|
In this issue:
Spring is here! Crocuses, daffodils spring lambs – signs of new life - remind us of nature’s constant renewal and refreshment. And the promise of milder weather on its way and the balmy summer days and evenings to come will, I am sure, be giving us something to look forward to. All this positivity from nature should perhaps inspire us to renew ourselves. To cast off the fog of winter and look forward, refreshed to better things to come.
In this edition of our bulletin you can see numerous opportunities to get involved in Adult Social Care, such as our Coventry Carers Survey, Stakeholder Group and the chance to recognise a “Dementia Hero” through the Coventry Dementia Partnership Hub.
|
As part of the People at the Heart of Care: adult social care reform white paper, local authorities are required to complete a Fair Cost of Care exercise to arrive at a shared understanding with providers of the local cost of providing care. In addition, authorities are required to publish a Market Sustainability Plan detailing how they plan on working towards the fair cost of care (where this is not already being paid) over the next 3 years.
Coventry’s Cost of Care exercise has now been complete, with our Cost of Care Reports detailing the results now available to view on the Council website.
Our final step in the Cost of Care process is now underway with the development of our Market Sustainably Plan – a plan which will outline our assessment of the current care market for 65+ residential / nursing provision and the 18+ home support market, advise of the effect delays to social care reforms may have, and how we will support the sustainability of the market through both financial and practical support. Our Market Sustainability Plan has been developed following extensive engagement with our commissioned providers and will target the specific areas of pressure and concern local providers currently face.
Our Market Sustainability Plan will be finalised and published on the Council website on the 27 March 2023. Should you need any further information in the meantime, please contact SocialCareCommissioning@coventry.gov.uk.
Adult Social Care Stakeholder Group
The Adult Social Care Stakeholder Group meet every other month to discuss any upcoming developments, projects and changes. They are there to influence, make changes and help us improve the experience of people accessing Adult Social Care.
The group is made up of people receiving support, carers and voluntary sector organisations. In December we met to discuss key topics such as Social Care Reforms, the upcoming Adult Social Care Offer and Quality Assurance processes in commissioning.
The group have input into the language and layout of the Adult Social Care Offer (even correcting typos). The group is growing and we're always looking for new members and people who are passionate about using their own experience to help shape our future practice.
If anyone you're working with springs to mind then please let them know about the group. You can email GetInvolvedASC@coventry.gov.uk for more information.
|
 |
Improving the lives of people with dementia and their carers is achieved through the support of many passionate people and that’s no different here in Coventry.
The new Coventry Dementia Partnership Hub hopes to identify individuals who have made a real difference and dedicated their lives to the cause by naming community rooms after them.
Renovations are well underway for The Coventry Dementia Partnership Hub, which is replacing the Council-run Maymorn Centre in Holbrooks.
The hub will be a go-to place for people with dementia and their carers. They can receive advice and support, connect and meet new individuals, obtain help on and off site, socialise, and utilise the facilities at the hub.
As part of the vision to make the Coventry Dementia Partnership Hub community-centered, there is a request for nominations.
People should nominate a person who has devoted their life to the cause, both past and present. The nominee's name will become the title of one of the multiple community rooms at the hub.
This nominee could be a loved one or someone you know whose lifelong goal is to improve the lives of those with dementia. They could be an individual who has worked or is working tirelessly, caring for people living with this disease. The person may still be with us or could be someone who has passed away.
The Coventry Dementia Partnership Hub wants to learn about, respect, and honour these incredible people, but this is only achievable through nominations.
Cllr Mal Mutton, Cabinet Member for Adult Services, said: "The 'Recognising a Dementia Hero' scheme is a wonderful way to honour the people who have dedicated themselves to improving the lives of individuals living with dementia.
I encourage anyone who knows of a person deserving of having one of the hub's community rooms named after them to nominate them and let them be recognised for their outstanding efforts."
The community rooms will be available to hire, allowing the wider community to benefit from the hub.
Nominations will close on Sunday 9 April 2023. An external panel will decide the names that will host the community rooms.
To find out more and to nominate a 'Dementia Hero', visit: https://letstalk.coventry.gov.uk/embeds/projects/12212/survey-tools/20922
Or, you can call 07957 429324 to make a nomination or to request a paper copy of the nomination form.
Having a carer's assessment?
If you look after someone, a friend, a loved one, a neighbour sometimes it can be hard to think about the support you need yourself. But support is available when you need it. A carer's assessment is a good way of starting those conversations and thinking about your own needs.
Who can have a carer's assessment?
Anyone providing care for an adult is entitled to a carer's assessment.
What is a carer's assessment?
It's the opportunity for you to talk to a professional about your caring role, how it impacts you, what you'd like
We will explore what is important to you, how your caring role impacts you, what parts of your caring role you want to maintain, need support with or want to end. We will explore how regularly you are able to take breaks and the other areas of your life that are important to you. A carer's assessment will also help you think about the future and what support you might need in the event of an emergency.
We will complete a support plan with you if required (and jointly with the person you are caring for) and will review this as your needs change over time.
What might happen as a result of an assessment?
The practitioner will work with you to see what support is available and what might help. It might even be that feeling listened to and having the opportunity to talk about your experiences has helped in itself. It might be that you need a bit more support, perhaps care and support for the person you're looking after, so they will support you to access help available.
Who does the Carers Assessment?
