Acquired Brain Injury Bill Gathers Momentum

UKABIF have been working closely with the office of Chris Bryant, MP for the last few weeks in support of his Acquired Brain Injury Private Members Bill. The Bill which aims make provision about meeting the needs of adults and children with an acquired brain injury; and for connected purposes, had its first reading on 16^th June 2021 and will receive its second reading on 3^rd December 2021. You can read the bill and track its progress here https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/2910.

The Bill is asking the government to develop a strategy so that people with acquired brain injury are supported. It follows the format of the Autism Act 2009 proposed by Dame Cheryl Gillan MP which made new legal duties to provide adult autism services in England. The Autism Act says that there has to be a Government strategy for improving services for autistic adults, underpinned by legally binding guidance to councils. It also has a built-in review – every five years or so – when the strategy and the statutory guidance are updated. This gives the chance to campaign to make changes.

In early September UKABIF formed an alliance with the Child Brain Injury Trust, The Children’s Trust, The Disabilities Trust and Headway aiming to extend our reach into the brain injury community as far as possible. This working group was steered by Natasa Pantelic, Senior Parliamentary Assistant to Chris Bryant.

Our aim was to ensure we gained the support of as many MPs as possible and raised awareness of the bill in parliament and in our wider communities. To ensure buy in from all parties we developed a stand alone webpage for the ABI Bill www.abibill.org.uk and produced social media graphics, template letters, placards, stickers badges and face masks in support of the ABI Bill. UKABIF asked its membership and social media followers to contact their MPs and ask them to support the bill. We also produced draft press releases and developed agreed hashtags.

Chris Bryant spoke at the UKABIF Summit on 8^th November 2021 discussing the Bill and highlighting the need for ‘strategy, strategy, strategy’.

Chris drafted a letter to the Prime Minister asking him to commit to a strategy for Acquired Brain Injury - the alliance collated signatures from over 200 MPs, membership organisations, charities, alliances and individuals and delivered letter to 10 Downing Street on 15^th November 2021. This provided good PR for all the charities involved and raised further awareness of the bill. The event was also covered in the Evening Standard and the Hertfordshire Advertiser.

Our other activities have included developing short videos in support of the bill and providing a continued presence on social media. We were especially pleased that actress Emilia Clarke of SameYou produced a piece shared on Instagram.

On Wednesday 24^th November 2021 Chris Bryant raised a question at Prime Minister’s Questions asking the government to commit to providing a strategy for Acquired Brain Injury. Boris Johnson gave a commitment for a strategy for Acquired Brain Injury and other neurological conditions. We await a formal statement from the government and are continuing to request MPs to support the bill and attend the second reading on 3^rd December.

@RhonddaBryant’s question to the Prime Minister. #iBacktheABIBill