31 July 2010 Good Evening

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Friends and Futures

This project is exploring the workforce implications of working with a group of people with learning disabilities ( and their families) in the North east of England to try out a way of facilitating support networks, which can enable people to be more in control of their lives.

The model of support was developed in Canada by a group of families. PLAN has become an organisation that is for families with disabled members and offers practical support to prepare for the future and build a good life for the disabled family member

The core values are:

• Family Leadership
• Safety through relationships
• Self-sufficiency
• Contribution equals citizenship

Background

This project is exploring how a successful model of support from Canada can be developed in the North East. Families of children with disabilities often ask, 'what will happen when I die'. The PLAN model helps by offering a 'Network Facilitator', a new type of worker who will work with the individual to build a network around them so they are less isolated and plan for the future.

The project is the start of a new organisation led by disabled people and their families. This work is highly relevant in the context of individualised budgets as the model is based on disabled people selecting and paying the Network Facilitators themselves. We are training Network Facilitators (some who will be family members) and researching and documenting the outcomes.

Objectives

1, To support 16 families to set up a social network. 2, To develop and run (3 times) a training course for network facilitators. 3, To explore setting up a plan NE organisation.

As we progress this project we hope that 16 individuals and their families will benefit from an increased sense of security for the future, increased social network and a plan for the future. We are recording their journeys and hope to identify what it takes to make this work, how to overcome the barriers, what new skills and experience is needed to be a successful Network Facilitator and what can be achieved by a PLAN Network. We plan to publish and disseminate our findings nationally so that disabled people and their families and professionals across the country can benefit.

We are anticipating that we will encounter a number of difficulties along the way. We are working with a limited number of people which means the lessons learnt may not be applicable to a wide group. However, we may also have difficulty recruiting both families and facilitators to work with us.

We also know that social networks can take time to show their beneficial effects. We have tried to balance this by creating a project that runs for 2 years, but some of the networks we set up may not be fully established by the end of this project.

What happened

We began the project in March 2008. We drafted a job description for the role of a project co-ordinator and one of our existing team members has taken this job.

We have been working with a steering group since Autumn 2007, and this work has continued. We have held events to raise awareness of the PLAN model of support and invited family members to workshops to find out more about the things PLAN North East can offer.

Over the past few months we have been designing a training course for 'Network Facilitators' or 'Connectors'. This will be held in October, then reviewed and held again in February 09.

We have been also planning for an event in September to invite families to 'sign up' to helping the PLAN North East to develop and to join the pilot.

What was achieved

We are too early on in the project to comment here – although after the first training course and event to sign up families we will know more.

There is information about the work in Canada on the useful links page.