May 2011

Active Choices Newsletter May 2011

Hi all.

Welcome to our latest newsletter. We have lots of good news to share with you about our office move, CQC registration, our riding stables volunteers and so much more.

But first,

Birmingham Care Cuts Unlawful!!!

In the news recentlyyou may have read about the court ruling that found against Birmingham City Council and the cuts that they were making with regard to care funding. Currently there are 122 councils that are currently only providing care to people with either substantial or critical care needs. This has an effect on everyone who is involved in the care of people with disabilities as only basic care will be offered and people's quality of life will suffer.

However the High Court has found the cuts imposed to be unlawful in Birmingham's case after four families were affected by the lack of resources and decided to fight for their rights. The Court found that Councils must abide by existing disability laws that are in place to eliminate discrimination.

One such Law is the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 which was amended in 2006 to ''place a duty on public authorities to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people''. So what does this all mean to our cared for and ourselves. Well, this now sets a precedent in Law so that future cases of this type will be judged on a similar basis. But hopefully, the Councils around the UK will realise that it will be an expensive exercise to contest every case and will ensure they are not breaking the Law and will provide the level of service that is needed and, quite frankly, our Human Right.

Let me know if you have any comments on the above.

Carla

(More info can be found on www.bbc.co.uk)

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On a lighter note,

Have a look at the photos below:

Here are our newest recruits to our new venture at the Livery Yard. They have been very hard at work and have been painting the stables. One Service User, Barry, says of his experience 'I enjoy working at the stables because it is fun and I like the people that are there with me'. Barry, Chris, Ben and Andrew have all volunteered and are getting a lot out of the experience.

Here is Stuart hard at work at the computer. Stuart is helping to look for other sources of supported employment and doing general office duties. What's that Stuart? - Time for a tea break again?

We are also opening a new club in Warrington soon that will be open on a Wednesday afternoon and will include all types of entertainment, crafts, sports etc. In fact the poster that will be distributed has been designed by our service users.

We are all very excited at our new ventures and if anyone would like to take part then please contact the office

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We are moving!

As of Tuesday 31^st June we are moving our office to another location. Our new Address will be:

Active Choices Care Ltd

The Heath Business and Technical Park

Runcorn

Cheshire

WA7 4QX

Our telephone number will remain the same and if you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact Mark or Carla for further info.

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Care Quality Commission Registration

Thanks to all the hard work everyone has put into the business in the last year and a half we are now very near becoming registered with the Care Quality Commission. We should hear this week and once we have a registration number we will issue every customer with a brand new Service User Handbook.

Being registered with the CQC will allow Active Choices to grow and enable us to offer a wider range of services. We will be closely regulated by the Commission and will ensure that our standards of good practice are kept to the highest level.

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Footnote:

We would like to apologise for the inconvenience canceling our Chester Big Day Out caused due to issues around the Runcorn-Widnes Bridge.

We have rescheduled the outing for this Sunday 29^th May. Pick up will start at 10am and a picnic will be provided and a surcharge of 12 pounds still applies for the boat trip.

We hope everyone has a lovely time on the big day out. Also to those who are away this weekend at The Lakes we hope the weather is nice.

Many thanks