current opportunities

Carers’ survey – help decide how to spend £1m on breaks for carers

For the purposes of this survey, carers are people who provide practical or emotional support to a relative friend or neighbour who is ill, frail, disabled, experiencing mental distress or is affected by substance misuse. The care they provide is unpaid.

This is a follow on to previous consultations with carers when they identified the need for breaks. Katie Baldwin, Commissioning Services Improvement Manager, has asked us to help get carers’ views on how Cambridgeshire County Council and NHS Cambridgeshire should invest £1million in the next three years to ensure that the service they provide meets your needs. If you want to get involved, download the questionnaire from the link below and return it by email to Katie.baldwin@cambridgeshire.gov.uk by 30 June 2009.

(We have already told Katie what parents and carers of disabled children and young people told us about what a short break is for them.)

Download the carers survey in Word format (75kb)
Download the carers survey in pdf format (24kb)

 

Aiming High for Disabled Children parental involvement network meetings – between 2 and 14 July 2009

Come along to a network meeting near you. The network meetings provide an opportunity for parents and carers to meet each other, share information and raise issues. Meetings are held in Cambourne, Cambridge, Ely, Huntingdon and Wisbech. Service managers are invited to discuss ‘hot topics’, which are issues that parents and carers have raised. The ‘hot topics’ and guests for the July meetings are:

The events are free and every parent or carer receives a £10 voucher as a ‘thank you’ for discussing issues with representatives from service providers. More information is on the Aiming High for Disabled Children parental involvement network meeting poster. To book your place email getinvolved@pinpoint-cambs.org.uk or phone 0751 741 9761.

 

Help us create Mayhem on 15 August!

Mayhem 2009 is an inclusive fun-filled event focused on disabled young people and their families but open to all. pinpoint is organising the first-ever Mayhem Parent Zone. Join us in the Parent Zone to chill with other parents, have a coffee or book a massage…and add your question to our ‘everything I ever wanted to know about transitions’ wall and help Cambridgeshire’s Transitions Team make sure you get all the information you need, when you need it. See the Mayhem poster for more information.

 

Improve the future for young people with disabilities – get involved with helping the Transitions Service develop the way it works

Cambridgeshire County Council’s Transitions Team have asked us to help them set up a parent carer consultation group. If you have been involved with the Transitions Team, or have a child who you think will need social care support as an adult, then they would like to know what you think about their service and how you think the service should be developed. They are also looking for parents to sit on their Partnership Boards. You can find more information in their letter about the Transitions Service consultation or contact us by email getinvolved@pinpoint-cambs.org.uk or phone 0751 741 9761.

 

Become a parent representative

We are looking for parents and carers who would like to be parent representatives. Part of the role of the parent representative is to go to meetings to represent parents. We are looking for 3 types:

At the moment, we have funding from Cambridgeshire County Council to support parents of disabled children to become representatives. However, we would like to hear from any parent who might be interested in getting involved.

We are also working with parents and service managers to develop good practice in Cambridgeshire to make sure, for example, that parents are treated as equal partners and are rewarded for their involvement.

If you would like to know more or have an informal chat about what the role might involve, please email getinvolved@pinpoint-cambs.org.uk or phone 0751 741 9761.

 

Past opportunities

Family Information Services – tell us what you think and earn £10!

We know how important it is for parents to have the right information at the right time. If you would like to get involved in helping to develop family information services for parents in Cambridgeshire then please read on…

We have been appointed by Cambridgeshire County Council to ask parents what they think about their new Family Information Service website and directory.

If you would like to get involved as an individual parent please contact us by email or phone 0751 741 9761.

Any groups who would like to get involved and are able to help by offering a venue and/or childcare, please contact Lynn by phone 0751 741 9761 or email as soon as possible.
 

We have a limited number of £10 vouchers to give to parents and parent groups who get involved. Events will take place during September/October and dates and venues will be added to the website soon.

Contact us now for more information and to sign up!

Parent Support and Involvement Strategy consultation – a huge thank you to all 1200 of you who took part!

Thank you so much to all of you who took part. We had a fantastic response with over 1200 parents completing a questionnaire or online survey and getting involved in workshops around the county!

Thank you also to the many parent groups, organisations, services, schools and people who helped us make sure so many parents had the opportunity to get involved.

Based on what you told us, we have sent a report and a re-drafted Parent Support Strategy to Cambridgeshire’s Parenting Commissioner. We will be adding the report and revised Strategy to the website after it has been formally presented to the Office for Children and Young People’s Services (OCYPS) Management Board.

This formal consultation has now ended but you can still complete the online survey. if you didn’t get a chance to earlier as these will still be referred to.

Congratulations to Ms Watton of St Ives who won the £100 prize draw voucher, and to Scope who won the £50 parent groups prize voucher.