Bristol Safeguarding Adults Board wants to hear from carers!

The Bristol Safeguarding Adults Board is currently writing the safeguarding adults strategic plan for 2018-2021.

This is an important strategy to feed your views into. There is an online survey which can be accessed by clicking here, it just takes a few minutes to fill out.

Continue reading “Bristol Safeguarding Adults Board wants to hear from carers!”

Consultation: South Gloucestershire Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Strategy

The consultation on the draft Strategy for Children and Young People 0-25 years with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in South Gloucestershire 2018-2023 is now live.

All the consultation documents are available via this web page Web: http://bit.ly/2FdEqBe. The consultation closes at 5pm on Monday 12th March.

Continue reading “Consultation: South Gloucestershire Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Strategy”

Consultation: Deadline for responding to Talking Therapies extended

As some of you will be aware, BNSSG (Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire) Clinical Commissioning Groups are re-designing and re-commissioning talking therapies services. This includes counselling, CBT and group therapy.

Have you accessed talking therapies? Has the person that you care for accessed them? Do you have any views that you would like to feed in?

The deadline for filling out the online survey has now been extended until 15th February.

You can fill this out by clicking here!

Consultation: Blue Badge Scheme

Government is proposing changing the eligibility criteria for the Blue Badge scheme to include people with non-physical conditions and to allow a range of healthcare professionals with specific expertise (other than the applicant’s GP) to undertake the assessments and to offer an automatic badge eligibility for people with non-physical disabilities who score 12 points under the PIP Activity – ‘Planning and Following Journeys’.

The deadline is 18 March. View more information including the online survey by clicking here.

Consultation: Over the Counter Items (NHS England)

NHS England is consulting on reducing prescribing of over-the-counter medicines. Feedback so far from patients and patient organisations has highlighted that considerations must be made for people with long-term conditions who require a large supply of over the counter medicine.

If you would like to respond to this consultation you can do so by Wednesday 14 March.

Click here to take part in the consultation.

Consultation: South Gloucestershire HomeChoice

The South Gloucestershire Council HomeChoice Rehousing policy sets out how the Council assesses applications for housing and the process for letting to social housing that the Council has nomination rights to.

The current policy contains three bandings. These bands are broad based and applicants within each banding have the same level of priority although their housing circumstances can be very different.

The deadline to feed into this consultation is the 26th March.

To give your feedback click here!

Consultation: Short Breaks for Parent Carers

Bristol City Council has a statutory responsibility to provide a range of short breaks (previously known as respite) to parent carers. This is set out in their Short Breaks Statement jointly developed with Bristol Parent Carers (BPC).  The Targeted Short Breaks services contracts for children and young people up to age 18 all end on 31 March 2019. Targeted services are services that you don’t need a social worker assessment to access.

This survey will ask you about short breaks services and also about:

  • Personal Assistants Service a service to help people find a personal assistant.
  • Exploring widening eligibility for short breaks for children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ADHD and children with Social, Emotional & Mental Health (SEMH). There is a section at the end where you can get further information on short breaks.

The deadline to respond is 17th January.

For more information, click here.

Consultation: South Gloucestershire Better Care Stronger Communities Funding Review

South Gloucestershire Council is reviewing the impact of the services delivered by: Shopmobility, The Armadillo Senior Cinema, MS Therapy Centre Exercise Groups and WE Care and Repair to decide whether to continue or cease funding these organisations. If you have used or benefited from any of these services or know carers that have, please respond to the survey by 5pm, Wednesday 20 December 2017. Click here to learn more.

Consultation: South Gloucestershire Council Budget and Savings Programme – 2018/19

South Gloucestershire Council is consulting on its capital and revenue budgets, council tax levels for next year (2018/19), and its overall savings plan. It is proposed that 28% of this budget will go towards children, adults and health. The deadline for responses is 12 January 2018. Click here to learn more.

Consultation: AWP Mental Health NHS Trust Five Year Strategy

Do you have comments about mental health services? Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust is launching a five year strategy and are asking for comments on this. One of the key areas that they are consulting on around this strategy is how they can better support service users and carers. The deadline to comment on this is Friday 22 December.

View the draft strategy here and fill out the online survey here.

Consultation: Online Safety

The Internet Safety Strategy looks at how the government can ensure vulnerable people are safe online.

The national consultation about this strategy covers various aspects of online safety including:

  • Fraud and older people
  • Support for parents and carers
  • Adults’ experience of online abuse &
  • Hate crimes against disabled people and other minority groups

View the consultation here.

The deadline for responding to this is midday on the 7th December 2017.

Consultation: South Gloucestershire Ageing Better Plan – 22/11/17

The aim of the Ageing Better Plan is to set out the guiding principles for all organisations working with older people in South Gloucestershire. The plan will set out South Gloucestershire Council’s priorities for the next 5 years and they would like everyone to contribute to it.

South Gloucestershire Council say about the plan, “The Ageing Better Plan brings together the outcomes and priorities that will guide our work to support older people (age 65+), the way we will measure our progress and how we will work to realise our ambitions. It is based on data, evidence and consultation with older people and wider partners across the area.”

There will be an event on Wednesday 22 November 2017, Yate Outdoor Sports Complex between 9.30am – 12.30pm.

You don’t have to book on to this – you can just turn up.

The consultation documents are available online here from your local South Gloucestershire library or One Stop Shop.

Consultation: Draft Accessibility Action Plan Event 13/11/17

The Department for Transport is running an event in Bristol at the Novotel Bristol Centre Hotel, Victoria Street, BS1 6HY from 11am – 3pm on Monday 13 November for interested parties to come and discuss the draft plan. The event is open to carers and disabled people. This is similar to the event that was held at The Vassall Centre in October, which a couple of our carer representatives attended.

A place can be booked via the Eventbrite site here.

The consultation document can be viewed here.

For more information please email: AAPConsultation@dft.gsi.gov.uk

Consultation: South Gloucestershire Council Ageing Better Plan

If you are an older person or caring for an older person in South Gloucestershire, make sure you have your input on the draft South Gloucestershire Council Ageing Better Plan. This sets out the outcomes and priorities that will guide South Gloucestershire Council’s work to support older people aged 65 and over. The draft plan also includes a section on carers. You can view the draft plan and respond to the consultation here.

The deadline is 12th January 2018.

Consultation: S. Glos Council Draft Adult Mental Health Strategy

South Gloucestershire Council want to hear carers’ views on their draft Adult Mental Health Strategy 2017 – 2022. Click here for more information. The deadline for responding is 6 October.

However if you miss the deadline or have further comments, there is an event for organisations and the public to have their say on Monday 23 October 10am-12pm at Yate Leisure Centre. Attending this would be a great opportunity to make sure that carers’ voices are heard. Book and view more about the event here:  If you plan to attend and would like some support preparing for the event, contact us here.

Consultation: Draft Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment

The government requires that all Health and Wellbeing Boards produce an assessment of pharmaceutical services in its area at least every three years; the last pharmaceutical needs assessment for Bristol and South Glos took place in 2014.

Both Bristol City Council and South Gloucestershire Council have drafted updated Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment documents and would like to hear carers’ views on pharmaceutical services in your area.

Continue reading “Consultation: Draft Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment”