June Scottish Independence:

Transcription

1 June 2014 Scottish Independence: A lot of people are still asking for more information about it. We have booklets and some CDs that we can send you or show at your local Speak Out Group. It comes from Learning Disability Alliance Scotland. ARK Review Group has gone from strength to strength out meetings are very big now. One of the important things about getting information is that we get it about both the YES Campaigns and the NO Campaigns. If you want more information please get in touch with Gloria Greganti ARK s TSUPA, whose contact details are at the end of this Newsletter. We need to find different ways to do things. Over the next 2 years some of the ways we are doing things will change: like developing our new Policy and Consultation Working Group. 1

2 We had 25 people at the meeting in May; people who get support came from East Lothian (Musselburgh), Edinburgh (Hoseasons), Grangemouth, Perth, Alloa, St Andrews and from Arbroath Speak Out Groups. Lorna, Service Manager for Perth and Arbroath was at the meeting too, she will attend every Review Group Meeting to share information between the Review Group and the Service Managers. We worked in small groups to collect news from everyone and thought about what was good about it and what was not so good. Review Group Update We collected lots of personal stories and news from the local communities and Speak Out Group. It is good to share news that is important or affects us so we can know each other better and we can help one another! 2

3 Keith Lynch says: People First Scotland is an advocacy organisation run by the members. They have a Board of Directors, a Chairs Committee and a Staffing Committee. Tracy Lynch Swearing at you Punching you. Hate Crime is something that happens more often than most people think! Chasing after you. Throwing things at you. Taxi driver calls you stupid. Active Citizenship Jackie Baillie, Member of Scottish Parliament (MSP ) is coming to our November meeting to talk about Human Rights Tracy and Keith are both People First Scotland members and work hard to let others know about Hate Crime. Do not ignore it! Report it! At the next Review Group Meeting in August we will think about what questions would we like to ask her. 3

4 Tracy from Hoseasons and William from Grangemouth have been meeting every 2 months at the Priory in Edinburgh to organize the next Review Group Meeting. This means that they help to control what happens at the Review Group. They are doing a great job! The next Review Group Meeting is on 15th August from am until 3pm. Get in touch if you are interested! Staff Recruitment Training Next Training will be in Arbroath on the 26th June, 3rd, 9th and 10th July. And the next after that will be in the Borders area on the 21st, 28th August, 4th and 11th September. 4

5 Staff Recruitment Training Sue and Gloria have just finished the Training in Grangemouth. There were 5 service users involved and they really enjoyed all 4 sessions. They received their certificates and will soon be asked to help choose new staff for ARK. The training that we started in March at St. Andrews (Rymonth project) is finished! The group decided to go out for a lunch together because they felt that they were a good team and wanted to celebrate and talk about it all. The team are looking forward to interviewing for new staff. 5

6 Coming to a Speak Out Group near you! We will be talking to your Speak Out Group about how your support service is doing and how you can be involved in helping to make sure your support is very good. These are the latest scores that the Care Inspectorate gave us... East Lothian 17th April Dalkeith - Penicuik SL - Haddington - Musselburgh - Tranent How well do people get their care and support? How well do staff work with the people there? How well do managers work to make sure everything goes well. All got a 4 which means that everything is good. Hawick Care Home 31st April 2014 How well do people get their care and support? How well do staff work with the people there? How well do managers work to make sure everything goes well. All got a 4 which means that everything is good. 6

7 Also coming soon to a Speak Out Group near you! If you tell ARK that you are not happy about something that ARK is doing or not doing - this is a complaint. You can complain yourself or someone can complain on your behalf. Some examples are If you asked for something you needed and it took too long to get it. If you didn t get the service you were supposed to get. If you didn t get an answer to a question you asked or it took too long to get an answer. What can I complain about? Policies and procedures cover every area of ARK s work and they help us to make sure that we provide a good service. We now have a meeting date for our new working group: Policy and Consultation Working Group. Members are coming from different services in ARK to meet for the first time on the 27th June. What is a policy? Policies are rules that say what ARK will do to make sure that your support is good. It is an exciting time for us! 7

8 What are Speak Out Groups all about? Get more confidence you should get the chance to say what you want at the meetings. Make choices about what you do - You should be able to come to meetings if you want to. Learn more skills you should get the chance to learn new things at the meetings. Have more information ARK should make sure that you have all the information you need to make good choices. You can talk about your services including your housing service. Information Do you want more information about Self Directed Support? Have you missed out on the Welfare Reform booklet (about benefit changes)? Get in touch with Gloria or Sue to get a copy! 8

