Briefing Note - ‘With Inclusion in Mind’

“With Inclusion in Mind” is Scottish Government guidance which provides support and practical ideas on how people who have or have had a Mental Illness or Learning Disability, can be engaged more fully in our communities. It helps assure we are fulfilling our statutory duties under a number of pieces of significant legislation.

The inclusion agenda is often viewed as the responsibility of Social Work. However, Sections 25 – 27 of The Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 and S.20 of the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003, require it to become the core business of the whole council.In a number of areas of action, local authorities will need to work with their community planning partners to deliver these statutory duties.

Developing engagement events with Community Planninghas allowed us to take the agenda out to our Local Community Planning Partners, ensuring that all services are working ‘With Inclusion in Mind’ and that these one stop events remove the need for multiple consultations with each service provider individually.

With Inclusion in Mind has received the support of Aberdeenshire Council’s Chief Executive Officer Colin Mackenzie who views inclusion as “an important area for us to address, as we must ensure that services are responsive to the needs of those with mental illness, learning disabilities and personality disorder”.

The initial proposal to host an event in each of the six administrative areasevolved into a roadshow, reflecting Aberdeenshire’s localised needs within an authority wide context. Events have been held in Garioch, Formartine, Banff, Fraserburgh, North and South Marr, and North and South Kincardine & Mearns and Buchan attracting 310 participants, 110 of whom have been people accessing services or unpaid Carers. The age of people participating ranged from 14 to 75+.

What have been the outcomes?

Training provided for a core group of Community Planning Officers and Social Work staff has enabled the roll out of 9 events.

The Garioch Event - 19 February 2009

The themes chosen by the Garioch Community Planning Group which reflected local priorities -

Communities Healthy Living

Civic Engagement in Decision MakingLocal Needs

In Garioch, the Garioch Local Community Planning Group were keen to take an active role in leading and facilitating such an event.

Prior to the event held in Inverurie in, the Garioch Community Planning Officer, chose three templates included within the Guidance Paper that she felt relevant to the area and to the community planning process. She researched and identified issues that may be raised not only as a concern by those with mental health, learning disability and personality disorders but also the positives that locally were proving beneficial and could be built upon and perhaps those that were not currently being dealt with locally and possibly could be introduced. Therefore she drew up a fourth template of ”Local Issues” which included sports and recreation, art, volunteering and housing. Doing this was necessary to ensure that the right agencies attended the event and meant that discussions that took place on the day were two-sided and therefore more likely to reach a conclusion acceptable to all. The Housing and Social Work Strategic Development Officer (Mental Health) co-ordinated the attendance of Social work clients and staff and the Community Planning Officer invited other attendees. The event was launched by Council Leader Councillor Anne Robertson. Peter Bates, author of the With Inclusion in Mind guidance paper, was asked to be Lead Facilitator for the day and the Community Planning Officers from other areas of the Shire were table facilitators. (A training session was held the following day for those who were to lead/facilitate the subsequent events).

28 people participated on the day and a further 25 who could not join us on the day were consulted in focus groups and one-to-one interviews. The findings were turned into 20 actions some of which were taken away by the agencies attending, others were sent directly to a particular Council Service. Some, however, were felt to have much wider implications. The Community Planning Officer took the actions to other marginalised groups locally eg physical disability, substance misuse, older people to see whether they agreed with them or not and whether there was anything they wanted to add. Eight of the actions were of interest and relevance to all marginalised groups spoken to and they have now been included in the Garioch Community Plan 2010/14. Several of them eg need for befriending services, need for independent living skills courses, transition from day services were such that they would need to be led by Social Work and the Community Planning Officer met with the Director of Social Work and Housing to talk through the background to the actions and to agree that Social Work would indeed take a lead on them. The same procedure was followed with other agencies who had been identified as needing to take a leading role in taking the action forward.

As a result of the Garioch With Inclusion in Mind event and the priorities and issues raised, the Inverurie Health Improvement Group, with 40 members, was set up with identified priorities of a Community Training Kitchen (and allotments) and Social Inclusion. Currently the Group are identifying a site for a kitchen and are to hold a Social Inclusion event, using the With Inclusion in Mind model, but including wider marginalised groups.

