An invitation to a galvanising, charismatic and innovating co-production open meeting & seminar on 23 February - 3.00-6.00 at Cardiff City Hall with a galaxy of stunning speakers. N.Wales video-link at Welsh Govt building, Llandudno Junction (we hope!)

Please click on the link for more information: CoProduction Seminar

Please see the links below bilingual flyers for an event which will highlight the Quebec experience of innovative care and support for older people based on co-operative principles.

The event is intended to contribute to the inquiry into the residential care needs of older people which is being conducted by the National Assembly’s Health and Social Care Committee. Complementary written evidence has also been commissioned and will be available shortly.

If you are interested in attending, please follow the booking instructions on the flyers.

Dymuniadau gorau / Best wishes

Rick Wilson

Quebec Flyer FINAL Welsh

Quebec Flyer FINAL Eng

Mr Don Derrett

Email: info@selfdirect.org
Website: www.selfdirect.org
Tel: 01904 563691
Mobile: 07814574307 / 07952806657

Flyer a-briefing-for-you-raising-expectations (2)

Who will decide how it will be implemented across Wales?

How can people get involved in this huge process of change?

These are questions that I hear people regularly ask, and the Alliance is working together to try and answer.

As part of the preparation for a Consultation document from the Welsh Assembly about the development of personalisation we have agreed this diagram with the Citizen Directed Support Learning and Improvement Network.

It tries to explain how decisions are made and how all the different groups are trying to work together to make this change happen.

Developing Citizen Directed Support

Click on the picture to make it bigger.

The text included in the graphic appears below.

Open Space for organisations and groups making CDS happen

• A ‘think and do tank’ sharing ideas, exploring development, and amplifying the voices of people trying to make citizen directed support an everyday reality.
• Open to all agencies and groups and individuals with a stake in CDS.
• Facilitated by Rick Wilson CLC – www.wacds.org.uk

Wales Alliance for Citizen Directed Support

• Working together to ensure that people have choice and control over their lives, living as independently as possible as part of their community.
• Local Authorities from CDS LIN, Service Providers, Representative Organisations and Citizens with an interest in CDS.
• Chairs – Luke Conlon and Jonathon Richards – www.wacds.org.uk

Learning and Improvement Network – CDS LIN

• Supporting Local Authorities to implement policy and procedures for all elements of CDS and sharing these using the web.
• Facilitated by Sheila Wentworth SSIA, open to all LAs – http://bit.ly/SSIAcdsLIN

All Wales Adult Service Heads - (AWASH) CDS Workstream

• Providing the senior professional forum which works on behalf of ADSS with Welsh Government to formulate and develop policy around CDS.
• Lead Heads Mike Murphy Cardiff (Chair), Deborah Driffield, Swansea, Bob Gatis RCT

Association of Directors of Social Services Cymru (ADSS) – New Models of Care Workstream

• Influencing and shaping new models of social care
• Lead Director for Citizen Directed Support – Sue Evans Torfaen

The Welsh Assembly Government have drafted proposals for such a model to begin the debate and discussion.  Assembly Officers tested it out with a group of interested organisations including the Wales Alliance for Citizen Directed Support on the 24 November.

The purpose of this wasn’t to decide the future policy but to help shape the consultation document and to make sure that they were asking the right questions in the consultation process.

Alliance Council Members Rick Wilson, Paul Swann and Mark Cooper all attended this initial meeting.

Rick said

• I believe what is being presented so far is really exiting, the Assembly  are focused on outcomes and are committed to helping people take real control and work actively together. Our challenge will be to help people to have their voices and stories listened to through this process so that we get an approach that both meets our needs and uses our skills and unique contributions.

If you want a copy of Sustainable Social Services for Wales please click here.

To find out more about the Framework for Action and express your views please click here.

