Local authorities, carers centres, Primary Care Trust's and others ask us to design and deliver workshops, assist with consultations, run training on working effectively with families, speak at events, join project advisory groups etc. If you are interested in bringing a family carer perspective to an initiative you are taking we would like to help.
Valuing People Team
We have written a briefing paper about supporting family carers from Black and Minority Ethnic and newly arrived communities for the Valuing People Team. We have also been commissioned to run workshops for family carers from these groups who live in rural settings. We will report on these in 2010.
National Valuing Families Forum
We're part of this group of active family carers and national family carer support organisations which is funded by the government to help make sure Valuing People Now works for families.
National Advisory Group on Learning Disabilities and Ethnicity
We're members of this group, set up by the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities, to advise the government on the changes that will help people with learning disabilities from black and minority ethnic groups.
Gloucestershire 's Learning Disability Partnership Board and Primary Care Trust
Commissioned the Family Carer Support Service to help with their self audit on how health services are being provided to people with learning disabilities and their family carers in the spring of 2009.
The Transition Information Network
We help bring a family carer viewpoint to the reference group of the Transition Information Network (TIN), a network of organisations and individuals working to improve young people with a disability's experience of transition into adulthood.
National Family Carer Network
Between 2004 - 2007 we set up the National Family Carer Network (NFCN). This brings together groups and organisations that support families that include an adult with a learning disability to:
- Get better support for family carers
- Help people to understand how to work well with family carers
- Ensure they have a national voice on issues that affect them
The NFCN is now a charity in its own right. Their website has information about news relating to family carers, useful resources and a regional database of organisations that support families with a learning disability.
Working in Russia
Between 2000 - 2007 EU funding enabled us to help Moscow based charity, Humanitarian Programmes Support (HPSCF) to develop broader family support services, including a telephone helpline, parent befriender training, Family Partnership training for medical staff, Early Years to School transition programme and an inclusion network in Russia. Dame Helen Mirren became a Patron of HPSCF in 2007
Norah Fry Research Centre - Help to Move on, Bridging the Divide at Transition
We worked with Norah Fry Research Centre, one of the leading centres in the UK for research into services for people with learning disabilities, on two projects. See FCSS resources for more information.
