Simon Jarrett visits Bead Sew Crafty, a social enterprise that grew from the closure of day centres
Quote: To have a purpose, to produce, to do what you enjoy, to learn and to grow, is what Bead Sew Crafty offers to a group previously invisible to the world of employment.
There are beautiful, finely crafted things on display for sale at Bead Sew Crafty, a small craft workshop in surprisingly idyllic surroundings, considering that they are surrounded by industrial west London.
They work from a converted former visitor centre on top of Horsenden Hill, a remote (by London standards) countrified enclave, near to a canal, a herd of cows and country paths.
The workshop was started by Amrit Singh and Alsena Lawson, former day centre workers who set it up when, in their words, ‘we got kicked out of our jobs.’
Learning disability day centres in their borough were closing and alternatives were needed. Both skilled jewellery makers and adept at other crafts, they had run jewellery-making workshops in their centre. They had noticed that some people who were disengaged from the daily life of the centre, or deemed ‘challenging’, became interested and absorbed in the productive activities of the workshops. They rapidly developed quite sophisticated work skills.
Looking-glass logic
However, despite a supportive manager, the institutional bureaucracy and outlook of the day centre world continually hindered their work. They struggled to get small amounts of money to buy materials and stock; attendance and timings were erratic due to transport times and shift patterns; their room was in multiple use so work was constantly moved or lost. Worst of all, in the looking-glass logic of the world of learning disability services, the word came from above that either everybody should be able to participate in the workshops, or nobody. They were asked to include people who had no interest in the work, or no skills, or both. The results were predictable, and creativity was stifled.
When the chance came to set up independently they jumped at it, spurning the chance of redundancy or redeployment. Those who had benefited from the workshops previously, jumped at the chance also. Bead Sew Crafty has been going for four years now. The freedom from the straitjacket of the local authority, and the institution of the day centre, has been intoxicating.
The business is financed mostly through the personal budgets attached to the people who use the workshop. There is some trading income, but not sufficient in itself to fund the whole business. They have a contract to supply lavender pillows to a large, high-quality garden and craft centre in Hampshire. Their products are bought by the garden centre on quality, not sympathy. They sell also in markets and a small number of other outlets. The work ethic in Bead Sew Crafty is intense and professional. People are absorbed, and skill levels have rocketed. People deemed too ‘challenging’ to attend other projects without one-to-one support work in a focused way, independently, producing beautiful hand-crafted goods.
Yet this is not paid work. It is certainly meaningful occupation, and personal fulfilment levels are high. There is a sense that people feel they have something to get out of bed for in the morning, that they are involved in employment they value, and which is valued by others. They come from a generation for whom work was never even considered a possibility, for whom life was mapped out from birth as a procession from special school to residential home to day centre, where they would be trapped in a never-never land of aimless ‘day activity’.
The path to employment is multi-layered and there is not, as commissioners and planners always seem to imagine, a single one-size-fits-all solution for all those diverse individuals and groups we name as people with learning disabilities. To have a purpose, to produce, to do what you enjoy, to learn and to grow, is what Bead Sew Crafty offers to a group previously invisible to the world of employment.
Bead Sew Crafty – info@beadsewcrafty.com
http://www.beadsewcrafty.com/
