Position statements

This page contains links to our key briefing documents. They provide more information about some of the key issues which Sense is able to comment on.

This briefing paper outlines Sense's position on Measles, Mumps and Rubella or MMR.

Sense supports the MMR immunisation programmes and the research that shows the vaccine is safe and effective in reducing the numbers of children with congenital rubella.

The paper covers questions such as:

• Is the MMR vaccine safe?
• What will happen if MMR rates fall?
• Would giving single vaccines help to compensate for the drop in MMR uptake?
• Why is MMR given when it is?

The paper also presents information about the scientific arguments in relation to MMR.

Deafblind Direct is Sense’s direct payments project. This project aims to provide advice and information about direct payments for deafblind people and family members. New information on direct payments will be available in a range of formats in the future. The project will also look into how to support direct payments users to recruit staff. There will also be specialist deafblind training for local services that support disabled people to use direct payments.

In May 2001, the Government introduced new guidelines to make sure deafblind people receive the support and services they require from their local authority. This came after years of campaigning by deafblind people and charities, including Sense.

The guidance applies to children, adults and older people. It states that local authorities have to know who the deafblind people in their area are, to provide specialist assessments by staff who understand deafblindness, to provide one to one support, to ensure services are appropriate, to provide information deafblind people can use and to have a senior manager responsible for deafblindness. Sense routinely does surveys of local authorities to see whether the guidance is being implemented.

Sense campaigns at a European level as a part of EDbN (the European Disability Forum) along with other deafblind organisations across Europe. EDbN is a member of EDF (the European Disability Forum) which is a European level organisation campaigning for the rights of all disabled people in the European Union.

This campaigning has two main aims. The first is to achieve recognition of deafblindness as a separate disability across Europe, and to raise awareness of the needs of deafblind people. The second is to make sure the needs of deafblind people are included in the policy making work happening in Brussels and Strasbourg.

Working with deafblind children is demanding, intensive and fascinating. Very few deafblind children are profoundly deaf and totally blind but any combination of visual and hearing impairment causes huge difficulties in gaining information from the environment.

The terms deafblindness and multi-sensory impairment are usually used interchangeably in work with children. The disability affects development across the board. Children often need to work one-to-one with an adult in order to learn, and need specialised assessment and intervention to reach their potential. Nevertheless, skills developed in work with other children will always be relevant, although they may need to be used differently. Sense campaigns to make sure deafblind children have appropriate support and can take part in activities both within and outside of school.