Carmarthenshire team wins recognition
Carmarthenshire County Council’s Supporting People Team has won recognition for its outstanding work in helping people to live more independent lives.
The team’s work was recognised at Cymorth Cymru's Promoting Independence Awards, held at the Holland House Hotel, Cardiff.
Supporting People aims to offer vulnerable people the opportunity to improve their life through greater independence by providing a range of support services. Through working partnerships with support agencies and service users, it promotes straightforward, cost-effective solutions which complement care services and support independent living.
Vulnerable people helped by the programme include people with mental health problems; those with learning difficulties and physical disabilities; women fleeing domestic violence; homeless people; teenage parents; young people at risk; travellers; ex-offenders; people on drug treatment orders, and probation users.
Cymorth Cymru is the representative body for providers of housing related support, homelessness and supported living services within Wales. The Promoting Independence Awards celebrate achievements in the support and homelessness sector.
The independent judges from local authority and third sector service providers across the United Kingdom awarded the Inclusive Commissioning Award to the Supporting People Team because of their hard work in involving service users in developing new and remodelling existing services, which is widely acknowledged as best practice.
Principal Officer, Supporting People, Ruth Evans said: “We are very pleased to have won this award. It is good to receive recognition for the hard work and dedication of the Supporting People Team.
“However, our success with winning this award is also down to the work of service users, as well as our partner organisations, who have given up their time to be fully involved in our commissioning process, so our thanks go out to them.
“The valuable role that service users can play should not be underestimated and it is important that their views are taken into account when developing services.”
Being involved in developing new services also had a positive impact on the service users.
One of the young people involved said: “It was a good idea to get us involved. We asked hard questions because we knew what we were looking for - the support workers need to understand the people they'll be working with. It was good to know our opinions were listened to.”
Another young person said: “I can't believe how many people can't communicate with young people. The interviews gave us the chance to find out who could communicate well and to see which people we'd like to work with us and support us. I learned from asking questions too - it was really good.”
Executive Board Member for Housing and Homelessness and Supporting People Champion Cllr Hugh Evans said: “Carmarthenshire’s Supporting People Team has worked hard to ensure that the views of service users are taken into account when developing services.
“Winning this award is a great achievement and my congratulations go to the Team, but we also need to thank those service users and partners who worked with us in developing services and making winning this award possible.”
The team’s work was recognised at Cymorth Cymru's Promoting Independence Awards, held at the Holland House Hotel, Cardiff.
Supporting People aims to offer vulnerable people the opportunity to improve their life through greater independence by providing a range of support services. Through working partnerships with support agencies and service users, it promotes straightforward, cost-effective solutions which complement care services and support independent living.
Vulnerable people helped by the programme include people with mental health problems; those with learning difficulties and physical disabilities; women fleeing domestic violence; homeless people; teenage parents; young people at risk; travellers; ex-offenders; people on drug treatment orders, and probation users.
Cymorth Cymru is the representative body for providers of housing related support, homelessness and supported living services within Wales. The Promoting Independence Awards celebrate achievements in the support and homelessness sector.
The independent judges from local authority and third sector service providers across the United Kingdom awarded the Inclusive Commissioning Award to the Supporting People Team because of their hard work in involving service users in developing new and remodelling existing services, which is widely acknowledged as best practice.
Principal Officer, Supporting People, Ruth Evans said: “We are very pleased to have won this award. It is good to receive recognition for the hard work and dedication of the Supporting People Team.
“However, our success with winning this award is also down to the work of service users, as well as our partner organisations, who have given up their time to be fully involved in our commissioning process, so our thanks go out to them.
“The valuable role that service users can play should not be underestimated and it is important that their views are taken into account when developing services.”
Being involved in developing new services also had a positive impact on the service users.
One of the young people involved said: “It was a good idea to get us involved. We asked hard questions because we knew what we were looking for - the support workers need to understand the people they'll be working with. It was good to know our opinions were listened to.”
Another young person said: “I can't believe how many people can't communicate with young people. The interviews gave us the chance to find out who could communicate well and to see which people we'd like to work with us and support us. I learned from asking questions too - it was really good.”
Executive Board Member for Housing and Homelessness and Supporting People Champion Cllr Hugh Evans said: “Carmarthenshire’s Supporting People Team has worked hard to ensure that the views of service users are taken into account when developing services.
“Winning this award is a great achievement and my congratulations go to the Team, but we also need to thank those service users and partners who worked with us in developing services and making winning this award possible.”
Comments