9 Enjoy the Scottish Summer Safely Brian Gunn ARK H&S Adviser Its important to be safe when you are out in the sun - I would like to share some advice about staying healthy and fit when the weather is really nice outside. If you sit out in the sun too long and do activities such as walking or playing sport you must protect your skin. The sun`s rays can cause illnesses such as sunburn, dehydration, heatstroke and dizziness. To make sure you keep well in the sun, please remember: Use sun cream on parts of your body that will be exposed to the sun s rays, especially between 11am and 3 pm, this is when the sun is at it hottest. Use sun cream that has a factor of 15, this may have to be as high as 40 if you have light skin and your skin burns easily. Wear a hat and clothing that keeps you cool and sunglasses when the weather is really hot. Spend time in the shade when the sun is very hot. Always remember: Keep a supply of sun cream with you at all times if you like being out and active in the sun. Drink lots of water to stop you from dehydrating when the weather is hot. If you see your skin starting to go red, you should go indoors quickly, apply after sun lotion and stay indoors or cover your skin with long sleeves and trousers. Enjoy your summer. Thank you. 9

10 Active Citizenship ARK is taking part in the Cross-Party Group on Learning Disabilities. This is a group for Members of all parties and outside organisations. Members of the public can meet too to make sure that the things that matter to people with learning difficulties are talked about by the Scottish Parliament and by people who make the policies. If you are interested get in touch with us at ARK. David Tawse goes to the Cross Party Group. You might be interested to go along too. Learning Disability Alliance Scotland Learning Disability Alliance Scotland, talks about different things that affect people who get support... LDAS is going forward with a new petition on ending care charging. They will say: We call on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to abolish all local authorities charges for nonresidential care services. It will go to Scottish Government in June and July time so that it can be looked at by the Petitions Committee in October. Then it will go online so that everyone else can sign, helping to keep collecting signatures as it makes its way through the Scottish Parliament. If you are interested in getting more information about what LDAS is doing, get in touch with Gloria at Head Office. 10

11 National Involvement Network At this meeting we watched a film called The Honest Heart which was filmed with and by people who get support from an organisation called Turning Tracy, Agnes, Fraser, Ann and Robert are working hard at the NIN Charter Working Group. The final Statements have been agreed and they spoke with the design company to decide what the Charter will look like. What can you expect from your care worker? The Scottish Social services Council regulates the people who work in social care services. They make sure that you get the highest quality of care from support workers. They make sure that you know about your rights and that you get what you should get. All support workers must meet good standards when they help you. They must treat you very well. This is set out in the SSSC Code of Practice for Social Service Workers. They keep a register of the workers who must meet their standards. If you have concerns about the ability or behaviour of someone who works with and cares for you, your family or someone you care for you should complain to ARK. If that doesn t help you can speak to the SSSC too. Anyone can raise a concern or complain! 11

12 Tenant and Service User Newsletter Complaints Update March 2014 Here is our update on what has been happening with complaints in ARK during January and March 2014 During these 3 months ARK received and dealt with 28 complaints. The complaints were made about different ARK departments: Community Networks 20 Maintenance 6 Housing 2 In total 17 people complained about some aspect of ARK s service which they felt needed to be improved. 10 people complained about issues with ARK staff members attitude or behaviour. 1 person complained both in relation to the service provided, and to staff members attitude. We have investigated and responded to all of these complaints. Of the 28 complaints that we dealt with between January and March we found that 10 were upheld, which means that we agreed with the person complaining, 8 were not upheld, which means that we did not agree (although we may still have done something about the issue that was raised), 10 were partially upheld, which means we agreed with some of what was complained about. 12

13 Most of the complaints were about different aspects of the service that ARK provides. Where complaints were made about people being unhappy with the attitude of ARK employees: we agreed that this had been an issue in 4 cases, did not agree that it had been an issue in 3 cases in 4 cases partially agreed with the complaint that had been made. Learning from Complaints We have had several complaints recently from different service users within one particular ARK service. Having reviewed the complaints, we do not believe that the quality of this service is lower than before. In fact the local staff team believes that service users have recently been supported to make complaints: by the work that ARK s Participation team has been doing in that service, by the service users themselves supporting each other. Both of these have helped the service users to feel able to speak up about issues which they are not happy about. These complaints have reminded us of the importance of communicating with all our service users and tenants about their right to complain. If there is any aspect of the service that ARK provides to you which you are not happy with, please remember that you can talk to any ARK employee about this at any time. We genuinely value the feedback that you provide to us, and the opportunity that your feedback gives us to improve the service that we provide. Thank you. John Rankin (Quality and Compliance Manager) 13

