And Hope for the Future

 I am Graeme Ellis a user of care services in Lancashire

 To tell you about how Self Directed Support changed my life and how I want to help others achieve the benefits that have changed my life.

 I am now going to show you a video about how SDS changed my life but first let me introduce you to Kate Burgess who played an important part in the process.

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 Feel free to ask Kate or I any questions.

 My vision for the future is for service users to support other service users in the management of every aspect of personal budgets. We do not need big organisations to work for us we are more than capable of organising our own peer support but this takes funding we can obtain through funding our own support through personal budgets.

 How do you think service users can organise to provide peer support?  What problems do you think there are in the way of achieving real meaningful peer support?  What needs to be done to make the support more effective than traditional support offered to manage direct payments?

 Advising on the benefits to be gained from using personal budgets  Support during Social Care assessments.  Support planning  Help employing staff or choosing agencies.  Payroll and Tax Returns and invoice payment.  Maintain paperwork for audits  On going support managing staff and relationships with agencies.  Ongoing contact and Support

 You can contact me using the details on the compliment slip left on your chair.

 A national internet forum will become available in April where users of personal budgets from around the country can ask questions or use their knowledge to answer others questions. 