Minutes of Meeting
2nd September 2015
Present : / Present :Darrin Thomson – York Advocacy / Louise Hicken – Self Advocate
Kayti Ball - York Advocacy / Jamie Edwards – York Advocacy
David Cartwright – Self Advocate / Sam Hind – Self Advocate
Heather Martin – Self Advocate / Leanne Metcalfe – Self Advocate
Rachel Griffiths – Self Advocate / Daniel Sanderson – Self Advocate
Ray Watson – Self Advocate / Rosie Thackeray – Self Advocate
Anthony Long – Self Advocate / Duncan Mace – Self Advocate
Helen Harrison – Self Advocate / Nicholas Ramsey Gunn – Self Advocate
Glyn Newberry – City of York Council / Robert Hudson – Self Advocate
Katie Douglas-Self Advocate / Ingrid East-York Advocacy
This was the first self-advocates forum without external supporters.
Welcome
Darrin welcomed everyone to the forum. Darrin explained that Brunswick could not attend today, as they had no transport. Self- advocates said this was a shame, as Brunswick enjoy the forum.
Housekeeping
Louise told everyone:
- Where the toilets were.
- Where the fire exits were.
- We would have a break with tea, coffee and biscuits.
Ground Rules
Louise explained the ground rules to everyone:
- Listen
- Respect
- No jargon
- Confidentiality
- No shouting or swearing
- No mobile phones at the Forum
Sports Update
Darrinwelcomed Glyn Newberry from City of York Council to present the monthly sports update.
Glyn handed out a copy of the newsletter to everyone and talked about some of the things happening in Sports and Leisure this month.
Glyn talked about the new inclusive bike ride, which will be taking place on Wednesday 16th September 2015.
Glyn then told self-advocates about the Celebrating Ability Week, which will be held from 26th October to the 1stNovember 2015. This festival is a chance for anyone to try out any of the inclusive sports groups, which are currently running. There will also be a sports day, which will be held at ‘Energise’ leisure centre.
More information about the event will be available soon at and also in the October newsletter.
Glyn also mentioned about a survey that the team are currently asking people to complete. The survey is lots of different questions for people with physical disabilities; to find out what types of sports and activities they would like to be able to do in York.
If anyone has a physical disability and would like to give some feedback about sports and activities they would like to do, you can complete the survey by clicking this link-
Darrin and the forum members thanked Glyn for coming.
Darrin then explained to the forum that the first thing we would be talking about in today’s forum would be the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment(JSNA – for short).
There is a meeting taking place on 14th September 2015 at Tang Hall Community Centre, 1pm-3pm, to talk about the JSNA in York. Inclusion North is running this event, along with The Mental Health and Learning Disability Board in York. Many self-advocates are attending this meeting.
Darrin asked if anyone had heard of the JSNA, or knew what it was.
One self-advocate Davidsaid that JSNA was a way of ‘finding out what support and help people need’.
Darrin said that David was right and that the JSNA is an assessment of a person’s needs.
Joint – Joining together.
Strategic – Create long term goals and how to achieve them.
Needs - Require something, because you need it. Like 1-1 support.
Assessment - An action taken to get to know something or collect information.
Darrin then showed self-advocates a list of questions about the JSNA. The questions asked people what type of support they would need depending on the situation.
Some examples were ‘What type of support would you need if;’
You were travelling in York?
Taking part in leisure activities and keeping healthy?
Darrin then asked if all self-advocates could get into 3 groups and go through the questions together.
The forum gathered into 3 groups and each group talked through the questions and came up with lots of good ideas about the types of support they would need.
Darrin then asked all 3 groups to feedback some of their answers.
Table 1 talked about Keeping Safe and Hate Crime. They suggested that things such as; having more police on foot patrols, more security cameras in town and also ‘sound’ on traffic light crossings would support people to stay safe.
Table 2 talked about Travelling in York. The group talked about things that support them when travelling, such as using their disability bus pass, havingsomeoneto come along on the journey for support and helpful staff on transport such as buses, taxis and trains.
Table 3 talked about Leisure Activities and Keeping Healthy. They said that they all like to go out and do different activities but do need support from others at times. They also said that sometimes there is not always enough staff available to do all the things they would like to do, especially if they need 1 to 1 support.
The forum then talked about how it is really important for self-advocates to feel supported in every part of their lives and that sometimes if there is a lack of support, it can be difficult for self-advocates to do all the things they would like to do.
BREAK
After the break Darrin asked if everyone could get back into their groups,so that we could talk a little more about support.
Darrin handed out a worksheet and asked self-advocates to write down what support means to them.
Each group wrote down what they felt support meant to them. Darrin then asked each group to feedback a couple of answers.
Here are some of the things that self-advocates said:
Support is –
- Help to do things that someone cannot do on their own.
- Friendship and relationships.
- Listening and understanding.
- Practical help- Help to cook, clean, pay bills, take medication.
- Helping someone to stay healthy and safe.
- Helping someone to be as independent, as possible.
- Emotional help – someone to talk to.
Darrin then showed self-advocates 2 pictures stuck up on the wall. One picture was a ‘happy’ person and the other was a ‘sad’ person.
Darrin asked if each self-advocate could write down one thing about what good support is to them and then asked self-advocates to go and stick their note up on the happy person.
All self-advocates wrote down their ideas and stuck them up on the wall, next to the happy person.
Darrin then asked Louise to read out each note, so that the group could talk about everyone’s different ideas about what ‘good’ support is.
Here are some of the group’s ideas about what good support is -
- Positive.
- Caring.
- Encouraging.
- Understand me. Put me first.
- Listening skills.
- Reliable.
- Be able to sign/communicate well.
- Respectful.
- Friendship.
- Turn up on time/don’t let you down.
The group felt that there were some really good ideas about what good support is.
Darrin explained that next month we would look at support again and talk about different types of support.
David and Leanne then came to the front to feedback about a meeting they attended recently. David and Leanne were on an interview panel for a new doctor at Systems House.
They explained that they were very nervous at first but enjoyed taking part in the interview. The doctor they interviewed has now been hired and will be working at Systems House.
David and Leanne said that Dr Sharma is very nice and they would recommend him to anyone.
Jamie then showed self-advocates the forum newsletter, which self-advocates have been writing stories for, over the past few months.
Jamie handed out the final draft of the newsletter, so that all self-advocates could have a look tosee if they were happy with the final draft.
Self-advocates loved the look of the newsletter and were really excited to see the finished copy printed out!
Self-Advocates then gathered together to take a group photo to be used on the front cover of the forum newsletter.
Darrin thanked all self-advocates for coming to today’s forum and for all their hard work.
The next forum meeting will be onWednesday 7th October 2015.