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News & Events from Shared Care Scotland
Gearing Up for Grants
Organisations providing short break opportunities for carers of adults, young carers and young adult carers, will soon be able to apply for grants from Shared Care Scotland’s Creative Breaks Short Breaks Fund which opens for its next round of funding on 3 April.
Short breaks providers can get geared up to apply by keeping an eye on our social media accounts – @carebreaks – and on our website for more details. Our website also gives examples of projects which have already been funded, plus a range of toolkits to help with the process.
As soon as the fund opens all the details, including an online application form, eligibility criteria and dates for applicant workshops will be made available on our website. If you’d like to receive an email alert to let you know when the fund opens please contact kate.hogarth@sharedcarescotland.com
ISBA Online
Last year Shared Care Scotland had the pleasure of hosting the International Short Breaks Associations (ISBA) 10th conference, an event which brought together more than 300 delegates from 17 different countries to inspire, explore opportunities, challenge one another and strengthen international friendships.
The shared learning that ISBA created has been invaluable and we are delighted that we can now share this more widely as recordings of keynote speeches from the conference have been made available on the IRISS website. Hear speeches from Shared Care Scotland Chief Executive Don Williamson on the values and themes for ISBA16, and the words of contributors such as Aileen Campbell, Minister for Public Health and Sport, who spoke on Caring in Scotland.
For more details on ISBA16, have a look at our curated Storify of the event.
Shared Care, Shared Practice
Throughout the year Shared Care Scotland brings together groups of people for events designed to help share experience, best practice and learning across short breaks in Scotland.
Our first Lead Officers’ Event of 2017 took place on 1 March and brought together local authority and partnership managers with responsibility for planning and coordinating short break services for unpaid carers and service users. With a focus on ‘Doing Things Differently’ delegates heard from Andrew Robertson, the Carers Champion for Glasgow, and Dee Fraser, Deputy Chief Executive for the Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland. Both spoke about the need for greater collaboration and improved flexibility around the planning and purchasing of social care in Scotland.
A second networking event also took place early in March. Recently, Shared Care Scotland were approached by Plus (Forth Valley) – a charity that supports children and young people with disabilities to have access to social, leisure and recreational opportunities and activities. Plus were keen to have contact with other organisations doing similar work and, recognising that there may be need for a network of this kind, Shared Care Scotland worked with Plus and SHIP (Support Help and Integration in Perthshire) to host and facilitate the first meeting.
This was attended by 14 senior managers from 11 invited organisations and it was clear from the feedback on the day that giving like-minded organisations time and protected space to exchange information and learning is invaluable. If your organisation works in this field and you would like more information or to attend the next meeting then please get in touch with Shared Care Scotland’s Learning Exchange Manager Gary Waddell gary.waddell@sharedcarescotland.com
St Andrews Respitality Festival 2017
The St Andrews Hotel and Guest House Association, Stayinstandrews, have once again pulled out all the stops to show their support for full-time, unpaid carers by hosting their second St. Andrews Respitality Festival.
The festival, which took place over the 19th and 20th of March, saw nine generous St Andrews establishments play host to a group of carers and their companions. The Deveron, Fairways, Montague, and Brownlees Guesthouses plus well-known hotels in St Andrews; Rusacks, the Fairmont, Ardgowan Hotel, Hotel Du Vin, and Pinewood Country House, have all gifted two night breaks to carers, giving them an opportunity to enjoy Scottish hospitality and take a break from their caring routine.
Supported by the hospitality industry and Scottish Government, the Respitality scheme, which is run by Shared Care Scotland, connects local carers’ centres with hospitality providers who gift a short break or experience to full-time, unpaid carers.
To find out more visit the Respitality website.
Cross Party Working Group on Carers
The Scottish Parliament Cross Party Working Group on Carers – of which Shared Care Scotland is a part - will be taking a more detailed look at short breaks in its next meeting, scheduled for May. Cross Party Working Groups provide an opportunity for members of all parties, outside organisations and members of the public to meet and discuss a shared interest in a particular cause or subject. The carers group, works to ensure equality of opportunity for carers in Scotland. It does this by liaising with carers' organisations, lobbying the Scottish Government and promoting legislation on carers' behalf. Shared Care Scotland will be leading the May meeting, sharing information and experiences about short breaks across Scotland.
More about the group and further details of the forthcoming meeting will be made available on the Scottish Parliament website.
