Dr Josephine Sirotkin

I'm feeling so grateful and overwhelmed by the lovely supportive messages for passing my viva. Thank you all so much. I'm working on getting my findings from my thesis out in the world for people to read and use, so watch this space ✨

@Coop1878 Hey Lee, can you see my reply in your DMs? Just want to check we're not having anymore tech issues! My email address is j.sirotkin@mmu.ac.uk though, if you'd rather respond that way.

@Coop1878 Thank you!! The notification wasn't coming up as I needed to create a new password for messages, so I'm glad you said here ☺️

@JLSirotkin hi , could you check my dm please ? 🙂

We want to know about your experience of using the Access to Work scheme. If you have had help in the last 2 years, we want to hear from you. DPCG have created an easy read version of their survey. We want to see if ATW works for Disabled people. surveymonkey.com/r/NGX9BNG

Please join us for a symposium on Religions, Faith Communities & Disability, 8th Oct 12-2pm, Sign up: tinyurl.com/3pdjmn4d #AutRes #AcademicSky.

Sharing our surveys for birth doulas and for healthcare professionals (both broadly defined) for a project with @Anna_Nelson95 on birth doulas and medical law. Please share widely!

I also was able to share a major concern that I have about Exercise Pegasus. Our next national pandemic test. In the objectives I have seen, I can see nothing within the “exercise play” to ensure that never again do we see the Social Murder of people with learning disabilities

@LucyGoBag Since covering Connor Sparrowhawk’s inquest, @GeorgeJulian has reported on too many preventable deaths of people with learning disabilities. Repeated failures & human rights abuses. Reads their names. Enraging, unjust. Takes moral courage to speak out against social murder.

First speaker @LucyGoBag reflecting on erasure/murder - themes Ryan’s book confronts. “One of the bravest, most necessarily turbulent books on my shelf.” What does death tell us about our values, who is important & whose lives do we erase? The urgency & calling out erasure.

Three in four people who used a food bank last year were disabled, new figures have revealed, while the government was setting out plans to slash disability benefits. bigissue.com/news/social-ju…

🚨NEWS🚨 UN Special Rapporteurs on benefit cuts: "We fear that this process may have put fiscal considerations before the duties of the UK [...] under the international human rights instruments it has ratified, with a disproportionate impact on the rights of [Disabled people]"

After a year’s delay, the 2023 LeDeR Report has finally been released. My brother Joe’s preventable death in an NHS hospital shows why this work matters. Change is long overdue—no family should suffer what we did.

Listen to Rahima People with a learning disability are dying 20 years younger than the general population, for those from an ethnic minority group it’s 25 years Rahima knows why. She has a learning disability & cerebral palsy. She speaks using a computer but is so often ignored

Adults with learning disabilities are dying 20 years earlier than other citizens - and almost 40% are avoidable. This is a scandal taking place in Britain. But most of our media and politicians ignore it while focusing on their dismal tribal issues itv.com/news/2025-09-0…

Written statements - the latest report shows that on average, people with a learning disability die 19.5 years younger than the general population and are almost twice as likely to die from an avoidable cause of death. This is unacceptable. questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statem…

Remember who they decided not to save during the pandemic? Blanket DNRs slapped on people with LD in supported living without their knowledge.

There's years and years of evidence that in the UK learning disabled people are not considered 'real people' by systems, processes & practitioners. So many promises that 'lessons will be learnt' & that this would be fixed. FOR YEARS. We need to be shocked & ashamed @sarasiobhan

About that missing @AliveLeder report... itv.com/news/2025-07-1…