Featuring �Service User Involvement What Involvement means to me

�Staff Stars National Learning Disability Awards

Don’t Miss �Carer’s Corner The Willow Foundation

�Awards Time Extraordinary Person of the Month

Welcome

2 The Link

It is my pleasure to write the welcome for the spring edition of The Link. Yet again as I read it, I am proud

and delighted at all the things that are happening across the services. Our focus on involving people is right and proper as we need to gather momentum for this to ensure a ‘nothing about me without me’ attitude is present in every service and in every staff member.

The new visions and values of Turning Point are a major step change - Inspired by possibility, rings a particular bell for us in the Learning Disabilities Sector, as so often people’s histories or their condition can lead people to believe their possibilities are limited. We know this is not true (as you can see on page 12 in the Awards Time feature). We have to keep striving to support people to fulfil their ambitions and have higher expectations, to drive forward change. Read more about this in the summer edition of The Link.

Staff (as I always say)make an organisation and am delighted that we have had staff acknowledged nationally for their excellent work.

I have some new senior team members which I particularly want to say a big welcome to, my new Head of Operations, Andy Callow. I encourage you to read his interview on page 8, which gives you a flavour of where he comes from. We also welcome two new Regional Managers, Steph Draper in Peterborough and Derby and Will Burchell, in Stafford and Stoke. It is great to have the three of you on board. Your expertise and enthusiasm will add a greater flavour to our existing team.

I hope you all have had a good spring as we look forward to the summer lets hope we get a bit of sun for a change!

As always, if you have any comments or would like to talk to me, please feel free to get in touch.

Best wishes,

Fiona RitchieManaging DirectorLearning Disability ServicesTurning Point fiona.ritchie@turning-point.co.uk

Welcome

Contents

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In this issueService User Involvement• Building confidence and empowering

people to tell their story 4• Bradford People First 5• What Involvement means to me 6• Tea with Victor 7Real LivesMeet Andrew Callow 8Carer’s CornerThe Willow Foundation 9Staff StarsNational Learning Disability Awards 10Letters to the Editor• Your Say 11• Care Opinion 11Awards TimeExtraordinary Person of the Month 12Turning Point in ActionRaising awareness of Social Care 14Inspired by possibilityCompetition 16

On the coverLaura Dillon from Marloes Walk, Warwickshire and her mum, Sue Jackson

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Useful NumbersGeneral Turning Point enquiries:Standon House (London)

020 7481 7600

The Exchange (Manchester)

0161 238 5100

Ideas, comments and stories:Claire Moszoro

Turning Point

020 7481 6228

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For Paul Rodgers, who is supported

in Peterborough, the first big achievement of the day was the journey to London. It was one of the first time’s he had been on a train to London and he enjoyed the experience.

Sometimes sharing our story can influence others and bring about positive change. The group looked at what makes a good story and how to get that story across to their audience in the best way possible.

A mixture of films, games, practical sessions and top tips on how to be a good storyteller

made for a fantastic session, culminating in two of the individuals we support presenting a story about something they were passionate about.

Ben Bean, who is supported by Turning Point in Warwickshire, was ever the actor, doing a sterling job talking about The Hub, a place where people with Learning Disabilities can go to socialise in Warwickshire and what it means to him.

For Vivian McDonald, who lives in her own flat in Hertfordshire, it was an emotional

ending to the day after presenting her story beautifully. She spoke passionately about her day centre and the important role it plays in her life and many others who go there. When she had finished she filled with tears of pride and said :

And proud they all should be. This one day workshop was a trial to see if the structure of the day worked well and to see if it would work on a wider scale.

Everyone gave their feedback on how they thought the day went and agreed it was a winning formula.

Building confidence and empowering people to tell their story

Service User Involvement

AbOvE , bEn, PAUL And vIvIAn AT ThE wORkShOP

Recently people we support travelled to London with staff, to attend a one day workshop, led by Rachel killick, Community Involvement Coordinator. It focused on empowering people to share their story and work on how to present them to an audience.

do you know any of the people you support who would like to build confidence and learn new skills, so they can share their story to bring about positive change?

Please do get in touch ! Email LdInvolvement@turning-point. co.uk

They are tears of happiness, I’ve never done anything like this before.

Information Point People First is an organisation run by and for people with learning disabilities to raise awareness and campaign for the rights of people with learning disabilities and to support self-advocacy groups across the country.

