Things are moving along nicely with the next recovery project in Edinburgh. Discussions and plans are underway with regards to the long term project, taking into account things like locations, social enterprise involvement and other operational considerations.
The interim project, now called ERA – Edinburgh Recovery Activities – will be live soon, following input from the community on activities and ideas. The purpose of the project is to provide fulfilling, fun and enjoyable experiences for the recovery community whilst the core, longer term project is organised.
ERA projects will hopefully link in with the new base once it opens its doors. The most popular suggestions that we recorded in the early part of 2019 revolved around the need for green space activities, personal development classes like yoga, and a social event open to those in recovery and their family members. We also have an exciting opportunity to set up something along the lines of a practical skills program. We will get these up and running as soon as possible so please get in touch to offer ideas or support.
This is just the beginning – we’re looking for other suggestions too, maybe creative groups, outings to places of interest, walking groups, sports groups, training days, club nights – whatever the community feels would be beneficial and provide valuable experiences.
Working across the community with those in many stages of recovery, we’re keen to help build connections, adding to the feeling of support and unity. Whatever it looks like, we need it to be firmly based on ideas and suggestions from the recovery community above all. Please feel free to send me over suggestions and ideas which I’ll then set about gauging interest with other community members and making the necessary arrangements for the group or activity to take place.
I’ve been speaking with individuals and organisations who run venues, centres and halls in order to facilitate groups that might be suggested. Likewise, if there’s an interest in a particular group that isn’t venue dependent, I can organise that too.
We’re also keen to link in with other organisations around Edinburgh providing complementary support. We will also set up a process for offering micro funding for relevant groups and projects delivering on specific criteria which align with ERA’s goals and principles.
For any information, idea contributions, volunteering or anything else, you can contact me via email at Michael.mccarron@evoc.org.uk or on 0131 555 9100.
The success of the project lies in the effort and drive of the recovery community, something that we’ve seen can do amazing things so far. Let’s keep it going.
Tuesday 30th October 2018 would have been Flora Stevenson’s 179th birthday. Flora was a social reformer and suffragist with a special interest in education. She played an active role in EVOC’s predecessor organisation, the Edinburgh Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor.
The EVOC 150 team chose to mark Flora’s birthday in the only appropriate way, with a party! But not just any party. We were absolutely delighted to work with the Flora Stevenson Primary School to deliver a day-long Victorian-themed birthday bonanza involving all staff, pupils and the parents council, a mere 700-odd individuals. Three cheers to everyone involved!
I am incredibly proud of what we managed to achieve in just over five weeks and extra special thanks must go to Sharon McGhee and Amanda Burton, headteacher and depute headteacher respectively at Flora’s for their approachability, creativity and enthusiasm.
Our mutual aims were to honour the legacy of Flora; raise awareness of, learn about and encourage volunteerism and social action; promote the EVOC 150 project, and have fun! With just three short planning meetings squeezed in amongst packed schedules we went from the initial germ of an idea to a mammoth event. It was a lesson for me in how much is possible with limited resources and a (very) moderate budget topped with a healthy serving of belief.
From our initial meeting the school were determined to find a way of including the families of pupils as well. The day started with a mini volunteer fayre in the Hall of Happiness accompanied by a performance by The Music School. I had thoroughly underestimated how good the exceptionally talented musicians would be and should never have based my preconceptions on my own primary school recorder group!
GirlGuiding Edinburgh, Health in Mind, Edinburgh Leisure (Ageing Well), The Yard, Cyrenians and The Rock Trust promoted their organisations and volunteering opportunities to families in a packed hall.
Christy Thomson from The Yard said: “I loved coming and thought it was really nice to be a part of the day…I think [it] was really useful”. It was fantastic to see so many people come in and we were grateful to have the support of Cllr Hal Osler who joined us for the whole morning.
With a swiftly executed five-minute turnaround the hall was transformed into party central. Thanks to an exceptional feat of organisation which would put many professional logistics experts to shame, over the course of the next six hours we rotated all children by year group in and out of the hall.
Once inside the children learnt why the school and EVOC had collaborated for Flora’s birthday, played traditional Victorian games including pass the slipper (plimsole) and Blind Man’s Buff and learnt about what life would have been like during Flora’s time with the help of handling boxes from the Outreach Service at Museums and Galleries Edinburgh.
Happy Birthday Flora was sung loud and proud and once the vocal cords were warm Daisy Bell was also recited. I’m pretty sure it’s going to take between 150 and 179 years for me to get the latter out of my head. Finally, no party is complete without appropriate sustenance. The parent council completed an epic baking mission to provide mountains of Victoria Sponge cakes and Morrisons Ferry Road kindly donated so we could hydrate the children with lashings of lemonade. Many thanks to Yasmin and Alea from EVOC; Tricia, EVOC 150 volunteer and Hal for managing an industrial-sized production line of all of the above treats.
Back in class away from the frivolities in the hall, all children created birthday cards for Flora and included a pledge to volunteer or be of service in some other way as a way of honouring Flora’s legacy. All staff and students had either chosen to dress-up as Victorians to signify the past, or come in their uniform to signify the present. I wonder what schools will look like 179 years from now?
