Wiltshire CIL e-bulletin December 2016

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Wiltshire CIL’s new website

Exciting news, we have a new website! Please check it out and let us know what you think: www.wiltshirecil.org.uk

Our opening hours for the holiday season can be found at the end of this e-bulletin.

Simple solutions making big differences

Our support planners are continuing to help people live well in their community, doing things that they love. Recent examples include supporting someone to find an accessible place to stay in Blackpool so he could have a break with his wife, helping a person to find out how to catch the bus to their local town and supporting someone to find the materials and the labour to put a raised bed into her garden. None of these things came off a prescribed list of services and interventions, all came about as a result of listening to the person and finding out what was important to them, then helping them facilitate change. Small, personalised changes make big differences, so this photo below might just look like a wooden box to you, but the lady’s daughter assured us ‘that it will change my mother’s life’.

Services vs friends

What is the difference between a service and a real life relationship?
This may seem like an obvious question - but is often not fully explored when we design our services to support the people we work with.
At Wiltshire CIL we are really committed to working in a person centred way and we love our work, but we are still a service, we work within office hours, have weekends off etc. Compare this to 'real relationships'; a good friend rings me up just as I am leaving the supermarket, she is upset and would really like to talk to me, I know she is going through some stuff at the moment so I drop everything, go visit.
What is the difference here? My friend didn’t have to fill in a referral form; she didn’t need to meet any criteria. I don’t tell her I am only available in office hours or schedule in a weekly visit at a pre-specified time. She knows I am there for her when she needs me.
However great a service is, it is never going to replace real life relationships and real connections. Therefore, all our work focuses on getting people to make real and meaningful relationships in their community.

Good conversations get results

The “three-conversations” model is replacing assessments in some councils in England. It aims to create a new relationship between professionals and people who need support, providing a graded process of conversations aimed at helping people lead independent lives. This new way of talking to people aims to see how social care can help make someone’s life work for them, moving away from an assessment that often ends up with the provision of a formal service.
Find out more by following the link below:
https://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2016/nov/01/the-three-conversations-model-turning-away-from-long-term-care?CMP=ema-1696&CMP

The Three C’s model

The Coalition for Collaborative Care has launched their 3 c’s model:

Better conversations between the health professional and the people they support.
Growing strong communities and people’s personal and social networks.
Co-production – involving people, families and communities as equal partners at every stage of decision-making, commissioning, service design and delivery.

It is a great and simple model that embodies the person centred and community approach, which we are all working towards. Find out more by reading their website:
http://coalitionforcollaborativecare.org.uk/our-three-cs/

Asset map tool

Here's an example of an excellent resource that you can use in your community to help map the assets of individuals, and then connect them up. We have a blank one if you would like to use it for your community mapping. Email: mary@wiltshirecil.org.uk

#makesomeonewelcome and Wiltshire Wildlife - do Christmas

Wiltshire Wildlife hosted a brilliant day making Christmas crafts at their reserve at Langford Lakes on Saturday 26^th November. Over 20 people came along and had the opportunity to take part in crafts and do some bird watching. It is great to see how accessible and welcoming Wiltshire Wildlife reserves are – helping everybody enjoy our beautiful countryside. We continue to sign up groups to our campaign, new recruits include: Salisbury Medical Practice, Music Alive, Pantry Partnership and Zumba Salisbury. Check out our MakeSomeoneWelcome page on our new website where you will find links to all the group’s web pages, you can also find information about the campaign on Wiltshire Council’s Your Care Your Support website

Wiltshire CIL does TV Reviews!

Ok, so this probably won’t become a regular feature, but we just loved this programme aired on BBC 2 7th December, whereby some very clever people get together to offer bespoke solutions to life's problems. It really reflects what asset based and person centred work is about. Two great examples: a woman with Parkinsons who is a graphic designer - what is important to her - being able to write and draw; a young man with a skin condition whose life was greatly enhanced by his photography work. Both received very clever bespoke solutions - (we all want a 3d printer now!)- which enabled them to do the things they really love and which helps them be the person they are. This programme is an exemplary example of properly listening to people, to find out what is important to them, rather than just going for a 'one size - not fitting all' approach.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084ztrw