There are regional People First self-advocacy forums all across the country. To find out more and to see if there is a People First in your region, take a look at their websitewww.peoplefirstltd.com

You can find out more about the work and campaigns that Bradford People First is currently working on, visit their website here: www.bradfordpeoplefirst.org.uk

Service User Involvement

Bradford People First, Self-Advocacy TrainingRecently bradford’s People’s Parliament, Step Forward, received training on how to run a Self-Advocacy forum. The training was delivered by bradford People First.

Step Forward have been making links with Bradford People First (who have members

that sit on the Bradford’s Learning Disability Partnership Board) as a way of feeding the work that Step Forward have been doing through to those who commission their services.

The aim of the day was to help the individuals we support and the colleagues supporting them to move their forum forward and for it to be led more by individuals we support and less by our colleagues.

The training was a mixture of group work and discussions which covered:

� What a forum is

� What Self Advocacy means

� Why are feelings important in self advocacy?

� Some tips on how to make the forums interesting

Everyone who attended got something out of the day and went away with some good ideas to try at their forum.

bRAdFORd STEP FORwARd AT ThE SELF AdvOCACy TRAInInG

To find out more detail about the about the day please contact Caroline byrne, Project Co-ordinator email

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caroline.byrne@turning-point.co.uk

6 The Link

Service User Involvement

The Learning Disability Sector recently ran a consultation with the people we support called

‘For me involvement means…’

People were asked to complete the phrase, produce some artwork or write a poem about what involvement means to them.

The responses will be included in the forthcoming Involvement Toolkit which is currently being developed to provide guidance on how to involve people we support in playing their part in the direction of Turning Point.

Thank you to all who took part! We hope to include all entries in the Toolkit.

What involvement means to me...

Service User Involvement

wARwICkShIRE PEOPLE’S PARLIAMEnT In FULL FLOw... wORkInG On ThEIR wInnInG SUbMISSIOn

Fiona Ritchie, who picked the winning entry said:

I liked them all but

Warwickshire, People’s Parliament’s entry wins! I can really see all were meaningfully involved.

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Service User Involvement

Tea with Victor

In March, Tony Marsh and Susan Nicholls, individual’s we support in Bradford, were

supported by Lucy Webb, Support Worker at Reevy Road, to make the trip to London. Together they met for Tea with Lord Victor Adebowale, Chief Executive, Turning Point, at the House of Lords.

They were joined by Fiona Ritchie, Managing Director and Gavin Harding the first Labour town

councillor with a Learning Disability for Selby, North Yorkshire. Gavin also sits on the Winterbourne Joint Improvement Board and co-chairs the Winterbourne Engagement Strategy Team Board.

The group were shown around the House of Lords by Victor. They sat in on a debate in the Lords and had a chat with Victor over tea. Everyone found it to be a great experience and enjoyed by all.

IndIvIdUALS FROM bRAdFORd SUSAn And TOny SUPPORTEd by LUCy wEbb EnOyInG ThEIR dAy MEETInG GAvIn hARdInG , FIOnA RITChIE And LORd vICTOR AdEbOwALE, AT ThE hOUSES OF PARLIAMEnT

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Meet Andrew Callow Turning Point’s Learning disability Senior Management Team has a new addition. we welcome Andrew Callow and wish him well in his new role of head of Operations.

Where do you work and what is your role?

My role is Head of Operations for Turning Point’s Learning Disability Services. That means I am responsible for the operational delivery of the Learning Disability Services across the country. Ensuring safe, high quality, person-centred

services are delivered to the people we support. I am a member of the Senior Management Team, developing and growing the Learning Disability Sector. I am also a Registered Nurse with 25 years of experience working with people with a learning disability and enduring mental health support needs. I have worked in a wide variety of settings including the NHS, Social Services, the private sector and charitable organisations, both in the UK and abroad. My passion is enabling people with disabilities to live fulfilled lives and be supported in a respectful, valued manner and this shapes my managerial and clinical practice.

Tell us a bit about your career and what led you to Turning Point…

I first became interested in this field when I got a summer job as a support worker in a residential care home for people with a learning disability. I loved it so much I’ve never looked back. In the time since I have held a number of relevant positions, for example, in my previous role I was setting up new services for people who wanted to live independently and closer to home. They were people who lived in the larger hospitals a long way from home, and that taught me to really listen to the person we are supporting and their families, to make sure we get it right for them.

how do you relax outside of work?

