Citizen Directed Support Summit llandrindod Wells

The Social Services Improvement Agency’s  Citizen Directed Support Summit.

On Friday 26^th. April 2013 The @ASCCCymru team attended the Citizen Directed Support Summit at the media resource centre in beautiful  Llandrindod Wells. http://bit.ly/YhGdhG   

The summit was organised by @SSIACymru. http://bit.ly/15Vi4jG

Citizen Directed Support (CDS) is an approach/model by which people who require assistance can live as independently as possible.

Access to mainstream opportunities most people enjoy, are enabled through the support of others who recognise that the person her/himself is best placed to know what they need and how these needs can be met.  CDS adheres to the fundamental social work tenets of respect for the person, valuing and empowering her/him as an individual with the capacity to change and supporting  self determination.

The Welsh Government, within Sustainable Social Services, identified as a key principle that the people in Wales should have a 'strong voice and real control'. They identified Self Directed Care as an approach by which this could be achieved and stated that "The model will offer a range of methods for securing services".

To support the development of CDS across Wales there is a Citizen Directed Support Learning and Improvement Network (CDS LIN) which consists of local government representatives.  This network is supported and facilitated by the SSIA, to learn more about the CDS LIN please click here: http://bit.ly/13FFBRf

Structure of the Summit.

One of the morning sessions was provided by Steve Dowson a social care consultant and trainer who explored the international and other UK experiences of developing CDS outside Wales. This was a very interesting session where Steve explored the very different ways that CDS support has been interpreted in various environments and social care settings.  You can find a link to a selection of Steve’s papers here: http://bit.ly/10o4igU

Later in the morning there were three different perspectives delivered of experience of implementing service delivery change in three different local authority areas within Wales:

Gareth Jones – Wrexham  http://bit.ly/12dw1T5

Julie Boothroyd – Monmouthshire  http://bit.ly/ZY6i0w

Deborah Driffield – Swansea.  http://bit.ly/12VhH5I

This presentation again explored the various challenges that face those that seek to change more traditional ways of working and the challenges and promises this can present.

Following lunch there was a series of parallel workshops that explored:

Effective information for citizens

Definition of Citizen Directed Support.

Managing cultural change and expectations.

A New Focus on families

These workshops provided a focus for lively and constructive discussion of the day to day issues practitioners are facing.

The day was rounded off by a feedback session  to the whole group from the individual parallel sessions.  The whole day provided a useful focus to help improve knowledge and understanding  of best practice and current models  of CDS and how it can be best developed and implemented.