Local Government Elections
As one of the seven National Carer Organisations, Shared Care Scotland is calling on all candidates in the forthcoming local government elections to consider the role that unpaid carers play in Scotland. In the joint manifesto for carers, candidates are asked to agree to:
- Protect funding for carer support & ensure there are adequate resources to implement the Carers Act
- Increase efforts to improve short breaks provision
- Promote better, preventative support for carers
- Improve financial support for carers of all ages
- Support carers in and into employment
The National Carer Organisations are Carers Scotland; the Coalition of Carers in Scotland; Minority Ethnic Carers of People Project (MECOPP); Carers Trust Scotland; the Scottish Young Carers Services Alliance; Crossroads Caring Scotland; and Shared Care Scotland.
If you would like more information on the manifesto please contact Shared Care Scotland Communications Developer, Kate Hogarth by email Kate.hogarth@sharedcarescotland.com
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Other News
Alzheimer Scotland Annual Conference: International insights, national innovation, local inspiration
This year’s conference will explore big issues, from the impact of Brexit on dementia research and collaboration, to challenging and trying to understand the often contradictory media risk reduction headlines about nutrition, food and drink.
With such challenging questions on the main programme, the opportunity to pick from nine breakout sessions, and the chance to engage with over 50 exhibitors and 500 delegates in the bustling exhibition area, this is a conference not to miss.
For more details, including online bookings, visit www.alzscot.org/conference2017
National Health & Care Standards Review
The Scottish Government’s 12-week public consultation on the National Health and Social Care Standards – part of an ongoing review process – concluded in January. Responses from 500 people and organisations involved with care and support services including health, social work and social care, childcare and early-learning, and many more will now be reviewed and analysed. A summary report is due to be published in April. Comments received will influence the final Standards which will be sent to Scottish Ministers in late spring/early summer 2017 for approval.
Full details of the National Health and Social Care Standards are available online.
Mencap Survey
Learning disability charity Mencap will be focusing their annual health campaign this year on reasonable adjustments for people with a learning disability when they go into hospital. To help them do this, they want to hear directly from people with a learning disability on their own experiences of hospitals.
There will be a separate survey later this year to get views from family, friends and carers too.
The survey about going into hospital is online.
Autism Awareness Day 2 April 2017
World Autism Awareness Week takes places every year between 27 March and 2nd April. The autism presents itself in an individual which can vary greatly from person to person and throughout their life.
To help people understand autism, Scottish Autism together with David, a talented young illustrator who has Asperger's Syndrome, have created a fantastic interactive animated resource. Through the use of animated characters www.understandautism.org gives users insight into how autism can present itself in different people, as well as easy to understand information about the condition more generally.
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Toolkit Focus
Consultation Toolkit
In our e-bulletins we’re going to be taking a closer look at some of the practical tools we have to help with short breaks. This time we’re talking about our Consultation Toolkit.
As third sector organisations consider applying for short breaks fund grants, they may well need to consider the service that they provide and how best to do this, and our Evaluation Toolkit can help with this.
Bringing together almost 20 different consultation tools – covering everything from talking mats to questionnaires – into one comprehensive guide, the toolkit demonstrates the advantages and limitations of each approach. It also categorises how they can be used against the main questions of consultation: why, who, how many, what?
The toolkit is available for download on the Shared Care Scotland website.
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Staff Focus
Pauline Knox, Director
We’re a small team at Shared Care Scotland working across a wide range of issues related to short breaks. This month we’re introducing Director Pauline Knox who joined our board recently.
Pauline has worked in social care for over 16 years, and has spent the last nine years in a local authority setting. Throughout her career Pauline’s role has involved providing support to carers both as a front-line practitioner, and as a manager and strategic commissioner.
However, having been a young carer and now as a parent carer herself, Pauline has a deep-rooted passion and commitment to supporting carers. Pauline has established a very successful Shared Lives service in Moray and her other areas of work include self-directed support commissioning and development, and respite care development.
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See your news here...
We're always interested in hearing about the work that other organisations are doing across Scotland in short breaks, and with carers too. If you'd like to feature in our newsletter with an event, publication, or a piece of work that you'd like to highlight, please get in touch with Communications Developer Kate Hogarth at kate.hogarth@sharedcarescotland.com or on 01383 622 462
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If you would like to have more information about Shared Care Scotland or any one of the stories above, please contact Kate Hogarth, Communications Developer at kate.hogarth@sharedcarescotland.com or by telephone on 01383 622 462.
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