreDisabled people are often excluded from outdoor public events. This is not because they do not want to attend these events, but because the way the event is organized and staged creates barriers that make it difficult or impossible for them to attend. BuDS’ free-to-use Fair4All event project helps event organisers remove those barriers and attract more disabled people to their events, making them more successful. There are over 40,000 disabled people in Buckinghamshire and over 100,000 families with a disabled member, so being more accessible can significantly boost an event’s popularity and attendance.
Event organisers are often not aware that they are creating barriers which are reducing the appeal of their events. Event management training and qualifications do not usually cover disabled accessibility and inclusion. Disabled people are so used to events not being accessible that most do not even try to attend, which means event organisers do not see the difficulties that disabled people face.
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Disabled people are sometimes subject to abuse, insults or physical violence because of their disability. The BuDS Fair4All Attitudes and Hate Crime project supports people affected by disability hate, helps them report it to the police if they wish, and campaigns to change attitudes and combat hostility toward disabled people.
Read MoreThe IAG team works tirelessly to produce easy to read, fact-checked and reliable articles about issues relevant to disabled people. During the Covid-19 pandemic, these have included weekly risk posts which break down the latest case, hospitalisation, death and vaccination statistics; analyses of Government policy, and scientific updates about the coronavirus. To read these posts, please see below or visit our Facebook page using the button below:
If you would like to volunteer for the IAG team as a researcher or writer, please visit our volunteering page to find out more.
The Fair4All Card is a secure, evidence based card that can be used by any disabled person to communicate the reasonable adjustments they need.
We created the scheme in August 2020 and have grown from offering around 12 reasonable adjustments to now offering over 40.
Find out more about the scheme below.
Here is some advice and tips about coping during a heatwave. This advice has been written specifically for disabled people, but will work for everyone.
Read MoreThe project provides information, advice and guidance for people about Covid-19, from stats and data to health info and more.
Read MoreThe risk of meeting an infected person while you are out and about in the Bucks community has RISEN AGAIN for the fourth week in a row (to 10 October) and is still VERY HIGH. The number of patients in local hospitals with Covid-19 is also slightly HIGHER. The pandemic in Bucks is steadily getting WORSE and so we continue to urge everyone to stay extremely ‘Covid-Careful’, and to keep themselves and their loved ones safe. Read on for more details.
Read MoreThe risk of meeting an infected person while you are out and about in the Bucks community is SLIGHTLY HIGHER than last week (to 4 October) – still VERY HIGH. The number of patients in local hospitals with Covid-19 is slightly LOWER, though STILL HIGH. The pandemic in Bucks is NOT getting any better and so we continue to urge everyone to stay extremely ‘Covid-Careful’, and to keep themselves and their loved ones safe. Read on for more details.
Read MoreBuckinghamshire Disability Service (BuDS) regrets to announce that it will not be present at, or supporting, the Parklife Festival in Aylesbury on 28 and 29 August. Our own Covid impact assessment for this event shows that the Parklife event would lead to hundreds of people becoming infected with Covid and, as a disability charity, we could not in any circumstances support an event which credibly might lead to hundreds more people becoming ill or disabled. BuDS has formally asked the event organisers to cancel their event in the interests of public health, but they have declined to do so.
Read MoreA new study has found that High Wycombe in Bucks is the worst affected area for food insecurity across the UK. The research was carried out by the University of Sheffield Institute for Sustainable Food and used data from the Food Foundation which had surveyed people from across the UK.
Read MoreEven with the high numbers of people infected with Covid-19, BuDS is not recommending that people go back to or continue shielding. By shielding, we mean completely self-isolating yourself and never meeting other people. We recommend that everyone – even extremely clinically vulnerable people – think about their mental health and continue to meet family, friends and loved ones safely out of doors. This article by the expert BuDS team provides the fact-checked information you need to help you meet people safely out of doors.
If you need help or support or you’re anxious about Covid-19, BuDS is here for you. Please e-mail buds-support@buds.org.uk, call 01494 211179 (voicemail) or message us and we’ll do all we can to help.
Read MorePeople have been asking about the ‘lateral flow’ testing now being used across the UK for students, workers and volunteers. So, our researchers have done this handy guide for you. BuDS has used only reliable scientific and medical sources to write this article and it has been reviewed by our expert team, which includes a clinical epidemiologist.
Read MoreHow accurate are the ‘lateral flow’ or ‘rapid flow’ Covid-19 test kits used by schools and workplaces and now being offered to people across the UK? BuDS’ expert team has looked at a range of scientific evidence so that we can give you some reliable, fact-checked, information. This information relates to England only.
This is a long article, and deals with complex material and statistics. If you would prefer to read a shorter and simpler version of this article, please use this link: https://buds.org.uk/covid-19-test-accuracy/ or use the contents below to jump to our ‘What Does This Mean For Me’ summary.
Read MoreHere at BuDS we thought it was about time we paid homage to our wonderful trustees, volunteers and staff members who have dedicated their time to keep our projects running and our community supported through such uncertain times. Over the past year many organisations and charities have struggled to adapt to the developing situation. Of course, there are many success stories, and we think we are one, so please indulge us while we blow our own trumpet!
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