User and Carer Reference Group Update Report

January 2009 We agreed in January who should come to our meetings We agreed when and where to meet and how often We agreed some rules for the meeting, called a terms of reference

February 2009 In February we talked about why we needed a group We had a presentation from Elaine Carolan on what Personalisation would mean in Walsall We looked at what Walsall had got to introduce in the coming 18 months We had the opportunity to ask Elaine questions…

March 2009 In March we asked you to tell us what you thought we needed to do to improve access to our serivces We spoke to you about your thoughts on developing an access and response centre We had your ideas about how we could make this work

April 2009 In April we asked you to help us decide what our self assessment questionnaire should look like We talked about the type of questions we should ask We looked at the way we should design the form We talked about the support people might need to fill in a self assessment

May 2009 In May we looked at Public information We asked you what was good and bad about the current information We talked about what information should look like in Walsall

June 2009 In June we told you how your views had influenced changes We told you what we had done with the access and response centre We also told you how we had changed the Self Assessment Questionnaire to reflect what you had said

July 2009 In July Elaine Carolan came and talked to the group about progress We also talked about the third sector we explained what this term meant: Services and organisations who do not make a profit Are not run by a statutory agency Provide health and Social Care serivces : DIAL, Age Concern, MENCAP We asked you what we should develop in Walsall’s third sector.

August 2009 We all had a well earned Summer break….

September 2009 In September we talked about service developments We talked about what people thought would be needed to help them with self directed support

October 2009 In October we talked to you about Support planning We looked at the type of help people might need and what the form should look like.

November 2009 In November we took a trip to the access and response centre to see the end result of the work we had been involved in. We had a tour of the building and looked at how the offices had been developed We had the opportunity to meet many of the staff who will be working at the centre How the centre was going to run was explained to us and we saw the different serivces which would now be under one roof.

December 2009 In December we looked at Public information and commented on draft information on personalisation We had a nice Christmas celebration and our mince pies…. Decided what our agenda would look at for the coming 12 months We also discussed having a monitoring function longer term