In this meeting we worked on our shared principles of Citizen Directed Support. This was particularly important in preparation for a workshop Swansea Social Services was organising to look at the transformation of Social Services in Swansea in the light of the personalisation agenda.

We put together these 5 principles, which are still evolving with continuing discussion.

• Personal Control – People are supported to maximise their control of the assistance and services that they use to live their lives in the community.
• Mutual Support – People are supported and encouraged to develop, and be part of, communities around them within which they are inter-dependent and mutually supportive of each other’s needs and abilities.
• Shared Communication – People are supported to communicate with each other, interest groups, and with agencies in an equal and open fashion, this communication supports collaboration and coordination.
• Valuing Relationships – Individuals who use, support and deliver services are trusted and valued as builders and contributors.
• Shared Outcomes – Outcomes for services and support are agreed and reviewed by people who use, support and deliver services. These outcomes support successful lives, and sustainable services & communities.

We also went on to discuss the action research experiments that we want to develop to explore these themes of sustainable social care. We will publish the detail of these experiments as they form.

The programme for this meeting can be downloaded here Meeting of the 21st July 2009

Please give us you views and comments

Here is an update from our May meeting.

At this meeting we continued to map out our inquiry to create more sustainable models of social care services.

Each group member had an opportunity to present their ideas about what components might make up these models.

Heather

Heather's arrangement

• Coastal Potential
• Dependency / expectations (early – late adopters)
• User led/run organisations – SAIL
• Personal Stories/Narrative
• Volunteering payback
• Self help groups
• Peer Support
• Carer Support
• Music
• Collective use of Direct Payments/IB
• Trust
• Wiltshire Service User group – deliver services/consultation etc.
• Development of organisations – Coastal Housing
• People need rewards? – (outings, celebrations, events)
• Communities First
• Floating wardens – Extra care

Nick

Nick's arrangement

• S51A “Altogether Now” Pilot
• “Talking Mats”.
• Targeted recruitment and training (IDEA)
• Help the Aged “My Home Life”.

Simon

Simon's arrangement

• Lessons from Great Books (Film, etc)
• Thinking different – How to?
• Design approaches
• Backwards – Forwards planning
• Critical moment reflection
• Mapping Organisational Psyches (Shadows)
• Turning the curve
• “Team” based learning

Clive

• Social Enterprises
• Sustainable commissioning

Clive's Arrangement

Lisa

Lisa's arrangment

• Risk – Let’s Really Challenge Ourselves
• Leadership – in the community – connectors
• Story telling
• Support groups to develop social capital
• Systems and bureaucracy accountability

Rick

Rick's arrangement

• Outcomes Framework
• Sustainable commissioning
• Assistive technology
• Timebanking
• Night time response service

If you want to see the programme for this meeting you can find it by following this link

• Sustainable Lives May meeting

The dates for the group meetings for the first phase of our inquiry into Sustainable Social Care have now been agreed.

Our First Meeting

They are:

• 19th May between 2 – 5 pm at St James Church Hall, Walter Rd, Uplands.
• 30th June between 2 – 5 pm in the Dyfatty Room Old Way Centre.
• 21st July between 2 – 5 pm in the Dyfatty Room Old Way Centre.
• 1st September between 2 – 5 pm in the Dyfatty Room Old Way Centre.
• 6th October between 2 – 5 pm in the Dyfatty Room Old Way Centre.

I look forward to seeing group members at our meetings, if you want to know more about this group and it’s members please leave me a comment or contact Rick Wilson at the Community Lives Consortium.

Just after our first Sustainable Lives Meeting

Nine of us attended the first meeting.

At the first meeting we introduced ourselves as members and shared our expectations as individual participants and as group members.

We then started to create a shared map of the collective journey that we will need to take to create our new sustainable approaches to social care.

You can find a powerpoint presentation about the ground we covered in our first meeting by clicking on this link  Slides from our first meeting.