Several of the actions highlighted a particular issue around the mental health of retired men as a result of which a couple of projects are being developed that will help improve low level mental health issues – these are a “men shed” – a large shed/unit containing various pieces of machinery and equipment that men can used as they so wish where they can use their skills and pass them on to others, assist those with learning disabilities and brain injuries, but which also aids social inclusion for those finding themselves without social networks since retiring – basic repairs scheme – a scheme allowing low level repairs to be carried out for vulnerable residents by volunteers as a means of improving the mental health of the volunteers. A well attended Retirement Fairwas held March 2010 which focussed on an active and mentally healthy retirement.

Concern was also raised at the Garioch With Inclusion in Mind event with the Housing Allocations Procedure for those with mental health issues. The Community Planning Officer spoke to several mental health support agencies to identify particular issues and gather evidence before meeting with the Housing Principal Policy Officer, together with representatives from a couple of the support agencies, to present the case for change. The result of the meeting was that two housing allocation procedures would be changed, a change of housing policy would need to be looked at and a commitment to investigate the possibility of adopting the Better Ways/Next Stage forum model as used by Aberdeen City Council and Registered Social Landlords in Aberdeen.

The Formartine Event - 07 October 2009

The Formartine Community Planning Group’s local priority themes -

CommunitiesLifelong Learning,

Housing & Social Care Services Arts & Culture

The Formartine event formed part of the Ellon Health Improvement Group’s Community Well-being Week which ran from the 05 -10 October 2009.There was tremendous interest and a real buzz about the Ellon Kirk Centre. A total of 54 people representative of the adult age range participated on the day, 23 of whom where people accessing services or Carers.

The day highlighted good use of Direct Payments to provide flexible and personalised support; opportunities to identify potential sharing of resources; and good examples of signposting in the Community Mental Health Team. Community Learning and Development have removed an age restriction on their Storytelling Workshops and Ellon Resource Centre are now participating in a Community Learning Partnership. The biggest impactsfor them was raised awareness of other organisations in the area, networking and joint working experiences which included:

  • You and Me Yoga
  • Tai Chi style exercises
  • A drama performance of Scottish Tales

Ellon Young People’s Project and Mental Health Aberdeen’s Inverythan Centre are linking to support young people and adults around bullying and harassment issues. Ellon Resource Centre and Inverythan Centre continue to participate in the Ellon Health Improvement Group’s Community Well-being Week. Points raised about the ‘With Inclusion in Mind’ guidance resulted in an easy read version being published.

The Banff & Buchan Area Events- Banff (28 October 2009) & Fraserburgh (30 October 2009)

Communities Healthy Living

Lifelong Learning Local Area Needs

The Banff & Buchan Local Community Planning Group hosted these themes which reflected their local priorities. A working group comprising representatives from Community Planning, Public Health, Community Learning & Development and Housing & Social Work was setup for this purpose. The events resulted in improved links with the police, individuals and local community groups. A local community newsletter in the Banff area, The Banff Buzz, has been produced to address a lack of awareness of the groups and supports available in Banff, Community Learning & Development have offered to support this. Details of transport options in the area were provided by community planning in response to points raised and these have been passed on to the Banff & Buchan Bus Forum and also to Stagecoach Bluebird for comment. An outcome of this has been the Banffshire Partnership advised that they may be willing to run the dial-a-bus to and from the Forum when it is held in Fraserburgh and anyone who wished to use this service should contact BPL direct. Requests for the 305 bus route to swing by Aberdeen Royal Infirmary en route to the terminus in Aberdeen has been raised by many people over the years with Stagecoach who have consistently refused to be reroute. Since June 2010 all 305 buses have been routed via Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

There was an expression of interest in facilitating a “Speed Networking” event in Banff (with invitations to groups and organisations from the Fraserburgh area) to further promote bridging between services and organisations. In the Banff area strengthening links between Brighter Horizons, The Arches and the Banff Day Services has encouraged an exchange of skills and facilities between all. Banff Day Services and Brighter Horizons agreed to explore the development of positive working relationships between teenagers and people who experience Learning Disability. This resulted in Banff Day Servicesworking with Brighter Horizons over a 16 week period - at the end of which they entered 2 rafts into the Garioch Lions Raft Race raising, £1100 pounds for charity in the process.

The events also produced a detail of the Lifelong Learning opportunities in the Banff & Buchan area and also gave an idea as to what people would like to see provided.Banff Day Services set up a blog to help promote what was going on in the Banff area.

