Autism Argyll
Minute of committee meeting held on Wednesday 27th January 2015,
40 Union Street, Lochgilphead.
Present: Alison Leask, Sheila Campbell, Julia Hannah, Lorna Davidson, Alison McQuade, Gina Stewart, Fiona El Taweel, Jim Curnyn & Maureen Mackintosh
.Apologies: Alison Hay and Anne Horn.
Alison welcomed everyone to the meeting. The minute of the previous meeting were ratified.
Treasurer’sreport: Lorna informed the meeting that the bank balance on 5th January was £ 7751.98. We have £45,000 in the Cambridge and Counties Bank.
Maureen will arrange the transfer of funds from the savings account into the cheque account to cover costs for the forthcoming year.
Coordinator’s report: Maureen presented her report.
Website & Newsletter: The website has been updated and the glitch sorted out. A short newsletter was sent out in December.
Professional Development Award: Alison and Maureen had delivered a presentation to classroom assistants completing their PDA award. This had been well received.
Awareness Talk – Carr Gomm. Maureen had delivered a talk to Carr Gomm staff on 19th January which had been well received.
Get Set Update; The GS4A project has nearly completed its first year. 20 parents have taken part in the project but only 13 of them have come from the 36 children who had been diagnosed by the diagnostic teams since Feb 2015. The other parents have moved to Argyll & Bute or their children have been diagnosed before Feb 2015.
There was a discussion as to why this has been the case. Issues raised were the way referrals take place and parents being emotionally ready to contact the project. Ideas were discussed as to how to encourage parents to engage, including the Autism Advisors being there on the day of feedback so that parents have a personal contact from the start.
Dunoon Support Group: Maureen had been contacted by Duncan MacGillivray, a parent from Dunoon who has set up a support group and is looking to develop a service called “Inspired by Autism”.
ACTION POINT: Maureen to continue to update website and produce a newsletters.
General duties: mail, e-mail, writing up of minutes/reports, maintaining records and dealing with enquiries. There have been 9 enquiries to the Autism Argyll office since the last committee meeting.
Chair’s Report: Alison presented her report.
Argyll & Bute Autism Strategy Group: Alison and Maureen have been attending this group. In addition, Alison has had meetings with Allen Stevenson, the new chair of The Autism Strategy Group, and Gordon Murray who had been tasked to produce a training framework. Alison has given them information on autism and resources such as the NHS Education for Scotland Training Framework.
There followed a wide ranging discussion on the authority’s lack of strategic thinking with regards to autism services. The general consensus was there are many resources out there, it only needs someone at a strategic level to link them to staff.
The Integrated Partnership between Social Work and Health which will begin on 1st April, was discussed. Caroline Clark had told the meeting that this was going to have a direct impact on the diagnostic service for Helensburgh and Lomond because some of the team were going to work for Greater Glasgow and Clyde whilst others will remain with NHS Highland meaning the tam would no longer be multi-disciplinary. Also, there was an issue about where diagnoses would take place since they would no longer be able to use the Acorn Centre at the Vale of Leven and clerical support would be ending too. Alison wrote to Allen Stevenson asking what will be done about this and received a reply saying it would have to be discussed with Children and Families managers.
ACTION POINT:Alison and Maureen to continue to attend meetings and report back to group.
Staged Intervention Document: The council had put this out for consultation (although noone knew anything about it). Alison had written raising concerns. She received a reply from Lena Carter replying to each point made. This will be distributed to the committee.
ACYION POINT: Papers to be distributed to committee.
Proposed Council Cuts: Alison McQ andJulia had attended the Argyll and Bute’s Parents Against Council Cuts meeting in Oban and Julia had read out Alison’s statement which had been well received. There was a further discussion on the council budget and the impact it may have on services.
Spring event: Peter Vermeulen will be coming to Argyll on 16th March. We have booked the Three Villages Hall in Arrochar and hope to have a good turnout.
37 people have booked already and we can have up to 100 attending.
ACTION POINT: Maureen to continue with the event organisation.
AOCB: We have bought a book about palliative care for those on the spectrum which was written by Scottish Autism as a result of care they provided for a young man in their service. It is an excellent book which will be added to the bereavement resource.
Date of next meeting: TBA – probably April.