Draft Notes of Meeting
EDF Meeting 23rd November 2016
Draft Notes of Meeting
Present:
- Florence Garabedian, LCiL
- Alison Roy, Equal Futures
- Bruce Bennet, Tipereth
- Megan Wilson, SENSE Scotland
- Bev Read, Firsthand Lothian
- Tom Ritchie, Teensplus
- John Redwood, Tiphereth
- Elspeth Ferguson, Scottish Union of Supported Employment (SUSE)
In attendance:
- Maria Arnold, EVOC (chair)
- Diane Wilsdon, EVOC
Apologies:
- Fionna Miskelly, Freespace
- Martin Dawson, Columcille
- Kirsty Russell, Upward Mobility
- Sarah Cleary, Volunteer Edinburgh
Notes of meeting on 25th August 2016 – Agreed in principle – any changes to be sent to Diane by 30th November.
Matters Arising
Vacancy for the Chair remains. Other representatives from the Forum are requested for the Third Sector Strategy Group (TSSG) and once it begins the Disability Strategy Group.
A paper was circulated from Ella Simpson, CEO EVOC, on the recent IJB meetings. Maria commented that a report on Issues for people from Minority Ethnic communities accessing health and social care is going to the IJB today.
EVOC is drafting as Third Sector Manifesto for the Council election in Spring. Issues that were highlighted by Forum members:
-Crisis in health and social care and how the parties will address this.
-Focus on prevention in strategies has to followed through by actions. This is not happening when preventative services are having significant cuts.
Action: Diane to circulate draft manifesto to Forum Members.
Feedback from Members
SUSE – Elspeth is the peer support coordinator and will be setting up a disabled peoples network. SUSE offers information, advice, development opportunities and development opportunities for employers.
Tipereth – The disability day services procurement process remains a concern. Also not clear how transitions fits in to the new procurement process. John Redwood has recently joined as the Day services Manager and also keen to find out more about the procurement process.
Sense Scotland – Highlighted the Disability Agenda Scotland Report on Equality and Inclusive Communities online hub with examples of good practice. Megan will send links to Diane to circulate to Forum members.
Teensplus – Main concerns are with localities and procurement. They have contracts with the young people rather than CEC, not sure how these will be affected.
Equal Futures – Keen to work with EVOC and other Forum members to provide a collective voice stating that SDS needs to be more creative and include friendships and links to communities. They provide circles of support for children and adults.
Firsthand Lothian – The Keys to Life funded pilot with parents who have learning difficulties is really valued and there has been a lot of learning. Now need to consider how to continue the project beyond the end of funding on 31st March 2017.
LCiL – Successful with 1 tender. that of Grapevine and Independent Living Service. However a reduction in funding despite a 30% increase in referrals. Still waiting for the result of the tender on the Financial service which went in in July.
Localities
Denise Horn, Senior Development Worker, EVOC joined the meeting and expanded on the paper circulated on localities with the agenda. She highlighted that the 2nd phase of the consultation from January to march looking at specific needs for a community includes a community of interest i.e. disabled people.
No one had heard up about the phase 1 consultation beyond information provided by EVOC. There is an online survey which Denise will send link to Diane for circulation. In each locality planning group there is 1 EVOC staff member plus Voluntary Sector Forum Chairs.
Florence commented that 80% of the issues are not locality based but City wide.
Denise explained that there a thinkSpace to be arranged for City Wide organisations but as yet there is not enough information from localities teams as to how they will fit in to the structure to enable this to happen.
Maria said that EVOC staff are trying to take agenda items to the meetings rather than just responding. An example would be to request a pilot to test new ways of working for the further implementation of SDS in one locality. We need to develop ways of challenging and evidence from Forum members to test the process with key asks from the Network.
Concern that there appears to be a lack of clarity as to what people are doing and will be doing – just job titles with no explanation at the moment.
To influence the process Denise said that it would be useful to engage with voluntary Sector Forums which are open to anyone.
Action – Maria will ask for information on this from the NE locality.
Service redesign – day support services for people with learning disabilities
To date there have been only individual meetings with organisations but no joint meeting as the CEC agreed there would be. Request to CEC to have a look at the next draft of the service contract before the meeting.
Maria explained that in relation to procurement there will be a deputation to the Finance and Resource committee of the IJB by Deaf Action as the development of the contract which includes the BSL service specification did not involve any service users and looks like it will not have good outcomes for service users. The equality Impact Assessment appears to have been a tick box exercise.
Action: Diane to contact Wendy Dale, Mark Grierson and Tony Rattray to request again for a joint meeting as part of the process to discuss the questions raised by the report we submitted.
SDS
Report from the SDS thinkSpace on 28th September. Evaluation feedback was very positive. Following the thinkSpace a meeting was set up for the 21st of November. It included practitioners and managers from CEC and representatives from organisations in each of EVOCs themed Forums and colleagues from NHS were also invited. The meeting was chaired by Colin Beck, Strategic Programme Manager, Mental Health and Substance Misuse, but the remit is to develop plans for the further implementation of SDS for all groups of people using services. At the meeting it was agreed that group will continue to meet on a regular basis and that key pieces of work include redrafting guidelines to social workers and training for social workers and managers on SDS.
When Diane received papers from the meeting on 21st November they will be circulated to organisations who have expressed an interest in being involved in this work and there will be an opportunity to feed in before the next meeting of the group in January
Florence fed back her thoughts on the meeting and suggested that a model of action learning with timescales perhaps in one locality should be proposed. It is important that the results of the meetings are clear actions with timescales and people responsible for their completion.
As many organisations are keen to be involved in this work, Diane will facilitate an SDS sub group to feed in to the main working group.
Action: Diane to circulate written report of SDS ThinkSpace. Circulate papers from the SDS meeting and collate questions/comments from sub group members.
2017
Commitment to continuing ongoing work within the Forum such as SDS and develop a thinkSpace on transitions with the Children and Families Forum. Consider different speakers that might be invited to the forum.
Dates of meetings:
1st or 2nd March – date to be confirmed
Thursday 25th May
Wednesday 23rd August
Tuesday 28th November
Action: Diane to invite children and families development worker, EVOC, to next meeting to discuss joint work on transitions.
AOB
Representative from the Fire service was unable to attend and give his presentation today. It was decided that Diane would request a copy of his presentation and referral documents to circulate.
Diane has been in touch with Jane Dalrymple, newly appointed Assistant Programme Manager (Physical Disability), Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership to find out more about her role and how she will work with organisations and the Forum.
Action: Diane to invite Jane Dalrymple to next Forum meeting.