There was a general recognition of the need to further promote and publicise local groupactivities and support or encourage people to access these.Barriers identified included examples of discrimination on the grounds ofage and mental illness, poor customer service, limitations on increasingvolunteering numbers and public transport.Good practice in Healthy Living included - Penumbra’s 8 week HealthyEating/Living course and the Smoking cessation groups run in conjunctionwith NHS Grampian at Robertson Road Resource Centre (and which areopen to all).Participants in the Banff and Fraserburgh areas welcomed theopportunity to review progress and to have further networkingopportunities.

The Marr Area Events- North Marr (25 November 2010) & South Marr (27 November 2010)

Communities Lifelong Learning

Healthy Living Making Your Voice Heard

In the Marr area ‘With Inclusion in Mind’ was facilitated by the Marr Area Partnership. Outcomes included the sharing of premises between community organisations; a commitment to exploring more sustainable approaches to Lifelong Learning for all; and promoting accessibility for people who experience profound disability. An e-form information sheet is being developed on benefitentitlements in response to points raised. Action points generated for the Marr Community Plan included promotion and implementation of the Shared Lives Scheme and taking forward the national Anit-Stigma campaign at a local level and are linking in with the ‘see me’ OpeningUp Project.

The Kincardine & Mearns Area Events - North Kincardine & Mearns (12 January 2010) and South Kincardine & Mearns (13 January 2010)

Communities Housing & Social Care

Lifelong Learning Employment & Volunteering

The Kincardine and Mearns events led to Community Beat Officers introducing themselves to mental health and learning disability groups/services. Initial discussions have taken place with KMAP about the possibility of supporting or developing community based websites to address a need for more information about activities and events at a local level. A representative on the Kincardine and Mearns Local Community Planning Group for inclusion issues is being negotiated and a Community Well Being Network has been established. Findings have informed a consultation on a new town development in the area about mental health and learning disability related needs. This includeda need for facilities like gardens, village greens, allotments, accessible recreational areasetc to be taken into account in the planning process. In essence encouraging planners to raise the bar as far as promoting a sense of community and inclusion.

The Buchan Event - 08 September 2010

Communities Housing & Social Care

Employment & Volunteering Healthy Living

The Buchan Local Community Planning Group identified these themes as reflecting their local priorities. Participants identified a lot of positives about the local community which included:

  • Support from the local academy and social work depart for young people.
  • Taking services to people when appropriate
  • Community planning useful for communicating information
  • Buddy matching from local church
  • Volunteering opportunities
  • Informal places to get together and make friends eg Hotspot and

community hubs

17 actions were identified resulting in Willowbank Day Services developing good links with Community Education & Learning and the Volunteer Centre Aberdeenshire. A Skills Plus course was run for 8 People who access Willowbank in the local Community Centre which looked at team work, problem solving, communicating with others, practising interview skills etc. All really benefited from this by gaining confidence in their own abilities, a second course for another group of people is about to start. Access to an accredited course is also being explored.

The need for more 'buddies' to support people in jobs and placement is being negotiated with the Volunteer Centre Aberdeenshire who are keen to this forward. Volunteer opportunities have arisen at The Owl and the Pussy Cat and it is hoped there will be further opportunities for other people too. Similar has happened with Peterhead Projects as a direct result of networking at the event.

Willowbank also made contact with the Outreach Project opening up new avenues for art projects, making art work for the Theatre ModoHalloween event last year:

They we will continue to work on new opportunities in 2011 and are aim to be involved with the Theatre Modo events this year too through the Peterhead Scottish Week.

The connections made have enabled people to highlight the work they do at Willowbank heightening the local communities awareness of the skills people have.

Participants stated they had enjoyed themselves and the chance to network with others. They rated the event as good

and came away with a greater sense of what was happening in their area:

Emerging Themes

Emerging themes around Housing and Social Work have contributed to afuture planning review of particular needs, review of day services andinfluenced the 2010 / 11 service plan. Employment and Benefits related points

from across Aberdeenshire have been taken up with the Partnership Manager

for Jobcentre Plus for Grampian.Employment Development Officers are piloting an outcomes approach to supporting people returning to employment.

Barriers

Barriers identified included examples of discrimination on the grounds of age

and mental illness, poor customer service, and limitations on public transport.

What have been the benefits?

a)Analysis of how Aberdeenshire Council, Community Planning Partnersand Partner Agencies projects can better contribute towards Local Outcomes in our Single Outcome Agreement. The format has made a significant contribution towards evidencing attainment of National and Local Outcomes.

b)Confidence building in people who access our services and in those planning and/or providing services.