I love gardening and spending time on my allotment. If my career hadn’t taken me where I am today I think I would like to have been a horticulturist, and my dream job would be presenting on Gardener’s World.

To find out more about Andy or to ask him anything at all please contact him by emailing: andrew.callow@turning–point.co.uk

The Link

bLOOMInG MARvELLOUS! Andy kICkInG bACk In hIS GARdEn ShEd

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On Saturday 15 March,

Laura Dillon who lives at Marloes Walk in Warwickshire enjoyed a Special Day with her mum Sue Jackson.

The Special Day was supported by Willow. Willow is the only UK charity supporting seriously ill 16 to 40 year olds by providing unique and positive days.

Sally Barlow, Team leader thought that Laura would fit the criteria for support from the charity and along with Laura’s support team; Celia Richards, Registered Nurse and Gemma Clark, Support Worker an application was sent in.

They thought it would be a positive way for mum and daughter to spend some quality time together. Willow paid for a nurse to attend due to Laura’s health needs, and a support worker so that Laura’s needs could be met by her care team.

This meant mum was free to enjoy time with Laura.

On the day itself, Laura (along with Mum, Gemma Clark and Registered Learning Disabilities nurse Katherine Pearson) had a specially adapted taxi that picked them up from Marloes Walk taking them to the White Lion Pub for a late lunch. After lunch they were all picked up again and taken to the NEC to watch Disney on Ice.

The show had lots of professional skaters, songs and bright colours and was a perfect choice for Laura as she enjoys all of these. Mum was very happy to watch Laura enjoying herself.

Once the show had finished they all got a taxi back to Marloes Walk arriving back at 9.30 pm.

The Willow FoundationCarer’s Corner

In this edition of Carer’s Corner, we hear about how the work of The willow Foundation and the team at Marloes walk in warwickshire, have enabled Laura, an individual we support and her mum Sue, to spend some quality time together.

To find out more about The willow Foundation take a look at their websitewww.willowfoundation.org.uk

Gemma Clark Support worker said:

LAURA And hER MUM SUE SPEndInG SOME qAULITy TIME TOGEThER

It was lovely to see Laura enjoy some time with her mum in a relaxing environment. As a staff team we were able to take a step back and just be there to support with Laura’s health needs and watch her enjoy quality time with her mum. Something I think they have both missed. The Willow Foundation paid for everything so a big thank you to them for enabling us at Marloes Walk to support Laura and her mum.

10 The Link

Turning Point support worker

Pasquale (Pas) Ocone has been shortlisted for the National Learning Disability Awards.

Every year The Great British Care Awards host a series of regional events throughout England to pay tribute to people who have shown outstanding excellence

in their care. This year, Pas from Turning Point’s Avondale in Wiltshire has been shortlisted as a finalist in the National Learning Disability

Awards 2014.

The service is a registered care home for adults with complex needs and learning disabilities. Pas and the rest of the team provide 24 hour support to eight individuals to help them with all aspects of life, from personal to life skills to accessing the community.

Team Leader Cathie Birrell, who nominated Pas for the award, describes him as committed, loyal, compassionate,

hardworking and immensely supportive to all who reside and work at Avondale.

A judging day was held in Birmingham on the 2 April and a Gala Dinner took place on the 16 May. Pas did not win his category but being a finalist is such a great achievement .

well done to Pas! PAS And CAThIE AT ThE AwARdS CEREMOny

PAS, nIkkI MCALLISTER And PAS’ wIFE, MARy

ThE AvOndALE TEAM, LOOkInG GREAT

AT ThE AwARdS CEROMOny

Although Pas could have retired two years ago, he remained at Avondale, I know he won’t remain forever (sadly), and this is one of the reasons I chose to nominate him. I would dearly love to see Pas awarded for his commitment to learning disability services, the individuals, their family members and of course his colleagues.

In her nomination Cathie wrote that:

Pasquale, Support worker said;

This award is not about me, it’s about the team. A lot of what I do wouldn’t be possible without the excellent team I work with. If you work together you can move a mountain.

StaffStarsNational Learning Disability Awards

Turning Point has signed up for Care Opinion A site dedicated to helping people make informed choices about the care they receive. Care Opinion has been described as the ‘Trip Advisor for health and social care’. It allows the people we support, their families and carers to share stories about their experience of Turning Point. If you would like to tell your story you can do so by visiting:

www.careopinion.org.uk

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“I have been Gemma’s Manager since August 2003.

