15th of June 13:30 – 15:00
Online Event – book your free place here
or below, after some further information regarding the event and the project
Caring Communities of Change
The project will put learning disability family carers, third sector partners and the wider professional network at the heart of service design and delivery across Health and Social Care in Wales.
The All Wales Forum will work in partnership with carer-led network organisations and national third sector organisations to co-produce, pilot and scale up innovative and practical solutions to meet the needs of the families.
What is the idea behind the Staycation network?
The idea of a ‘Staycation’ isn’t new, lots of families from across Wales take holidays in the beautiful Welsh country sides, seaside’s and bustling Welsh cities every year.
We would like to see how we collectively explore ways we can make Staycation work for learning disability families in Wales.
Specifically, we would like to explore the idea of a Staycation ‘community’ that creates, shares and supports each other by providing and making use of shared resources based on access needs.
What is our goal?
To enable Learning Disability families and third sector partners in Wales to develop services that secure rights, enhance physical, emotional and economic well-being and support family relationships, all through enabling learning disability family carers to have an active contribution to society.
We will collaboratively work with families and national organisation to co-produce and provide responsive and flexible alternative offers to respite care. It will provide options for respite care that can be ‘self-funded’ or paid for through Direct Payments.
These ideas include –
– Exploring and implementing the principles of a Respitality style model in Wales
– Using Direct Payments flexibly to access short breaks and respite care
-Developing a Staycation network for family carers of loved ones with learning disabilities to swap houses over short periods to access short breaks as a family
Progress so far…
The COVID-19 pandemic has delayed the progress in the development of this idea as many families have been shielding in-line with Welsh Government guidance.
We held an initial peer-learning conversation on the topic of Staycation on the 18th of February with those interested in the idea, to start identifying and building a network of parents, carers and professionals to make this happen.
As we move out of the pandemic and we are able to visit each others houses again, we would like to develop this idea to see how we form a network of families who can arrange short terms house swaps swap and build strong networks of friendships across Wales through having short breaks as a family.
What is this meeting for?
The purpose of this meeting is to –
Share
– Progress from collaborating partners from the working groups – including what are the next steps of these working groups
-An opportunity for other organisations to share from similar examples of work with similar principles
-Start to identify a network of people to take part in a small scale pilot of the Staycation idea
Learn
Learning from working groups and other examples across Wales as to –
– What works and why?
– What doesn’t work and why?
– What are the barriers and how will we/have we overcome them?
Develop
– How do we grow this work further?
– How do other areas get involved?
Who would we like to talk to?
We welcome anyone with an interest, opinion or experiences in alternative forms of respite care and short breaks for families’. We would particularly like to hear from –
– Parents and carers
– Carer led organisations or groups
– `Anyone working or volunteering with parents and carers
Book your free place here.
I would like to speak to someone before the event…
Feel free to contact us via email at caringcommunities@allwalesforum.org.uk or via 02920 811120 – our office hours are 9am – 5pm Mondays to Thursdays.
Thanks,
The AWF Team