This day would not have been the stand-out success it was without the help and enthusiasm of all those mentioned above and more. We are able to celebrate EVOC’s 150th year with events like this with thanks to lottery players and the Heritage Lottery Fund. Hip Hip Hooray!
We read with interest EVOC’s article ‘Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership’s new Chief Officer, Never Afraid to Challenge: Interview with Judith Proctor (15 August 2018)’ and were heartened by some of her commitments ensuring that local third sector organisations would play a key role in helping to address some of the current challenges faced.
This we would say is crucial throughout Scotland at local levels. Equally so is the involvement of those who use the services,as social care users have, until recently, had very little say in decisions about the local delivery of integrated services.
We agree it is important to invest locally in a wide range of services, including those to support the various Self-Directed Support options, advocacy for decision making, and so on. One way is to commission local Disabled People’s Organisations such as LCIL who provide a range of helpful services and are run by disabled people themselves.
Good social care has many functions other than merely “keeping people safe” – what about supported risk taking? When thinking about ‘reducing loneliness’, we also need to look at quality of life and having enough to live on (charging for social care should be abolished to this end). Going further than involving people in the community there need to be real opportunities to participate in local decision making.
Users of social care services may also find the phrase “hospital at home” alarming. It is reminiscent of the Scottish Government’s ill-advised “There’s no ward like home” advert that included the image of the older man, Mr McCluskey, surrounded by health and social care workers on an elongated sofa.
We have seen a generalised focus at all levels on health outcomes for individuals throughout the integration process. Getting social care packages in place for people already discharged – to prevent ‘bed blocking’ – is important, but so too is their wider integration back into their family, community, and so on. Social care has much wider implications which merely include the preventative well-being agenda to improve lives; it must also realise people’s human right to Independent Living.
Later in the interview Judith expresses the need to think about ‘how we are supporting older people and [disabled people] to link into their community and be active citizens’. Revitalising the local third sector is one way of ensuring this.
The legislation applying to social care includes the duty to engage with those who use the services. Yet we know there are still barriers to adult social care users having true choice and control, partly because of the tensions between local procurement and Self-Directed Support. Involving them in how Partnerships plan might prevent such tensions occurring.
Inclusion Scotland are running a national, Scottish Government funded People-led Policy Project, a policy panel and core group of adult health and social care service users who will actively use their lived experience and expertise to influence policy going forward.
This project will gladly engage with CEOs of local Health and Social Care Partnerships. Indeed, we believe this kind of ambitious, radical change to involving people in decision making – People-led Policy- needs to be happening at local levels too.
Policy and Localisation manager, Inclusion Scotland.
Inclusion Scotland is a ‘Disabled People’s Organisation’ (DPO) – led by disabled people ourselves. Inclusion Scotland works to achieve positive changes to policy and practice, so that we disabled people are fully included throughout all Scottish society as equal citizens.
When a voluntary group hears that someone is coming to talk about their transport, the first reaction is often “please don’t take our bus away!” So I’ve been privileged to spend six months at EVOC supporting an innovative project to improve transport for third sector day centres and lunch clubs. Ageing populations and increasing expectations for community-based support mean growing transport needs and the Council is keen to find alternatives to simply paying more for expensive private minibus and taxi services or adding to the Council’s own Passenger Operations – the ‘white bus fleet’ which, with 73 vehicles is a substantial enterprise.
The Council therefore asked Edinburgh’s Community Transport (CT) providers for proposals to help meet this increasing demand for transport. Edinburgh has some of the best respected CT providers in Scotland (and the UK), several started as EVOC initiatives. Four groups – HcL (Handicabs), Lothian Community Transport Services, Pilton Equalities Project, and South Edinburgh Amenities Group (SEAG) – entered into a Public Social Partnership (PSP) with the Council in 2016 to work together to identify ways of improving efficiency, effectiveness and service quality.
My role at EVOC was mainly to facilitate the CT groups arriving at an agreed business case to meet the Council’s transport requirements. The proposed initiative, to be considered by Council Committee in October, may see new transport provision by CT groups beginning next year for a number of third sector day care services, lunch clubs and summer play schemes; A few personal reflections….
No one doubts the benefits of partnership working; but because it requires a consensus, partnership can lead to low-risk options being favoured. Different partners invariably have a varying appetite for risk – this can mean that it is hard to get agreement for more ambitious, but more risky options. It may be easier to generate really innovative solutions where there is no need to keep a range of partners on-side.
While the project was conducted in the spirit of co-production, power in a co-production environment is rarely equally shared. The dynamics of co-production where one party has more power, influence – and yes, money! – than the others can be challenging.
Before I became involved in the project, a lot of effort had been put into establishing PSP governance. Although this created a sound platform for collaboration, limited progress had been made in actually extending the role of the CT groups on the ground, while a lot of energy and goodwill had been consumed. Too much emphasis on ‘process’ and not enough on ‘outcome’ can stifle creativity, enthusiasm and practical delivery.
Finally, the success of the PSP partners in reaching an agreed way forward is highly dependent on the willingness of the Council to positively review funding to the CT groups. It is much more difficult to achieve a successful outcome to a partnership change initiative where resources are reducing.