Marloes Walk where Gemma works provides nursing care to eigth young adults with profound physical and learning disabilities. Gemma has always seen past any challenges and has been able to support individuals to lead a full and active life.

Without doubt, everything that she does is based on the individual she is supporting’s communication and need. She always brings something new to each person she supports.

Gemma is full of ideas, always ensuring she researches plans before suggesting them.

If we could clone her we would!”

Sally barlowTeam Leader

LeTTerS To The edITor

“I have worked as a staff nurse at Marloes Walk since 2006 and have known Gemma since then. Gemma is truly inspirational in her role as Support Worker.

She is always person centred, thinking outside the box. If things don’t work one way she will try other ways to make things work, she never gives up.

Gemma is always organised and motivated in everything she does.

In conclusion Gemma is enthusiastic, responsible, and thorough; and valued as a staff member by everyone”

Celia RichardsStaff Nurse

not to forget the other nominees for the national Learning disability Awards…

Sally barlow, Team Leader in warwickshire and Celia Richards, Staff nurse, nominated Gemma Clark for Support worker of the year. below are excerpts from the nomination. well done Gemma!

12 The Link

Extraordinary Person of the Month

FebruaryVivian McDonald who you will have read about on page 4, won February’s Extraordinary Person of the Month Award for presenting her story beautifully. Well done Vivian.

MarchAlistair Lodge, who lives at Rix House in Bradford, won March’s Award. Unfortunately over the past couple of years he has declined in mobility which has resulted in him having to use a wheelchair for most of the day. Despite his physical disabilities Alistair wanted to take up horse riding. Alistair has now braved the cold weather

and height (of the horse) and has been riding twice and absolutely loves it! Well done Alistair.

AprilBharat Makwana moved to live at Franklin Avenue in Bedfordshire two years ago.

Bharat has a gastro PEG in place which means he is fed through a tube into his stomach. He had not eaten or tasted food for ten years and always had his entire nutrition intake during the night. During a meeting with his Dietician, Bharat said that he was hungry during the day.

After this meeting staff discussed why Bharat may be hungry during the day.

Bharat spends a lot of time in the kitchen, observing food being prepared

- anyone in that situation would feel hungry! So staff asked Bharat if he would like to start having tasters of food during the day. Bharat got very excited and almost jumped out of his wheelchair saying “Yes!”

A referral was sent to the Speech and Language Therapist, who assessed Bharat’s swallowing reflex and put guidelines in place to enable Bharat to enjoy a taste of food safely.

Bharat may be able to taste his own birthday cake this year, he will be 50 years old and he is planning a big party. Well done Bharat you definitely deserve to be April’s Extraordinary Person of the Month.

The past few months have seen some great achievements from the people we support and their staff.

Awards time

ALISTAIR: MARCh’S ExTRAORdInARy PERSOn OF ThE MOnTh

vIvIAn: ExTRAORdInARy PERSOn OF ThE MOnTh In FEbRUARy

MayLaura Dillon who you will have read about on page 4 is an individual we support who has profound learning and physical disabilities and complex needs. Laura is supported by the staff team at Marloes Walk, Warwickshire Learning Disabilities Services.

Laura communicates in ways other than using words but she does love to sing along to music

in her own way.

When Laura moved into Marloes Walk it was known that she enjoyed listening to Whitney Houston and also had The Bodyguard film on DVD.

Since being supported at Marloes Walk Laura has been to watch

The Bodyguard the musical and has had her bedroom decorated with the word sing and musical notes on her wall.

Laura’s support team recognised her love of music and of a particular song so they organised for Laura to go to a studio in Birmingham where she sang along to: Whitney Houston, I will always love you.

Listening to Laura sing along the team noticed that every time the song was played Laura would always come in at the same point.

Laura was treated like a real life pop star and has her recorded version of the song on CD, which she has been able to give to her Mum for Mother’s Day.

Well done Laura on being May’s Extraordinary Person of the Month.

