RESCHEDULED: WED 27 NOV

The commissioning for funding and services for health and social care services in the Voluntary Sector is going to change significantly over the next 3 years.

It’s therefore essential that we come together to share knowledge and experiences and offer our Sector’s perspective on the Scottish Government’s consultation on a National Care Service.

The Independent Review of Adult Social Care recommended a National Care Service, with Scottish Ministers accountable for adult social care support. However, the Government has ambitions to go beyond that, creating a community health and social care service that supports people of all ages. This is a big cultural and system change that will need to be supported by primary legislation. Read more about the Scottish Government’s consultation on a National Care Service for Scotland. 

ADD YOUR VOICE TO A SECTOR RESPONSE

To inform a voluntary sector response to the National Care Service consultation we hope you’ll be able join us for an event on Wed 27 Oct (9.30am – 12noon) when we’ll be focusing on 5 different themes linked to the consultation: 

• Community Commissioning
• Structural Change
• Health Inequalities and Prevention
• Widening the Scope of Adult Care to include Children and Families and Drug and Alcohol Services
• Fair Work

PANELISTS:

Sebastian Fischer (Chief Executive, VOCAL)
Sebastian has been the Chief Executive at VOCAL since 1994.
He is also an executive board member of the Coalition of Carers in Scotland. 

Maureen Martin (Chief Executive, Edinburgh Development Group – EDG)
Hello, my name is Maureen Martin. I am CEO of Edinburgh Development Group (EDG for short) we established in 1991 to develop services for people with learning disabilities and their parents and carers. EDG works with other organisations to make Scotland more inclusive and supportive communities. Recent developments, Self-managing Co-operatives, Belong Network, and Keys to the Door. EDG is a partner in the newly formed Parent Carewell Partnership

 

Kimberley Swan (CEO, FAIR)
Kimberley has worked and managed in the third sector for nearly 20 years. Her current role for over ten years is as CEO at FAIR (Family Advice Information Resource) an information and advice charity for people with learning disabilities and their carers. Kimberley is the Chair of the Edinburgh Disability Forum with EVOC, which is an information and networking group for managers from the third sector who support disabled people. She is the Co- Chair of the Edinburgh Learning Disability Advisory Group which is a co-production group for people with learning disabilities to engage with the HSCP. She is Co-Convenor of the Coalition of Carers a National Carer Organisation. Kimberley is also a parent carer to her son Frankie who has complex neurological and physical care needs.

Rod Finan (Professional Social Work Advisor, Scottish Government)

Register now & find out more 

 

Days after the 1 year mark of lockdown, we can be sure that the community and voluntary organisations, and social enterprises across Edinburgh have been at the heart of the response to COVID-19 in 2020/21. In the City and across Scotland, you have been active in your communities, keeping people’s physical and mental well-being in tact, so much so, you and I know, it has saved lives and the evidence is there in many reports now being produced.

In coming in to EVOC, I have deliberately wanted to take a listening approach to understand better the state of the sector now, and to capture what we and others learn can for the future. The things that have been important in this crisis have also got incredible value for early intervention and future challenges, whether that be other pandemics or the consequences of climate change.

As part of that, we want to launch a listening exercise on what it means to have a thriving local community and voluntary sector in the city: what are the conditions for communities to be resilient and more than that to thrive? What are the conditions for individual citizens to thrive, and be resilient, from the older person to the young, the person from our BAME families or a person with a disability, a carer or a long-term condition?

EVOC had the opportunity to take a paper to the Edinburgh Partnership and also the Edinburgh Integrated Joint Board this week. There is excellent work going on at City Council level (New Business Plan) and EIJB work on the Edinburgh Pact which will help bring a great focus and opportunities for communities and individuals. There is in both a discussion of community anchors – both organisations and networks – and we need to work in a way that means there is no wrong door.

EVOC Paper

As part of EVOC’s advocacy and leadership role, being committed to doing the right thing rather than the easy thing, it is important to invert the pyramid and for major anchor institutions like NHS, Council, Universities to be at the service of Edinburgh’s communities. We also hope to do more with our partners, Volunteer Edinburgh and Edinburgh Enterprise Network, and others, whose folk have like you, been at the heart of this… for decades.

In April we will launch a number of initiatives, on-line and off-line, to start a conversation about this and hear from you on what does it mean for our sector to thrive? Above all, what does it mean for the citizens of this city to thrive?

In the meantime my door, and those of the EVOC team, are open to start that conversation.

Bridie Ashrowan, Chief Executive

At a historic time for the city of Edinburgh and country, and as we still live with the pandemic that started one year ago, our community and voluntary sector has responded with great agility and inspiring compassion, enabling people to stay out of crisis and cope better. Many reports have now evidenced that.

In coming into this role, I want to say that it is one where I take seriously a deep commitment to listen to you, to our members, our sector and our partners.  This is what will inform what I aim to do, to provide a passionate and informed leadership that will result in greater recognition of your work. My goal is to champion it, and with the EVOC team and board, to enable you to do it well, and help remove barriers for the on-going success of this sector.

Your work – the people of the community organisations, social enterprises and wider voluntary sector – staff, volunteers, boards and partners, has been of great human value at the time of this pandemic. Equally, you are frequently at the cutting edge of prevention, which as we recover from Covid, is essential.

The publication in late 2020, of the Edinburgh Poverty Commission recommendations, the first after the start of the pandemic in the UK, and the journey committed to now by the Edinburgh Partnership* and City of Edinburgh Council, to ending poverty in Edinburgh in the next 10 years, is highly ambitious. Where do we already play a major part in that and how can we do more now?

We would like to suggest that the systemic changes that are suggested in the recommendations also help us look at what we can do to improve this together, across all groups, from those with dementia, or those disabilities, to the young folk whom this time has cruelly affected.

The current work of the Edinburgh Climate Commission is hugely interesting for the city too – we believe that a nature friendly city is a people friendly city, and are committed to playing our part in that.

I would like to thank Ella Simpson for her work, invisible and visible, and I hope you’ll join in the thanks for her. We are planning a celebration later in the year when we can gather together for a proper celebration on Fri 24 Sep (more details will follow). 

Finally, I am interested in radical kindness, from policy making to championing the work that you do which exemplifies that in every corner of the city, and when it is allowed, I hope to get out to those corners.

Bridie Ashrowan (Chief Executive)

^{* The Edinburgh Partnership is the community planning partnership for the city. It brings together public agencies, third and private sectors with local communities to improve the city, its services and the lives of people who live and work here.}