Llais Accessibility Statement

Introduction

We want everyone living in Wales to know who we are, what we do and the difference we make. We want our activities and services to be easy to find out about. We want everyone to be able to access our services and share their views and experiences with us easily, in the way that best meets their individual needs.

We know that every one of us has different needs at different times and in different circumstances. People’s ability to engage with us or use our services might be affected by lots of things.

This could include, for example: 

• their location – they may live in a part of Wales where the Wi-Fi is slow, or not available at all. They may be in a place where they cannot share their views and experiences with us without others hearing. They may be unable to get out and about to visit us 
• their health – they may be tired, recovering from a stroke or have a broken arm 
• their equipment – they could be on a mobile phone, or using old equipment 
• their communication needs – they may have sight or hearing loss, or they may be neurodivergent. 

This policy sets out how we will be visible and accessible in all parts of Wales.

Promoting awareness of our role and activities

We will do lots of different things to help make sure people know about us, the services we provide and how they can get involved in our activities. This will include: 

Our promotional activities 

We will run a range of promotional campaigns to make people aware of our role, our services, and our activities. This will include things like:

• A media and marketing campaign to support the launch of our organisation. This will include raising awareness in local community settings through things like poster and leaflet drops, regional and national media notices and radio adverts, and social media advertising
• targeted campaigns to raise awareness and support people to access our independent, confidential complaints advocacy service 
• targeted campaigns to raise awareness and encourage people to share their views and experiences of health and social care services. This may be about services for people living in a particular part of Wales, for people who have or may use certain services, or for people whose voices are under-represented in health and social care services.

Our staff and volunteers 

We will equip all our staff and volunteers to raise awareness and understanding of our role, our activities, and our services in everything they do.

We will help them to do this whatever they do and wherever they carry out their activities in Wales. We will do this by providing them with the learning, information, and materials they need.

Our partners 

We will work together with people and groups involved in health and social care services for people living in all parts of Wales. 

This includes community representatives and groups, NHS bodies, local authorities, 3rd sector bodies and inspectors and regulators. 

We will work with them to help us to raise awareness of our role, our activities and our services. 

We will provide them with the information and materials they need. This will help them to let the people they work with and provide services to know about us. 

Our on-line activities

We will launch and use our website along with a wide range of social media and other digital tools. We will use these different ways to share information about who we are, what we do, how we do it and the difference we are making. 

We will use our digital presence to let people know about us, our plans, and activities locally, regionally, and nationally, and how they can get involved. 

We will make sure all our digital activities are designed and operate in a way that meet people’s different needs. To help us do this we will start with meeting the accessibility requirements set for public sector bodies.

Our publications and materials

We will produce and share a wide range of promotional publications and materials to let people know about us, our activities and the difference we are making.

We will use simple, everyday language in all our publications and materials. We will make our content and design clear and simple enough so that most people can use it without needing to adapt it.

We will also support people who do need to adapt things. We will produce our publications and materials in a wide range of different formats. 

This will include: 

• a range of community languages 
• easy read 
• video, including subtitles and BSL interpretation. 

We will also offer a range of other formats for people who request it to meet their individual needs. This may include things like large print and braille.

Gathering people’s views

We want people to be able to share their views and experiences of health and social care services with us easily, wherever they live in Wales. To help people do this, we will work in lots of different ways.

Working locations 

So that people can share their views and experiences with us face to face when they want to, our staff and volunteers will carry out our activities locally, regionally and nationally. 

We will work as part of 7 different regions. These regions are the same as those covered by the 7 Regional Partnership Boards in Wales.

Our staff and volunteers will work from 12 Llais office locations in Wales. We will also support them to work from other local community working spaces.

Community-based activities 

We will plan a wide range of community-based activities to hear from people about their health and social care services – in places where people live, work, and relax. 

We will also visit places where people receive their health and social care services. This will make it easier for people who may not be able to get out and about to share with us the things that matter most to them about their health and social care services. 

On-line activities 

We know that lots of people want to share their views and experiences on-line. This is easier for lots of people to do, and it often means they can do it at a time that best suits them. 

We will provide lots of different ways they can do this. 

This will include: 

• general feedback 
• surveys
• polls 
• discussion groups
• virtual post-it notes 
• stories 
• social media messaging.

Telephone 

Anyone who wants to share their views and experiences with us by telephone can do so. If this is outside our usual hours, they will be able to leave a message so we can call them back.

Providing our complaints advocacy service

We will ask anyone who wants support to raise a concern about their health or social care services how they would like us to support them. 

The approach we take will depend on their individual needs and circumstances.

This may include providing a service where people are living or staying, e.g., in a residential care home or in a prison setting.

Language

We know how important it is that people can share their views, opinions and experiences of health and social care services in their own language.

As well as providing our services in Welsh and English, we will support people to share their views and experiences with us in their own language.

This includes speaking with us in a range of different languages using a confidential translation and interpretation service.

Making sure all our activities and services are accessible

Accessibility is our whole team’s job 

We will make sure as many people as possible can get involved in our activities and use our services. So, we will make sure: 

• everyone in Llais thinks about how people might access and use our services from the beginning. This will help us: 
• make sure we don’t exclude anyone 
• find out early if anything we do is not as easy to access as it should be
• our staff and volunteers understand accessibility, and how to avoid accidentally making things harder than they should be 
• those we work with to support us to carry out our activities understand accessibility too. We will work with them to build this into the products and services they design or provide for us.

Feedback

We’d love to hear what you think about our policy. We’d love to hear your ideas and suggestions about how we do things. We will use what you tell us to help make our future work better.

Contact details 

33 / 35 Cathedral Road,
Cardiff,
CF11 9HB 
tel: 02920 235 558
email: [email protected]