Professor Ruth Northway will give the 2023 Adam Bojelian Memorial Talk 'Equality, diversity and inclusion in healthcare; moving beyond the policy to embedding in practice', chaired by Rob Webster.
We will be returning to a face-to-face event in 2023 at AdsPlace, Horizon Centre Leeds.
Anyone interested in health and social care and disability is warmly welcome to this free event. As always with AdsTalks, there will be plentiful opportunity for all delegates, who wish to do so, to discuss the issues raised. Admission will be by ticket only.
Timetable
12.00-12.30: Opportunity for delegates to network. A free sandwich lunch will be provided by the Adam Bojelian Foundation CIC.
12.30-13.30: Talk by Professor Ruth Northway.
13.30-14.30: Discussion of issues raised chaired by Rob Webster.
Full details and the link to book HERE#AdsTalk23
More information
Dr Ruth Northway OBE is Professor of Learning Disabilities at the Faculty of Life Science and Education, University of South Wales, a post she has held for twenty years. A learning disability nurse by background she has worked in a range of residential and community settings before moving to work in nurse education. Her key areas of interest relate to the health and well-being of people with learning disabilities, safeguarding and the use of participatory/inclusive research approaches.
You can follow Ruth on Twitter @NorthwayRuth
Rob Webster CBE is Chief Executive for the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership (Intergrated Care System). This sees him bring together West Yorkshire and Harrogate health and care leaders, organisations and communities to deliver ambitious plans for improved health, care and finances for 2.7 million people. Rob is an active member of the NHS Assembly and contributes to a number of national programmes.
Rob has worked in healthcare since 1990 taking on national leadership roles in the Department of Health on policy, transformation and delivery. He has been a director for both the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit in the Cabinet Office and a national public/private partnership. He was Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation between 2014 and 2016, having proven to be a successful Chief Executive in the NHS since 2007, running a number of commissioning organisations and providers of NHS services. He has chaired formal cancer, primary care, community trust and learning disability networks.
Rob is defined by a values based approach to leadership. He is a visiting Professor at Leeds Beckett University and was proud to be made a Fellow of the Queen’s Nursing Institute in 2014. In May 2016, Rob became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners. In 2020 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).You can follow Rob on Twitter @NHS_RobW
About Adam Bojelian
Adam Bojelian was born in Hampshire, England in 2000 and died in Yorkshire from sepsis in 2015. He lived most of his life in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Adam acquired cerebral palsy at birth and went on to develop multiple health needs. Despite this, until his last months Adam lived a full and active life. He was educationally very bright, being top of the class in all subjects in mainstream school.
Aged just ten years old, Adam won the first of many national and international awards for writing, a Brit Writers award, followed very quickly by a gold Blue Peter badge. Adam gained international recognition and worldwide media coverage when at Christmas 2012, his poem Christmas Gibbons, set to music by a Hollywood musician, reached number 2 in an iTunes Chart.
As Adam’s fame spread, he began using his voice to tell the world about his experiences living with cerebral palsy, especially the challenges he faced attending school, due to lack of support and not being listened to by some health professionals, despite his immense knowledge and experience of his own health needs. Adam blogged about his experiences, he was interviewed by the BBC and others and was also invited to give a talk to Members of the Scottish Parliament, which he did using his iPad voice.
As he entered his teenage years, Adam was increasingly commissioned by national organisations to write for them. Rob Webster, the then CEO of the NHS Confederation commissioned Adam to write a poem on leadership, which was read at that organisation’s annual conference and is now widely used by the NHS and other bodies. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health asked Adam to write a rap to celebrate the launch of Disability Matters, a national training resource, to which Adam contributed, for everyone working with children and young people, to help challenge disability discrimination, particularly in healthcare. Adam was also commissioned by a national charity to write a lullaby to celebrate the birth of Prince George. Adam loved music and set his poem to a piece by his favourite classical composer Mozart.
Adam became a much loved voice on twitter, enjoyed by thousands. He was well known for his ability to celebrate the good, whilst highlighting in a positive way where improvement is needed. In 2012 The Scotsman newspaper named Adam as one of ’40 people who put Edinburgh on the map in 2012′ and in 2013 Adam was listed on The Independent on Sunday’s ‘Happy List’, identifying him as one of the people who brought the most happiness to the UK that year.
Since his death, Adam’s legacy lives on. National guidance from bodies including the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have dedicated national guidance to Adam. Several PhD scholars have dedicated their PhD thesis to Adam and academic books and book chapters have likewise been dedicated to him, recognising the huge contribution his blogs, talks and insights contributed to our understanding of the experiences of children living with disability, especially in healthcare.
The Adam Bojelian Foundation CIC(AdsFoundation), a not-for-profit organisation providing education and training in healthcare law and a weekly free advice clinic, builds on the work Adam started, and his determination to improve the well-being of all patients, families and staff. You can follow AdsFoundation director Dr Zoe Picton-Howell (Adam's mum) on Twitter @PictonZoe and find its website at https://theadsfoundation.org .