14 Murray Donald, Team Leader came to the Speak Out Meeting to talk about what Team Leaders do in ARK. The group were very interested and asked Murray questions about his job. Tom McIntyre Speak Out Worker The group will be speaking with another Team Leader at the next meeting as well as learning about how to make a complaint to ARK if you need to. Next Meeting is on the 25th June At the last meeting Arbroath Speak Out group talked about fundraising. People are interested in doing different things to raise money. The group are also interested in inviting guest speakers as well as organising another fun day. A big plan is to meet up with other Speak Out Groups - like Forfar, Perth and Blairgowrie. Lois Laird Arbroath Speak Out Worker. The group had their latest meeting on the 31st May. The next meeting will be on the 16th August

15 Forfar s next Speak Out Group will be on the 17th June. Lois Laird Forfar Speak Out Worker. The meeting was well attended and everyone said who they were and a little bit about themselves. Sue Tait told people what Speak Out Groups are about, but that what the group does is very dependent on what they would like to do. One idea was to meet up with other groups in the area. Everyone liked that idea. It was important for the group to decide if this was a good time to meet. There was some discussion about that, but everyone decided that Tuesday was a good day to meet. 15

16 Elwyn Rennie Speak Out Worker The next meeting is on the 26th July Rymonth Speak Out Group was talking about what they would like for their gardens. They worked in groups and got some really good ideas. Some people would like a greenhouse, fairy lights, a waterfall, paths, flowers, vegetables and herbs. We will get some photos later in the year to see how they are getting on. Garden Design! It was so good to see Pauline back home at Rymonth. People I spoke to were very pleased to see that Pauline was back and feeling so much better. All the best from everyone. Great to see you Pauline! 16

17 Annmarie McLeary Speak Out Worker The next meeting will be on the 31st July at the Gig at 6pm. This was the very first meeting of the Blairgowrie Speak Out Group. There was a lot of people at the meeting and the Gig was a good place to have the meeting. The group were waiting to see the film that had been made quite a long time ago. We could not watch it but everyone can do this at home Annmarie will organise this. The next meeting will be on the 15th June. We will be looking at how to tell ARK if you are not happy about something. Kerry Swan Speak Out Worker 17

18 The next meeting will be after all the celebrations in Hawick are over. It will be in the evening like the last time at 6.15pm Just to remind you that the meetings are now in the evening to help make sure that more people have the chance to come along. At the next meeting you will be asked if you want to make decisions about what you would like to have in your new home. What kind of furniture, what kind of cushions that sort of thing. The important thing is that you get a chance to say what you think...it is your home. Maureen Lewis Speak Out Worker 18

19 Dunfermline Speak Out talked about the Adult Protection Act and what it means for people. Sometimes people can find it difficult to keep themselves safe. This law is in place to keep people safe from harm by having different things in place that can help. Things like advocacy and the Council has to make sure people are all right they need to ask people and to find out if they have any worries. Next meeting 17th June at 6pm One of the things that is very important is that your rights are respected and that people are listened to. Lorraine had leaflets about it but if you want more information about it you could speak to her again. Lorraine Wilson Speak Out Worker Next meeting on 22nd July At the last meeting Speak Out Alloa Outreach talked about ARK s holiday policy and about health and hygiene and what it meant for people. The group also talked about what happened at the last Review Group in Edinburgh. John and David usually go to those meetings. David McMillan Speak Out Worker 19

20 At the meeting in May people from Alloa Tober Tigh Speak Out Group talked about what options they would like for their holidays. One member of the group wanted to find out more about the Scottish Referendum in September. The members also talked about how to make a complaint to ARK if they were not happy about something. James and David now go to the Review Group in Edinburgh. James likes it very much. A lot of people are feeling confused about what to vote for. Would you like ARK to send out some information to you? If so please contact Gloria or Sue. Thank you. 20

21 Workshops have been taking place in Edinburgh: in Hoseasons and Stenhouse areas. Sue, the Participation Officer at ARK, held the workshops with Diana, the Housing Officer for those areas. The workshop aimed to involve tenants in the decision-making processes. Also to make sure that tenants influence decisions about their Housing. This is part of ARK s work as a Landlord to accomplish The Scottish Social Housing Charter. The Hoseasons group would like to meet again in 6 months. These are the Scrutiny Activities that the group would like to do: have more feedback forms have a Walkabout have a Neighbourhood Watch Group join up with the Tenant and Resident Group. 21

