Copyright BBC / Love Productions / Christopher SimmsCongratulations to local girl Kelly Knox, who has won the competition to become ‘Britian’s Missing Top Model’. Over the past six weeks BBC3 has been running the programme to see whether a disabled woman could make it as a model.

Until recently 23 year old Kelly was working as a credit controller and living in Enfield. Following her success on the show, she has gone on to be photographed for Marie Claire Magazine by the infamous Rankin, and Take 2 Model Management has agreed to represent her.

The series proved controversial; raising questions such as 'should girls with hidden impairments be involved in the competition?' and 'is the fashion industry ready to include disabled people in magazines and on the catwalk?'

For an exclusive interview with Kelly, see the Autumn issue of ECDP’s quarterly newsletter EFFECT.

Do you care about the issues affecting disabled people in Essex and want to help us to address them? If so, ECDP wants to hear from you!

As an area representative, you will voice the views and concerns of disabled people in your local community and work with us to make changes that improve everyday lives.

ECDP will provide fantastic developmental opportunities through training and peer support, and the chance to develop knowledge in key areas such as housing, transport and employment.

Volunteers must be disabled people, who can give up to an average of eight hours a month to the role, expenses paid.

Great news . I recently travelled from Malaga to Stansted and found the experience much more enjoyable than when I made the same journey only a week earlier. Being a wheelchair user, I always dread the thought of landing and finding there is no assistance in place to help me through the airport, waiting hours for someone to turn up… maybe!

However, there is a new EU regulation which came into force on 26^th July this year, stating that all European airports must offer assistance services for passengers with reduced mobility. This European Community measure represents a significant social advance for disabled people and for this reason all the necessary financial, material and human resources have been put into place to make it possible for airports to render a quality service guaranteeing that all people can enjoy air transport anywhere in Europe, regardless of their disability.

Carol Slade, ECDP Executive Assistant

The Commission for Social Care Inspection (known as 'CSCI') is producing a bulletin for social care providers to help them make their services better and fairer for disabled people.

To help inform the bulletin, and make sure it reflects life 'on the ground', they are asking disabled people with experience of social care services to take part in a survey.

If you have some experiences or thoughts that could be useful, then please do complete the survey. More information, and a chance to complete the survey, are available on the CSCI website here: CSCI disability equality survey.

The organisation Skills for Care has published a training booklet which is useful for people who receive personal budgets or Direct Payments and who might want to buy in training for their own staff.

The new user-friendly code offers practical advice to micro-employers to help them draw up effective training plans for personal assistants, guidance on how to put the plan into action and how to monitor the progress of personal assistants as they work towards qualifications.

The booklet can be downloaded from the Skills for Care website here: Skills for Care training booklet.

If you would like to know what training ECDP provides for personal assistants, please see the relevant section of our website: Employer training from ECDP, which also has details on how to contact us about the training.