Joint Engagement Forum (JEF) April 2023 Summary

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Local Engagement round up

Safeguarding Community Reference Group

The group is creating some activities that they would like to be involved for National Safeguarding Week 22nd-28th November, JEF members were offered and encouraged to send in any suggestions they may have. Disability awareness training is available for bus drivers/community transport drivers so people with disabilities feel safer and have an easier time on their travels.

Oliver McGowan Training 

Living options has been contracted for this training in Devon and will be working with relevant partners. The awareness training will be delivered to estimated 60,000 people. The training will be delivered in different level of tiers 1 and 2, the role out time for this training will vary dependent on what tier it is.

Carer Ambassadors (CA)

The Carer Ambassadors report was shared with JEF members that covered key areas such as:

• Success of ambassador recruitment
• Specialist groups who bring issues and positive thoughts, report includes activities, many CA work alongside carers in need, especially with assessing needs.
• Concerns about the DCC consultation on services, would like everyone to respond to the consultation. Cuts to Devon Carers will affect Carer Ambassadors.
• Replacement Care
• Ambulance waiting times
• Support packages problems
• Sitting service lack of volunteers
• Loneliness
• Hospital services lots of positive feedback

Learning Disability Partnership Board (LDPB)

The AGM happened late March 2023, it was a great success and had amount of attendees to join. The film “How to use the Learning Disability Devon Website” is now live on the Learning Disability Devon website , members were encouraged to view the video/website and fill out the feedback form to help improve accessibility of the website. All information on the website is in Easy Read format to allow all people to have access to read the information.

Learning Disability Friendship Groups

Groups are continuing to be really successful and well attended by members, group are looking for more and new members to join. It was noted that it would be greatly appreciated to receive feedback from engagement projects that group members have taken part in. Volunteers are still a struggle, possible plans in visiting some Community Voluntary Sector groups  to encourage people to join.

Dimensions For Autism (DFA)

Information was shared with JEF members before the meeting. Invitations were sent out to new members to attend the groups, more meetings are now face to face and the lady’s group numbers are increasing so a new venue is required. Members have been asking about weekend groups, as a results DFA will be approaching the Community Voluntary Services to see the possibilities for this.

Torbay Autism Ambassadors project is running with 5 autistic adults who are helping create awareness of autism, they sit on the autism planning board in Torbay. Events will be held on Friday 26th May at the English Riviera centre 1-4pm for professionals , then a later meeting at 4:30pm-7pm for the general community and autistic adults.

In the summer, DFA are working on the Yellow Brick Road guide; members were asked if any suggestions or changes be sent in to DFA.

Autism Involvement Group (AIG)

AIG members met in February and April. The group have had updates from:

• DCC – Giving updates on the Adult Social Care beta website, welcoming feedback from members to give suggestions on it’s development.
• DCC – Giving updates on the current status of the Adult Social Care strategies which are being finalized
• All Age Autism Pathway – Giving updates on the progression on this.
• Devon Autism and ADHD (DAANA) – updated on the Silver Cloud support for pre assessment, more online Autism training for people recently diagnosed and offering more support after the diagnosis.

Hikmat and BAME involvement

It was noted that boundaries after Covid are easing which is allowing more weekly activities for men and women, spring activities and the celebration from Ramadan. Hikmat has been working as part of the settlement scheme, helping to deliver more training for international settlement team for volunteers and staff; feedback for this has been really positive as it has helped with understanding of prejudice as this can often lead to misunderstanding and trouble situations when people are dealing with things.

Co-production Group

The Co-production working group still meet regularly, since the last JEF there has been 2 awareness sessions; one was a general session and the other was a be-spoke for the Pubic Health Team, both have been great success. There have been 3 Commissioning Involvement Group focus groups since January ,including: care homes fees uplift discussion, Supported Living quality standards and Adult Social Care website focus group.

Health and Wellbeing Board

A presentation was shown to JEF members that focused on the topic Youth Parliament which represented the issues that arise for an individual l on the waiting list and the impact volunteers can help in these situations.

Living Options present an overview of the vaccination engagement project and outcomes

This was a 6-month project funded by NHS Community Grants Programme, Living Options took the lead with the support of 5 other Devon organisations. The result of the project concluded that is community organisations are building trust with the community and getting the right message across is of high importance.

Devon County Council (DCC) Adult Social Care Website

A member from DCC returned to the JEF after sharing a beta test of the Adult Social Care website and appreciated any suggestions or ideas on how it could be improved or adjusted to increase accessibility. The DCC member returned giving an update on the current progression on the website and shown how they used the members previous feedback to adjust the website; for example they took in consideration that when using plain English where appropriate but being mindful of the language used ensuring no jargon and user friendly language.

Devon Carers and NHS Hospital Discharge Scheme

A presentation was shown to members that covered key areas such as:

• Home First / Discharge to Assess
• National Guidance
• Core Components of Home First / D2A Model
• Principles of Home First / D2A Model
• Foundations of Home First / D2A Model

A key thing for carers is to deescalate where carer breakdown is happening by using a strength base approach, a budget is in place to provide resources to alleviate stress.