Ask the family (NToW5)
Background
In Control was an initiative established to find a new way of organising the social care system. It was at the forefront of developing the process of self-directed support.
Ask the family was a project developed as part of In Control which examined the role of family carers.
Aims/Objectives
The aims of the project were to provide support and development opportunities to family carers, to achieve the following objectives:
- To recognise the knowledge and experience of family members as an essential part of the training and development of the staff who work with people using self-directed support
- To help knowledgeable, experienced family carers to develop public speaking skills, so that they could become effective trainers
- To improve the potential for 'cross sector' working
- To provide social care professionals with an understanding of the experience that families go through when obtaining an individual budget and personalised services
What happened?
A group of families with experience of self-directed support volunteered to become trainers. Two training days took place (one in North Tyneside and one in South Tyneside), where eight family carers were trained. At each session, the family carer, the person cared for and a personal assistant attended.
Outcomes
During the training sessions, the family carers learnt how to improve their presentation skills and were able to progress their plan to set up a social enterprise, which later became established. Both sessions were successful and feedback shows that views were positively changed, in relation to:
- The benefits of self-directed support
- The potential for people to move from residential care into the community
- The ability of family carers to contribute positively to such change
Impact on workforce development and how you can use the learning
The training sessions highlighted that to enable family members and personal assistants to be able to deliver this type of training they need:
- Good communication and presentation skills
- IT skills, to be able to produce PowerPoint presentations for example
- Confident negotiating skills, in order to discuss issues such as fees
- A good knowledge of their subject matter
Additional outcomes
NToW5 - Ask the Family evaluation
