 Mencap logo | |
| Formation | 1946 |
|---|---|
| Type | Charity |
| Headquarters | London, EC1 |
Region served | United Kingdom |
Chief Executive | Jackie O'Sullivan (interim) |
| Website | www.mencap.org.uk |
The Royal Mencap Society is a charity based in the United Kingdom that works with people with learning disabilities. Its Charity Number is 222377.
Established by Judy Fryd in 1946 as The National Association of Parents of Backwards Children, the organisation changed its name to The National Society for Mentally Handicapped Children in 1955, becoming The Royal Society for Mentally Handicapped Children and Adults following patronage from Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and Elizabeth II in 1981.
Fryd had written to Nursery World magazine inviting other parents to contact her. Many wrote back expressing their anger and sorrow at the lack of services for their children.
Since 1969 the Society has been commonly known by the abbreviation "Mencap" (presumably from Mentally Handicapped) and, in 2002, its full legal name was shortened to the Royal Mencap Society.
In 1955, the Society opened its first project, the Orchard Dene short-stay residential home. In 1958, it launched a ground-breaking project called the Brooklands Experiment. This compared the progress of children with a learning disability who lived in a hospital with a group of children who were moved to a small family environment and cared for using educational activities modelled on those in "ordinary" nurseries. After two years, the children in the home-like environment showed marked improvements in social, emotional and verbal skills. The success of the experiment was published around the world.
Mencap also provides help and support through supported living, supported employment, respite services, organised activities, systemic and individual advocacy, and outreach support. It has an individual membership organisation with a local network of more than 450 affiliated groups. Mencap's work is membership-driven, and thanks to its work for the welfare of young people, it is a member of The National Council for Voluntary Youth Services (NCVYS). [1]
In 2019 it formed a partnership with Vodafone to connect over 45 supported living homes using Internet of Things technology. The MyLife app gives residents control of their devices while also providing support workers with remote access. [2]
Mencap, along with 14 other organisations, is a member of the Learning Disability Coalition. The Coalition was formed in May 2007 to campaign for better funding for social care for people with a learning disability in England.
Mencap partnered with ENABLE Scotland in a special 'sister charity' relationship to help support people with learning disabilities in Scotland.
Mencap is a member of the Disability Charities Consortium (DCC), which brings together leaders from the UK’s leading not-for-profit disability organisations to work with the Government to make sure disabled people’s experiences are reflected in UK policy making. [3] [4]
Since 1998, at least one-third of the members of the National Assembly must be people with a learning disability.
From 1980 the actor Brian Rix represented the charity in a number of positions, including Secretary-General, Chairman and finally President. Until October 2019, the chief executive of Mencap was Jan Tregelles, [5] succeeding Mark Goldring in March 2013. Tregelles first worked at Mencap in 1983 as PA to one of the then directors. She has held various posts across Mencap; she has been the director of personal support since 2002 and has grown the business from £80 million turnover to £180 million in that time. In the summer of 2019, Tregelles announced that she would be leaving Mencap. She was succeeded by Edel Harris in October 2019. [6]
In March 2022, the charity announced the appointment of Dame Carolyn Fairbairn as its new Chair, replacing Derek Lewis after his eight-year term. [7]
In July 2023, Edel Harris announced she was stepping down as CEO. Jackie O'Sullivan, previously Mencap's Executive Director of Communication, Advocacy & Activism was installed as interim CEO.
In 1986, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother became the patron of Mencap and in 2004 the Duchess of Edinburgh became Mencap's patron.
The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) is a UK charity offering information, support and advice to almost two million people in the UK with sight loss.
Brian Norman Roger Rix, Baron Rix, was an English actor-manager, who produced a record-breaking sequence of long-running farces on the London stage, including Dry Rot, Simple Spymen and One for the Pot. His one-night TV shows made him the joint-highest paid star on the BBC. He often worked with his wife Elspet Gray and sister Sheila Mercier, who became the matriarch in Emmerdale Farm.
Dame Carolyn Julie FairbairnDBE is a British businesswoman, former director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, and a former non-executive director of the Competition and Markets Authority, Lloyds Banking Group, BAE Systems, and the UK Statistics Authority. She has been the Chair of the Royal Mencap Society since March 2022.
Mind is a mental health charity in England and Wales. Founded in 1946 as the National Association for Mental Health (NAMH), it celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2016.