We work in partnership with the Carers Trust Heart of England to provide carers’ support services. The contact details for Carers Trust Heart of England can be found in part three ‘useful information’
|
Coventry Carers Survey
A carer is anyone who cares, unpaid, for a friend or family member who due to illness, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction cannot cope without their support. Caring for someone can take up a few hours each week, or a carer may be caring for 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
We would like to understand how the caring responsibility of individuals impacts on their daily life, the challenges faced, and which services, if any, have been accessed alongside anything else that may affect their caring role.
We would therefore appreciate your support in promoting our short Carers Survey with anyone you may know or come into contact with who has caring responsibilities for another adult. Likewise, if you are a carer yourself, we would greatly appreciate your views. The survey will be running until Friday 5 May 2023 and can be accessed online via the Coventry Lets Talk page .
The information you provide will help us to have a better understanding about the wellbeing of carers and who is being cared for and may be used to improve services.
If you identify as an unpaid carer, we would really like to hear from you as we are looking to develop a Coventry City Council working carers Network. This would be a new network and we would like to hear from individuals who would like to be involved. If you are interested please email Natalie.hall@coventry.gov.uk. I look forward to hearing from you.
Carers' bulletin
If you want to find out more about what's going on for carers every month, please subscribe to our monthly carers' bulletin. We let you know everything that is going on across the city for carers, any groups or training, consultations and helpful information. Subscribe to the carers' bulletin.
Living in a home with no – or broken – heating and hot water is miserable at any time of the year. This is particularly true in the winter of course.
And if you have an illness made worse by living in a cold home, it can have a devastating impact on your physical and mental health.
But there is help at hand for those living in their own or privately rented properties in the Coventry area.
Keeping Coventry Warm has got funding available to help install - or fix - boilers and central heating systems.
Anyone with a chronic or acute health condition or disability which is made worse by the cold (such as respiratory conditions, arthritis, diabetes or heart disease) can apply for help. Income criteria applies but it’s well worth residents contacting Coventry City Council’s partner, Act on Energy to see if they can help.
You can contact them for free on 0800 988 2881 or via the Act On Energy website
|
We want to hear from people who live, work or study in Coventry, we need your views on the city’s Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Commitment.
We have listened to all the views gathered during engagement on the One Coventry Plan, in particular the priority ‘Improving outcomes and tackling inequalities within our communities’.
We said that we would use this feedback to shape future strategies and service delivery.
So our first step has been to make some changes to the equality policy for the Council – our ‘Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Commitment’.
- We have added a section on how the One Coventry approach – working collaboratively to make improvements to the services we deliver – will be used to drive forward our diversity and inclusion work, so we can make the biggest impact on the lives of local people.
- We’ve also included social value and sustainability – to show the importance we place on our procurement processes and contracts with third parties. These can help us challenge inequality, promote inclusion, support the local economy and work with local communities.
- We’ve also added more information about the work we’re doing to improve the diversity of our workforce and create an inclusive workplace culture.
Read the draft EDI Commitment, give us your views by filling in our survey and find out more on Let’s Talk Coventry. The closing date for feedback will be 29 March 2023.
If you’d like any more information or you have any questions, please contact us at equality@coventry.gov.uk
If you would like to request a paper copy of the survey or need this information in another format or language then please contact us on 08085 834333.
We look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Real time experience survey
If you've had a recent assessment or support provided from Adult Social Care then we'd like to hear more about your experience. You can provide your feedback by accessing Access the Adult Social Care Experience survey. The survey is open to anyone whose received support from Adult Social Care recently and any carer who may have received support.
We use any feedback to make sure we develop and improve our services and understand more about the realities of receiving support through Adult Social Care.
The survey asks for your Care Director ID which can be found on any assessment or support plan you will have received as part of your care journey.
|
Annual Report for Adult Social Care 2021/22
Every year Adult Social Care produces a report to talk about what we have done over the last year. The report contains information about the amount of people we have worked with over the year, service developments plans, the key challenges we face and celebrate successes. The report is sometimes known as a Local Account. This report is co-produced using people's own journeys to demonstrate the work undertaken by the service and is a really well-regarded Report.
A partnership between the Migration Team and the Adult Social Care Strategic Commissioning team has co-produced an event to introduce potential recruits to providers in the Adult Social Care sector. This event reflects the objectives of the One Coventry Together plan to support Coventry’s newly arrived citizens to find suitable recruitment that provides opportunities and to enhance their skills. This partnership has also aimed to catalyse recruitment into Adult Social Care.
The event took place at St Francis Employability on Thursday 9 February. 3 providers in addition to job coaches and additional organisations took part in the event that recorded over 70 attendees. Additional organisations who could not attend sent some promotional materials. The event was a great success including on-site job applications, English and numeracy tests completed, and some great discussions had. Many attendees presented their CVs to providers, many of whom are to be given a call back. Two of the providers that attended received 30 enquiries each and another had 24 attendees express an interest in applying.
A big thank you to the providers, organisations and the wonderful team at St Francis for taking part and helping to make this event a success.
|
Changes to voting process - Photo ID needed
Anybody going to a polling station this May will need to provide a form of photographic ID before they can receive a ballot paper. The full list of accepted forms of ID can be found on the Electoral Commission website. Anyone who does not have one of these accepted forms of ID can apply for a free Voter Authority Certificate on the Government website.
If you have a postal vote, you do not need photographic ID. If you have a proxy vote, then please be aware that your proxy will need to show photo ID at the polling station.
|
Subscribe to this bulletin.
or email GetinvolvedASC@coventry.gov.uk
|
