WE ARE PLEASED to bring you the presentations from this year’s Scottish Housing and Support Conference, which ran on 5 October 2011 in the Hilton Edinburgh Grosvenor Hotel.
THE THEME To reflect that we are entering a time of unprecedented resource constraints, cuts and challenges the 2011 SHASC Conference took as its theme Changing services for a changing climate. Delegates heard from service providers and service users how they were responding to the current environment. Speakers were asked to comment on any difficulties being encountered; how changes were being managed; whether service users had been involved and what had been the impact on them. Had more innovative ways of working or delivering services resulted? Their presentations are below.
"Very good, very well run and a variety of discussion topics" • "Everyone is in the same boat, having difficulties with cutbacks, and giving each other support with ideas" • "The views from service users told it how it is" • "Good networking opportunities" • "Informative and well balanced in terms of opportunities to participate " • "Very enjoyable. It was good meeting people from other agencies"
Opening Plenary: Responding to cuts — innovation, involvement, integrity. In the current climate of resource constraints and cuts how are service users, service providers and commissioners responding? What impact is this having or likely to have? This set the scene for discussion in the sessions which followed. The speaker presentations are below.
• How well are service providers responding? Annie Gunner Logan, Director, CCPS — Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland
• The response from a commissioner of services. Michael Thain, Strategy and Investment/Service Support Unit Manager, City of Edinburgh Council
• Experiences and perspectives from those who use services. Graham Morgan, Advocacy Project Manager with Chris Evans, HUG Action For Mental Health
Breakout sessions: To maximise everyone's participation delegates could attend Get involved in the Debate sessions; and also choose from the Topic Related Sessions. You can view all of the presentations below.
GET INVOLVED IN THE DEBATE: PARALLEL SESSIONS
Facilitated by SHASC planning group members, these sessions used key points from the opening plenary to set the scene for broader discussion in small breakout sessions: eg how people are being affected, what changes are being made to services and the impact on those delivering and using services. The key issues identified in Get involved in the Debate were reported back to Keith Brown MSP, Minister for Housing and Transport, in the closing plenary session.
TOPIC RELATED SESSIONS:
1 Welfare Reform: The implications of the Welfare Reform Bill/Act including the changes to Housing Benefit. Mark Willis, CPAG in Scotland
2 Self-directed support: This session highlighted key lessons from the evaluation of the Scottish Government’s Self Directed Support Test Sites, taking account of the National Strategy and recent policy developments. Julie Ridley, University of Central Lancashire and Ann Rosengard, Ann Rosengard Associates
3 Planning for an Ageing Population: As the number of older people continues to increase this has major implications for the provision of housing and support services. This session discussed some of the implications and responses. Amanda Britain, Craigforth
4 Adopting Outcome Approaches for Support Services: This session looked at two different approaches to measuring outcomes in the provision of support. Yvette Burgess, Housing Support Enabling Unit and Cheryl Stewart, Scottish Women’s Aid
Photography Awards: The winners of the HSEU competition, No Place Like Home, were announced. You can see the winning pictures here
Closing Plenary: Responding to cuts — listening, learning, looking ahead. Facilitators reported back to Keith Brown MSP, Minister for Housing and Transport, who responded to the issues raised. If you have further comments to send to the Minister, please email shasc@joa.co.uk and we will pass them on to the Parliament for you.
ABOUT SHASC: The Conference is a not-for-profit event which has now been running for 22 years. The conference programme is planned by representatives from CIH Scotland, Scottish Council for Single Homeless, Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, SAY Women, SACRO, Scottish Women's Aid, the Housing Support Enabling Unit, Ownership Options in Scotland and Horizon Housing Association.
THE AUDIENCE : The Conference continues to attract a wide range of participants from across the social sector in Scotland. It brings together policy makers and service users, providers and commissioners, staff and committee members from housing, support, health, social work and the voluntary sector.
SHASC encourages the active participation of service users both as speakers and as delegates, and receives grant aid from Scottish Government to enable this. The active input of service users, carers and supporters continues to sustain this Conference as a unique forum for views and ideas. Through active networking and promoting new ways of working SHASC aims to improve service delivery, policy and practice across Scotland. SHASC, bringing housing and support together!
You can see the speakers' presentations from the 2010 event here.
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