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Embolden 2 Newsletter
Embolden 2 aims to help older family carers and siblings who are still caring for a family member at home or living out of county to plan ahead for the future. We work with you to help you through the process of obtaining the right support by providing information, advice and support.
In Year One of the project we have focused on connecting with family carers and siblings. We did this by running coffee mornings across the county two information events and a 2 day person centred planning course.
We have provided support to a total of 152 people, 12 of whom are siblings and 119 families. 33 of the families fall into our Tier 3 category, many of whom are in their late 70’s/80’s and 90’s and we are meeting with them on a regular basis to give them more person centred support.
We are working with the key leads and locality teams both in Adult Social Care and the Oxford Health Learning Disability Locality Teams to ensure that they are aware of those family carers most in need.
Crisis Care Planning Ahead Checklist
To help us with our planning, we have developed a Crisis Care Planning Ahead Checklist which we ask every family carer we work with to complete.
This helps us develop the right support tools and personalise the support for each family. We recommend every family carer caring for an adult with a learning disability take a look at the Checklist which can be found on our website on the linked button as it will help you think about what you need to put in place for your own relative. Click here for the Checklist
Planning Ahead -
All About Me Folder
We have also developed a practical ‘Planning Ahead - All About Me’ Resource Folder which family carers told us would help them be more organised with their planning ahead. 
The folder has been designed to include all the information someone would need to support their relative if they had to step in in an emergency. It also outlines what families need to put in place and plan for their relative on a long term basis. This is now available to download on our website for all family carers or by clicking the button below. Depending on where you are in your planning journey, and the current living situation of your relative, the folder can be adapted to suit your circumstances.
Click here to access the Planning Ahead Folder
The Moving Into Adulthood Handbook
Although the Moving into Adulthood Handbook was written for those moving from children to adult services, many of the chapters will be relevant to adults of any age depending on where you are in the planning ahead stage. If you have any questions around benefits, mental capacity, finances, supported living and supported employment etc, we would recommended looking at the handbook first which covers all these topics.
Click here for the Moving Into Adulthood Handbook
We will be continuing to work closely with those family carers in Tier 3 to plan ahead for their relative. However, we know from feedback that many family carers really value been able to get together.
“The other big take away from the events was just the ability to talk to other parents who understand our lives and the challenges we all face as parents of disabled young people. We tend to be so busy with our own children and their needs that it is hard to find similar parents.”
So our plan for Year two will be to run some more coffee and chat sessions across Oxfordshire to give family carers the chance to get together to socialise as well as ask any questions you may have as you move through the planning ahead process.
Coffee and Chat Dates
Witney - Thursday 2nd November 10.00am - 12.30pm
The Children and Family Centre, Witan Way.
(Parking available in the carpark near Waitrose). For Witney click here
Didcot - Thursday 9th November 10.00am - 12.30pm
The All Saints Room, Didcot Civic Centre. (Parking available on site) For Didcot click here
Bicester - Thursday 16th November 10.00am - 12.00pm
Bicester library. (2 hours free parking in the Sainsburys car park) For Bicester click here
Oxford - Thursday 23rd November 10.00am - 12.30pm
Dean Court Community Centre. (Parking available on site) For Oxford click here
Abingdon - Tuesday 28th November 10.00am - 12.30pm
Northcourt Centre, Abingdon. (Parking available on site) For Abingdon click here
Banbury - unfortunately we have had to make the decison not to run a coffee and chat session in Banbury unless we get more interest.
Henley - please contact Oona Bannister on Oona.Bannister@oxfsn.org.uk if you would be interested in a coffee and chat session in the Henley area.
Siblings Event
Monday 9th November 19.00pm - 20.30pm
We are already working with a number of Siblings who are supporting their parents to plan ahead for their relative, but from talking to family carers, we are aware that there are other siblings who would like to be involved in some way, but are either juggling multiple responsibilities or the family find it hard to ‘have that conversation’ about planning for the future.
Sibs is a UK charity that supports siblings of disabled children and adults and we have asked them to run an online workshop ‘An introduction to adult sibling support’ which will look at the positives and challenges of being a sibling and share sibling tips and advice.
It will be a free, confidential and interactive session with no screenshots or recordings.
If you know of anyone who you think would benefit from joining this workshop, please do let them know about it. They can book by contacting Oona Bannister on Oona.bannister@oxfsn.uk.org or calling 07816 833873.
Information Events
We will be running two more face to face information events over the next year, as well as a number of online Q and A sessions (daytime and evening) which is something family carers have told us they value. To help us plan these events, we would like to know which topics families would be most interested in. If you haven’t already, can you please complete the attached poll by clicking on the link below. We have suggested some topics, but please let us know if there are others that you think would be useful.
Click here for the short poll
POLL
Supported Living and Person Centred Planning Course
We will be running a 2 day course that will look at the importance of person centred planning when planning ahead for supported living for your relative. Adult Social Care Social Workers and Support Providers rely on a lot of the information you give them to ensure that they provide the right support to ensure your relative lives a good life so it is important to include as much detail as possible. We will use a number of planning tools to help you think about what is important to and for your relative, including relationship circles, decision making tools and matching support. Dates to be announced…
We have both a steering group and a working group that we are guided by and work with that includes family carers, staff from OCC Adult Social Care and Oxford Health Learning Disability Team, representatives from Oxford Brooks, Manchester Met, SIBS UK and a number of support providers operating in Oxfordshire. However, we also like to hear from the people we support to ensure what we are delivering is what you need, so if you have any questions generally or about any of the events above please get in touch.
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