Never lose sight of how important you are

We’ve been talking to some of our 2024 judges to find out more about their background, what motivates and drives them and why they’re a judge for the Disability Power 100 awards…

Jacqueline Winstanley FRSA , Founder and CEO of Universal inclusion & The Inclusive Entrepreneur.

“Throughout my whole career I've always worked in the realms of reducing inequalities having a strong sense of injustice and wanting to just make the world a better place per se.”

From very early on, Jacqueline thought she wanted to be an educational psychologist, but it was very clear when she finished her degree this was not the route to follow, “if young people didn't fit in the box, they didn't get the support they needed.”

She says that her career path took a new direction when the Government brought about the Child Care Initiative, which gave grants to set up new child-care settings.

“I'd had experience of that sector not being particularly inclusive. If we're being really blunt, families being told “we don't take children like that here”. So, I utilised that opportunity to create one of the first inclusive play and child-care settings in the UK (Kidscore). I had a good theoretical understanding of what was needed, but what that taught me was the actual practice and blue print I developed that underpins all the work I've done in creating inclusive organisations environments and opportunities since then.”

The business was very successful, and Jacqueline has incredibly fond memories of the journey and the impact for young people and their families who were able to access play and childcare like any other family.

After producing a report for the EYDCP Jacqueline was encouraged to become an intrapreneur within local government and cascade the blueprint she had developed across the borough that she lived in, then across the country. Before she knew it, she was able to influence government policy on inclusive child-care cited as good practice by Ofsted, Best Value and the Audit Commission and the sector.

A tricky but very rewarding path

Jacqueline was at the height of her career, but then unfortunately, she started to have some quite complex health issues.

“And like many people, it wasn't very long after that, that I didn't have the job, which had been my passion" she says.

“I actually went to an employment tribunal and I was successful, but what I would say is, it wasn't successful in terms of the impact that had on my health.”

She says that although it was a traumatic experience, it was good to have a decision that recognised what happened. The tribunal was won on the grounds of failure to put in place a reasonable adjustment in terms of sickness absence policy and had noted in my decision that I had experienced disability discrimination.

Jacqueline says that when she re-emerged from that experience, she found it very difficult to get back into mainstream work at the level she was previously at.

She remembers being sat at some job interviews, which were just not inclusive and she very quickly realised two things, firstly that she wasn't going to get back in at the level that she had been.

Secondly, that she had to find a way to navigate her new reality whilst achieving that same satisfaction and impact in her previous role, and that's really where Universal Inclusion comes in. Universal Inclusion is Jacqueline’s core business and within her portfolio she founded the Inclusive Entrepreneur (https://youtu.be/epGtua0P2z4 ).

In very simple terms, the organisation exists to increase equality of access to life's opportunities, whatever that may be.

And the organisation does this by engaging in ethical collaboration with policy, practice and academia to actually bring about sustainable change.

“I learned very early on that if you want to change government policy then you need to actually pilot and academically validate what you think will work,” says Jacqueline.

“And you need to be able to bring everybody along with you, in order to do this ethical collaboration is really important. Particularly in a community that actually has every right to be mistrusting at times.”

Jacqueline is also a Visiting Fellow and Entrepreneur in residence at CIMR Birkbeck regularly co-authoring academic reports and publications which goes on to inform policymakers on how to improve things.

A key aspect of her work involves creating exemplar practice for example, for disabled artists who were not getting opportunities to play at gigs again through ethical collaboration.? She hosts concerts at St. George's Hall in Liverpool which are about engaging everybody in the process of creating amazing inclusive events ( https://youtu.be/IcTN99RwEeY ).

At one point in her career, Jacqueline decided that she might become a politician. But that didn't last very long, because in her own words, she realised she wouldn't be in Parliament very often because she would be outside, “having the whip taken off me because I wouldn't be able to compromise at times on things.”

She’s not a politician, but she does work within the realm of politics providing Secretariat to try to encourage our community to engage in the political arena through the all-party parliamentary groups.

Stand-out moments

There have been many proud moments throughout Jacqueline’s career.

On a personal level, the child-care scheme for Jacqueline was an absolute stand-out moment showing how you can very quickly utilise effective resourcing to create inclusive environments that increase representation.

Another proud moment was having the opportunity to speak on a panel at the United Nations headquarters in New York on the topic of including the disabled community as leaders in the creation of innovation and enterprise.

And she has been lucky enough to do this three times.

Another highlight was the creation of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Inclusive Entrepreneurship in 2020, set up to stimulate, encourage and nurture inclusive entrepreneurship throughout the country. It was chaired by Dr Lisa Cameron and supported by Savvitas.

Jacqueline says this was a pivotal moment for Universal Inclusion as an institution for change.

“You won’t find me storming the Commons. You will find me doing the sort of stuff to actually bring about sustainable impactful effective change.”

The APPG work program led to the release of the first piece of commissioned research last year in response to the barriers faced by disabled entrepreneurs.

It was the first piece of academic research that looked at the barriers faced by disabled people when creating innovation and enterprise and put forward some really powerful recommendations on how government could effectively resource the sector.

The Road to Wonder report brought together over 26 organisations and is a really good example of collaborative working bringing together policy, practice, and academia.

Clare Gray, who was the driving force behind the creation of the DP 100 awards, represented The Shaw Trust on the Advisory Board and is formally recognised posthumously in the report.

The DP100

Jacqueline is in her third year now as a judge for the Disability Power 100 awards.

And she is very clear about the synergies between the work she does with Universal Inclusion and the work we are doing with the DP 100 community.

“It mirrors the work that I've done throughout my career, because I firmly believe that when we are part of an ethical collaboration, all the barriers melt away.”

“Showcasing the wonderful things that we do that has brought about change. It makes our community visible,” she says.

“The DP 100 recognises the very essence of the wonderful things that people do and that's at the heart of what I do. It also goes beyond the award concept and the ceremony itself, because the other work that Shaw Trust does around this, again, is just something that I'm incredibly happy to support and privileged to be part of.”

Jacqueline also speaks of the DP 100’s role in in reflecting the intersectionality that exists in the community as well. She says that for people who are recipients of the award, it's game changing.

As one of our DP 100 2024 judges, Jacqueline has some good advice for anyone within our community.

That is to do whatever you want to do with your life.

“Never, never lose sight of how important you are and what you have to contribute, not just to our community, but society as a whole.”

“And never lose sight of the importance of ethical collaboration, working towards achieving that, not only for yourself, but for others through the mechanisms that are out there to enable you to do so.”

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