Turning Point is a health and social care service provider that utilizes a person-centered care approach to support individuals with complex needs, which include drug and alcohol, mental health, learning, and employment-related issues. In 2017, Turning Point secured the contract to provide sexual health services in three London boroughs [1], and Autism Plus became part of the Turning Point group [2]. Many of Turning Point's services are regulated by the Care Quality Commission [3].
St Andrew's Healthcare is a large independent charity based at St Andrew's Hospital in Northampton, which provides psychiatric services. It also has sites in Essex, Birmingham and Nottinghamshire. It runs specialist services for adolescents, men, women and older people with mental illness, learning disability, brain injury, autism and dementia and hosts the National Brain Injury Centre. It is a psychiatric hospital and service provider that caters for individuals requiring inpatient care and rehabilitation, and step-down housing.
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ARC Association for Real Change is a UK membership organisation, which supports providers of services to people with a learning disability.
Fairbridge was a UK charity that supported young people aged 13–25 from 1987. Each year it supported around 3,700 disengaged young people who were either not in education, employment or training – or at risk of becoming so – at one of its fifteen centres on the country.
Judy Fryd was a British campaigner for mentally disabled children and the founder of The National Association of Parents of Backward Children, now Mencap. Throughout her life, she increased awareness around learning disabilities and encouraged for more action to be taken in order to give greater consideration to these individuals. Through the founding of her charity, she cemented this ethos, with the movement for greater aid to be given to those with learning disabilities continuing through the work of Mencap.
Shared Lives, which is also known as Adult Placement in some areas, is a UK form of support and accommodation for adults with need wherein approved individuals or families open their lives to aid older or disabled persons.
The National Council for Voluntary Youth Services (NCVYS) was a membership network of over 200 voluntary and community organisations, as well as local and regional networks, that work with and for young people across England. The organisation closed in 2016. For 80 years, NCVYS acted as an independent voice of the voluntary and community youth sector, working to inform and influence public policy, supporting members to improve the quality of their work, and also raising the profile of the voluntary and community sector's work with young people.
Jack Tizard CBE was a research psychologist, professor of child development, research unit director, international adviser on learning disability and child care, and a president of the British Psychological Society. Tizard was born in New Zealand but spent most of his professional life in England where, as a psychologist, he worked at the boundaries of psychology, medicine, education and the social sciences. His work on alternatives to institutional care in the 1950s and 1960s underpinned the subsequent development of 'ordinary life' models for children and adults with learning disabilities. His later work focused on developing services for young children and their families. Tizard's approach was characterised by a commitment to using high research standards to address important social problems, ensuring through his extensive advisory activities that the results of research were available to practitioners and policy-makers.
Enable Scotland is a member-led charity based in Scotland that supports people who have learning disabilities and their families. Founded in 1954 they campaign for equal rights for people who have learning disabilities and also provide personalised services to assist them with various problems in their lives. Typical difficulties addressed include access to employment, transportation, support for families, and help with finances. Enable Scotland also run the Scotland Employers Award.
For many elderly carers of a relative who has a learning or other disability, future planning is an issue. The population of older parents who have children with a learning disability is growing and many of their children are likely to outlive them. In many cases the caring role can span up to seven decades, ending only with their death. Governments and other service providers cannot ignore the pressing needs of this population and their parent and sibling carers. In most countries, family carers provide inexpensive care for a person with a learning disability and other disabilities. This trend is set to continue in England. Demographic changes and the health needs of these two growing populations must be considered against government policy constraints and limited in-home and external care options in order to avoid a crisis. The consequences of not supporting these family carers will lead to crisis management, increase in distress and care giving burdens, and increased spending on unsuitable crisis placements. Housing and financial guidance are issues for caregivers.
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Innovate Trust is an independent charity registered in the UK. based in Cardiff operating across South East Wales. Innovate Trust provides supported living services to adults with learning disabilities, mental health conditions, physical disabilities or sensory impairments in Cardiff, the Vale of Glamorgan and Rhondda Cynon Taff.
Mary Frances Applebey was an English civil servant and mental health campaigner. She was an early director of what is now the charity Mind, but was then the National Association for Mental Health (NAMH). She was involved when Christian Aid was formed, she saw off the Church of Scientology in court and was involved with the changes required to move to care in the community.