• LIN Citizen Directed Support paper – Feed Back to the CDS Learning and improvement network on their draft paper on Citizen Directed Support.
• Strengthening involvement – Strengthening representation of Alliance members in consultation about the development of Citizen Directed Support in Wales.
• Sustainable Social Services – Commenting on the Sustainable Social Services Programme Framework.
• Learning from experience – How can we learn from development in England, we explore a new paper from Dr Simon Duffy.

You can find out about our discussions, add your comments and join the discussion by clinking on the links above.

Our next Members Open Space is 5th March between 10.30 – 3.30 in the Llandrindod Wells office of Cartrefi Cymru Unit 27 Ddole Road Industrial Estate, Ddole Road, Llandrindod Wells, Powys, LD16DF.

• Implementing SDS – Lessons from the English Experience
  You can link to this paper on the website of the Center for Welfare Reform Website by clicking this link.

Simon Duffy summarizes this paper by saying:

‘Despite some success, central government in England has so far failed to:

• Use SDS to enhance citizenship
• Support local leadership and community development
• Enable efficient implementation
• Integrate or simplify the management of resources

These mistakes are not necessary and they probably reflect the particularly centralised and meritocratic nature of the welfare system in England. Hopefully other countries will choose to a different path. The recent commitment in Australia to create a proper system of entitlements in order to underpin self-directed support is particularly encouraging.’

Picking up these ideas of enhancing citizenship, local action and community development seem central to our ideas of Citizen Directed Support in Wales.

Our members felt that it is central to the cultural change that we are trying to make together that we learn from practice around us and learn from papers such as this.

What do you think of this?

• How do we ensure Alliance members stay involved in the development of Citizen Directed Support and the Assembly’s Sustainable Social Services for Wales?
• How we strengthen the involvement of Citizens and their representative groups in this process?

The Welsh Council for Voluntary Action is hosting a discussion with the Assembly officers who want reference group to explore the development of the Social Work bill in Wales and the development of Citizen Directed Support. We have been asked to provide a representative group of Alliance Members to join this group.

• The group agreed that we should draw our representation from members of the Alliance Council.

We want Citizens to be central to deciding that the Outcomes that social care services should be achieving in their lives.

These Outcomes should be the foundation of the development of Sustainable Social Services for Wales. These should give people the tools to; shape their own services, create change in the services that they rely on, and make Social Service Departments responsive to their collective needs.

• Rick Wilson will work on a proposal together with All Wales People First to develop a process which will reach out to groups representing Citizens across Wales to gather information about the Outcomes they want in their lives and from their services.

If you have any comments about this or want to get involved in these things leave a message below.

Philip Evans from Swansea

The Assembly is preparing to implement Sustainable Social Services in Wales part of which will be a new Social Services bill which will develop over the next year.

It is important that our Alliance is able to share the stories how people are:

• working together to live their lives with choice and control
• or are taking control of the services that they use
• or are building communities around them within which they can become active citizens.

These stories will be essential in highlighting not only what is possible but what needs to change to make these things normal for everybody.

If you have stories that people are willing to share please send them to Debbie.Chegwen@communitylives.co.uk with pictures (if possible) and we will share them through the www.wacds.org.uk websiteand as part of the growing consultation process as part of Sustainable Social Services in Wales.

We look forward to hearing from you

This Network is very influential and is helping shape the way Social Services change the way that they work  to make it more citizen directed.

They have produced a draft paper setting our what Citizen Directed Support is as part of the Welsh Assembly’s Sustainable Social Services for Wales – Framework for Action.

The ‘LIN’ wants our views about their draft paper you can download it by clicking on this link.

At our Members Open Space on the 22nd November members welcomed this paper with it’s emphasis on relationships, transparency, and community.

It is very important we give the ‘LIN’ good feedback so that we can make this paper reflect the needs and interests of people across Wales.

They also want to include in this paper stories of people taking control of their lives and living the community lives that they want.

Please offer us your comments below tell us if you have stories that you want to share.