Cathy Murray

Principal Officer

Learning Disability Services

City & County of Swansea

People and Places Presentation

POLICY AND PRACTICE

• Fulfilling the Promises (The Welsh Valuing

People)

• Welsh Assembly Government - Service

Principles Service Responses

– The provision of information empowers service users

and carers to make informed decisions, access

services and exercise their rights.

– accessible information on the full range of services

and facilities available to meet the needs of service

users …..produced in a range of formats to ensure

the most widespread and effective communication.

– accessible information on how users and carers can

actively participate in an informed way in the

individual planning and strategic planning processes.

– access to timely and up to date information in an

accessible format so service users can make

informed choices about health and lifestyle issues.

– Each service user must be enabled to play an integral

part in the planning of their own lives and have the

opportunity to state his or her wishes and preferences

and have these fully taken into account.

– Authorities should work with support providers to

explore opportunities to develop personal and local

networks to meet an individual’s support needs rather

than relying exclusively on formal paid support.

• Learning Disability Services in Swansea response via an Implementation Framework identified:

– There will be more involvement of service users to develop services that meet peoples needs better

– Service users and carers will be better informed regarding services available

• By– Information will be delivered in a variety of formats,

website, video, CD-Rom

Swansea Lives and People

• City and County of Swansea asked that the Swansea Provider Forum to develop a website.

• This was to be funded by a combination of Local one-off

monies and money over 3 years from Service Principles

Service Responses.

• This website was to provide information about services for people who have a learning disability who live in the City & County of Swansea.

• It was to also help people who have a learning disability and their supporters to share their views and opinions about services that they use in a open way.

• The principle aims of these sites were to –

– Bring People Together On-line.

Website Development

• First Swansea Lives was built:

– A common framework of information from

each provider delivered in video, talking,

text, pictures and symbols.

– Accessible animated help

– http://www.swansea-lives.com/

• Swansea People arrived in June

2006 to support people who want to

stay at the centre of their circle of

friends, families and supporters

• Collect and share information about

their lives

• Plan their lives in a person centred way

that makes the most of the way they

communicate

Swansea People in Action

• Live Demonstration

Swansea People - The Future• We now need to raise our game, to video

rather than print, to record rather than write.

• This means staff training, disseminating

good practice, and starting to look at things

in a different way. • We are also now thinking about how staff

can use this tool more effectively.

Managing Lives not Documenting Services

• This will promote long term growing personal histories documented in the first and second person collected in ways that actively involve the person and their network.

• It will also offer opportunities for social networking across services, homes, the region and beyond.

Service Users can use it to take more control of their services

• Individuals are thinking about how they can create content to tell the people that support them how they want to be supported.

Further Information

• Our strategy – Bringing People Together On-Line

• SPICT

These and other information can be found on our stall.