Extraordinary Person of the Month

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bhARAT: ExTRAORdInARy PERSOn OF ThE MOnTh In APRIL

If you want to nominate someone you

know who has achieved something special

get in touch by emailing your story and

pictures to:

Ldinvolvement@turning-point.co.uk

LAURA: ExTRAORdInARy PERSOn OF ThE MOnTh In MAy

14 The Link

Budget 2014

This time the external affairs update is focused on the budget and progress a year on from the report of the Confidential Inquiry into premature deaths of people with learning disabilities

In March the Chancellor of the

Exchequer, George Osborne announced this year’s Budget – outlining the Government’s spending plans.

He said that the deficit, which remains his main priority, was down by one third and will be down by a half by the end of the coming year. Growth forecasts were revised up, with the economy predicted to grow around 2.5% each year for the next five years, while borrowing was also forecasted to decline over the next five years.

The biggest winners from this Budget are likely to be savers,

including people with private pensions. There was little mention of health and social care, but announcements in areas including welfare, pay and pensions and childcare are detailed below.

welfare

A five year cap on total welfare spending will be introduced. This will be set at £119bn in 2015/16 rising to £127bn in 2018/19. Housing and disability benefits will be included in its scope but pensions, pensioner benefits and unemployment benefits (including Jobseeker’s Allowance) will not.

Pay and Pensions

The personal tax allowance increases from £10,000 to £10,500 next year and

the 40p tax threshold will go up from £41,540 to £42,285 next year.

From April 2015, the Government will change the tax rules to allow people to access their defined contribution pension savings as they wish from the point of retirement. There will also be a right to advice around pension options, and a new Pensioner Bond will be available from January to all over 65s.

Childcare

The Tax-Free Childcare costs cap, against which parents can claim 20% support, will be increased to £10,000 per year for each child. This means that eligible parents can benefit from greater support, worth up to £2,000 per child each year from autumn 2015.

Other announcements

� The fuel duty rise that was planned for September was scrapped

� ISA limits will rise to £4,000

� There will be a new pound coin as 1 in 30 of current coins are believed to be fake

� The Government will prevent alcohol being sold below the minimum tax rate, meaning that shops should no longer be able to drastically undercut pubs. The cost of a pint of beer was reduced by 1p for the second year in a row

� Changes to energy costs and carbon prices should mean an annual energy savings for families of £15 a year

Sarah CameronExternal Affairs - AdvisorTurning Point

Raising Awareness of Social Care Turning PoinT in aCTion

Other news…Confidential Inquiry into premature deaths of people with learning disabilities - one year on.

The Department of Health held a conference in March looking at progress a year after the Confidential Inquiry into premature deaths of people with learning disabilities published its report.

Last year, the Inquiry gave 18 recommendations to improve the treatment that people with learning disabilities receive across health and care services and to end unacceptable health inequalities that people with learning disabilities face.

The Government responded to the report by outlining actions that would be taken to make improvements by bodies including the Department of Health,

NHS England, Public Health England and local actions via Clinical Commissioning Groups, local authorities and Health and Wellbeing Boards.

Jon Rouse, who is Director General for Social Care at the Department of Health, said at the conference that while progress had admittedly been slow, the Government remains committed and can provide leadership, though local action is also vital for improvements to be made.

Dr Dominic Slowie, the National Clinical Director for Learning Disability, talked about progress that is happening at NHS England including:

� Ongoing work to develop a method to monitor excess mortality rates in adults under 60 years of age with a learning disability – to be part of the NHS Outcomes Framework which is used by the Government to hold

the NHS to account for improvements in health outcomes

� Plans to further consider the Inquiry’s recommendation that a national learning disability mortality review body be established – this had not been progressed so far by NHS England due to lack of funding

� Making the case for ensuring people with learning disabilities have access to flu immunisations, in response to the Inquiry’s recommendation that people with learning disabilities should be considered a high-risk group for deaths from respiratory problems

� Working with the new Chief Inspector of Hospitals to ensure that learning disability related questions are asked during hospital inspections, to understand how hospitals identify people with learning disabilities and how they make reasonable adjustments

The conference showed that much progress is still needed to ensure that the experiences of people with learning disabilities in the health and social care system are significantly improved.

The external affairs team continues to monitor progress and will be pushing these issues during meetings with ministers, engagement with political parties and in responses to Government consultations and policy papers to help ensure the issues stay on the political agenda.

If you have any comments on any of the above please do get in touch:

Email:

sarah.cameron@turning-point.co.uk

Phone:

0207 481 6247

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Raising Awareness of Social Care

Turning Point is a registered charity No. 23454565. Address: Standon House, 21 Mansell Street London, E1 8AA