22 ARK Tenants Staffing Update There have been some staff changes within the Housing team. Sadly, Maureen Johnston left ARK in March We have recruited Tracey Rogowski as the new Housing Services Officer. She looks after the following areas: Perth and Kinross Fife Clackmannanshire Angus Borders Midlothian Falkirk, West Lothian East Lothian Tracey will be contacting all her tenants to arrange estate visits over the next couple of months! Welfare Advice Project Jane Harkiss will be starting work as our new Advice Worker looking after Moray, Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen. She will start on the 23rd June. Drew has been speaking to groups of people raising awareness of issues around Welfare Reform. We are here to help you with all your Welfare Benefits. If you need help please contact your Housing Officer. 22

23 Tenant Satisfaction Survey We will be sending you a short survey that we would like you to fill out to tell us what you think. There will be 4 prizes of 25 to people who take part. We really care about what you think! What if I want to end my Tenancy? At ARK we hope that you are happy in your property and live in it for a long time but what should you do if you need to end your tenancy with us? The 1st thing you should do is contact your Housing Officer or your support worker and let them know that you want to move and they can give you any support or advice you need to do this. Once you have received a termination form you have 28 Days to leave the home. Your Housing Officer will help you through all the process. If you need to stay in your property longer than the 28 day notice period speak to your Housing Officer. You will be responsible for your rent until your tenancy ends. Your Housing Officer will agree with you how you should return your keys on the day your tenancy ends. 23

24 How do people get their homes from ARK? Once ARK knows that a property will be empty we then have to decide how we are going to give the house to someone else. There are 3 main ways that we can do this: 1. We get a message from the social work team. Sometimes tenants will need 24 hour support and sometimes they will need a little bit of support to manage to live in their homes. The social work team will look at their own waiting list and will then tell ARK who they think is most suitable for the house. 2. Our own housing list or in Edinburgh through Edindex and the Key to Choice process. Anyone aged 16 or over can be added to these housing lists by completing the right application form. Then a priority list will be created as a property becomes empty. The applicants with the most points will meet with a Housing Officer to check their circumstances haven t changed and usually the property will be given to the person with the most points. 3. A suggestion from the Local Authority. ARK will sometimes ask the Local Authority to suggest someone for a property. Those who are put forward for the house will meet with a Housing Officer and complete an application which will then be given points. The nominee with the highest points will be offered the property. We will decide which way to take depending on the individual property. For existing tenants wanting to move for any reason you should speak to your Housing Officer who can talk you through the process for transfer applications. 24

25 Scottish Social Housing Charter Aims to listen to what you have to say......and then tell you the results! You will help ARK to give you a better service! What is The Scottish Social Housing Charter? It s a way of seeing if Landlords are meeting the needs of their tenants. It was started by the Scottish Parliament in March 2012 What does the Charter mean for tenants? It allows you to get involved making sure you are happy with the service we provide. How will you know how we are doing? ARK and other landlords send a copy of the report. This looks at how well we have done. In August we find out areas we have done well in and things we could do better. If you would like to tell us how you feel we are doing please contact Val, ARK Housing Assistant:

26 Guide to Condensation in your Home Condensation is water vapour in the air. When it touches a cold surface it turns back to water. This can lead to mould growth. Mould can grow on walls and in corners. It can grow behind wardrobes and other furniture. It can grow around windows too. Don t panic. 26

27 You can do things to stop this from happening... By letting air circulate in your home. You should keep window frame vents open. Do not block any other vents in your home. Dry clothes outside if you can. If you are drying clothes inside open a window, and open your bathroom window when you have a bath or shower. Or make sure your extractor fan is always on when you have a bath or shower. If you are cooking open a window. 27

28 If you do have some mould in your home... You can clean it off with anti-mould spray. You can buy it in supermarkets and hardware stores. If you have any questions you can call the Maintenance team on Data Protection Officer Tel: Maintenance Team Contacts Housing Team Contacts Tel: Tenant Participation Contacts If you have any questions here are Sue Tait and Gloria Greganti s phone number and address. Sue Tait: and sue.tait@arkha.org.uk Gloria Greganti: and gloria.greganti@arkha.org.uk We will get in touch with you as soon as possible. Thank you. This newsletter was produced by ARK Community Networks. ARK Community Networks is a trading name of ARK Housing Association Ltd, Communities Scotland Number HEP66, Scottish Charity Number SC