Recently two workshops were held which were designed, in different ways, to support the contribution made by those who use social services and their carers.
What are we worth?
On Monday 25 February an event was held at Discovery Point in Dundee, called "What are we worth?", attended by over ninety people. This was a deliberately forceful title to help focus minds on the thorny issue of how those who contribute can be recognised and recompensed. The strength of feeling about the issue is amply illustrated in this comment made on the day
This event is a chance we must all seize to get the system changed. Have you got the courage and passion to support carers and service users?
There are, of course, complex rules about receiving financial payment, particularly if you are receiving benefits, and this makes it very difficult for certain people to become involved. Some of the presentations on the day looked at these barriers. However, the workshop also highlighted that rewards and recognition come in many forms.
Since the workshop the planning team has been gathering all the feedback comments, particularly the many messages posted on the graffiti wall on the day and ideas generated in the discussion groups.
Some of these comments are in the form of questions and these are being gathered to be addressed in a formal letter to the appropriate source, for example the Scottish Government and Job Centre Plus.
ther comments are in the form of very useful suggestions and these are now being considered by the planning team to see which can be achieved quickly or might take longer to be introduced.
In due course the planning team will send out a note of all the outcomes from the event, hopefully with some response to the formal questions.
Grasping the Thistle
The second workshop, in support of Scottish Voices, was held on 19 March at Perth Concert Hall and was called "Grasping the Thistle". This was attended by approximately 70 people and had a different focus as it was designed to let the Universities showcase how service users and carers contribute to social work training in Social Work degree courses across Scotland. Almost all of the 8 universities gave a brief presentation, mainly led by service users or family carers and these were very well received by the audience, for example,
"surpassed my expectations, extremely good" and
"it was very interesting to hear what the various universities have in place regarding service user/carer involvement".
By the end of the workshop Scottish Voices received several enquiries from individual and groups interested in becoming involved in their activities.
The discussion groups and the presentations generated a lot of very useful suggestions and these are now being looked at by the planning team in order to feedback to the universities and other interested groups on short and long term possibilities. The recent decision by Scottish Government to award a grant of £5,000 to each of the universities delivering the social work degree, specifically to support the involvement of service users and carers, will go some way to supporting these activities.
A commitment was made on the day of the workshop to circulate all of the suggestions in the form of a report and this will be made available in early May.