A Review of Sandwell Council Services for People who are Visually Impaired, Deaf or Hard of Hearing

November 2012

Tell us your views

Sandwell Council has asked Linda Laurie Associates to find out about services for people in Sandwell who are Deaf, Hard of Hearing or Visually Impaired.

We are looking at the following services…..

  • The Deaf Equipment Service run by Ideal for All at The Independent Living Centre - Smethwick
  • The Council’s Sensory Team also based at The Independent Living Centre - Smethwick
  • Services provided by Sandwell Visually Impaired (SVI)
  • Services provided by Sandwell Deaf Community Association (SDCA)

If you are a person who is Deaf / Hard of Hearing or Visually Impaired / Blind and live in Sandwell or provide care or unpaid support to someone who is, we want you to contact us.

Please tell us if you…..

  • Use any of the services we are looking at
  • Or, have chosen not to use these services
  • Or, you don’t know about them.

You can tell us what you think about these services in different ways….

  • Our questionnaire: You could fill one in online on SurveyMonkey (the web address is on page 4), on paper, by telephone or by email. It is available in BSL on DVD and on YouTube. It is also in large print, Braille and audio formats. Please contact us to ask for more information.
  • Focus group meetings: You could come to a meeting to tell us what you think about services. Information about these can be found on the next page of this leaflet.
  • Drop-in sessions: You could come to tell us what you think of the services. We can help you to fill in the questionnaire at one of the drop-in sessions, if you need this. It would help us if you tell us roughly what time you will be there.

If you can’t contact us in advance, please do still come along to one of these sessions. Sign Language Interpreters will be at all sessions. The one-to-one sessions will be confidential. We will make sure that nobody will overhear you or accidentally see what you are signing.

If your main reason for attendingone of the events advertised on this leaflet is to give your views as part of this review, your reasonable expenses can be refunded.

If you can’t come to a meeting but want to tell us what you think,please contact us: We can arrange a time when we can talk to you for as long as you need.

We need you to tell us what you think of services before 5pm on Friday 23rd November.

If you have received the questionnaire by post, you can return it to LLA using the enclosed envelope. Please stick a stamp to the envelope before posting it back. Instead, you can leave your completed questionnaire for LLA to collect at the reception desk at The Deaf Centre – West Bromwich or the Independent Living Centre - Smethwick. If you have received the questionnaire electronically you can email it back to:

Contact details

Email /
Free phone / 0800 073 0405 (voice)
Phone / +44 (0) 114 2258676
Fax / +44 (0) 7043083328
SMS / +44 (0) 7956 856060
Website
BSL Film /

Questionnaire /
Address / 1 Portland Court,
Sheffield, S6 3EW

Focus group and drop-in session dates

What?
/ Where?
/ When?

Focus group (as part of the hard of hearing group starting at 10am)
Drop-in and one-to-one sessions (available from 1pm) / Sandwell Deaf Community Association
Dagger lane,
West Bromwich
B71 4BB
0121 525 5347
SMS 07896 941200 / Wednesday November 14th 2012.
10am -12pm
Wednesday November 14th 2012.
1pm -7pm
Drop-in and one-to-one sessions which are being held after the SVI Annual Forum.
( We will be available to talk to from 12pm ) / SMBC Training and Development Centre
‪Popes Lane, Oldbury
B69 4PJ‬
‪0121 569 4400 ‬TDC
0121 525 4810 SVI / Friday
November 16th
2012
12pm - 5pm
Focus groups from 10am to 12.30pm
Drop-in and one-to-one sessions from 1.30pm to 5pm / Independent Living Centre
100, Oldbury Road
Smethwick
B66 1JE
0121 558 5555
SMS 0753 520 9711 / Thursday
November 22nd 2012.
10am – 5pm

We look forward to receiving your views.

Thank You.