EMPOWER: Parliamentary Outreach Courses for LLDD Learners

Learners from our Learning for Independence (LLDD) curriculum have been taking part in an exciting new course, delivered by UK Parliament Outreach teams, which aims to empower underrepresented voters across the country to understand their voting rights.

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The courses are run by Malcolm Smith, a UK Parliament Outreach worker, for adults with learning disabilities. The courses are specially designed for adults with learning disabilities and aim to give learners enough information to enable them to make an informed decision on whether to vote, and how to vote should they want to.

The EMPOWER course delivers information on:

What an election is
How to register to vote
How to vote
The role of the Members of Parliament and the House of Commons
The role of the Lords and the House of Lords
The different between Parliament and Government
How Laws are made
How the Public can get their voice heard

All the materials used on the course are specially designed to be accessible so that the learners can read and understand the content. There were videos for the learners to watch which explain some of the processes of Parliament, it gave information on the differences between the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The course also touched on some history and explained that Westminster used to be a palace and the residence of the Royal family up until Henry the VIII.

The learners were all given an accessible handbook to take away with them so that they could reread later or have a look if there was something they had forgotten. Learners even took part in a role play of an election where 4 learners were acting PM’s and had to tell everyone about their policies and what they wanted to change, the rest of the group then had to vote for the one that they wanted using ballot papers and a ballot box.

Here is what the learners had to say:

“I enjoyed all of it, I learnt about Parliament, Big Ben. I have never voted but it was good to find out how to vote and I feel more confident to vote.”

“I liked the videos, Malcolm was good. The videos were easy to understand. I learnt how to vote and use the ballot paper and how they get counted.”

“I have never voted before and now I understand about it I will speak to the staff at my home so that I can register to vote.”

The UK Parliament course is called EMPOWER and that is exactly what it has done for these learners, it has taught them about choice and options, it has taught them about the law around voting and what they should and shouldn’t do when voting and that they must be registered to vote. It has taught them how UK laws are made; it has taught them democracy by having the role play election. These all fit into some of the Adult Learning Services core values on Fundamental British Values, which are Democracy, Rule of Law, Individual Liberty, Respect and Tolerance

Here is what staff supporting the course had to say:

“The videos were fantastic in helping the group understand about Parliament and the fact that they used actors with disabilities in them was even better.”

“The mini election made the process so real for the group and the ballot papers and boxes were so good.”

“There was so much that I have learnt as well.”