Service User Member Involvement Team SUMIT

Service User Member Involvement Team – SUMIT Seeing Better Together

Minutes: Wednesday 24 September 2014

1. Welcome and apologies Present: Lisa Jones (LJ Chair), Mark Whittle (MW), Sally Spowage (SP), Paul Smith (PS), Kay Dear (KD), Paul Baskcomb (PB) and Catherine Norecliffe (CN Minutes). Apologies: Neana Lawson (NL), Shamaila Kauser (SK) and Stella Hodgson (SH).

2. Chair for next meeting

Kay Dear, JS to take minutes.

3. Minutes from August meeting

Minutes approved. Action: JS to publish Minutes on website and place on notice board. 4. Matters arising;

a) SUMIT membership: No requests for SUMIT membership. two places available. Action: Following a suggestion made by PB at the last meeting, JS has now forwarded SUMIT contact details to Martha Highton who will contact people in due course regarding DBS checks. . b) Drop in/e mails and suggestion box Just junk mail on SUMIT email and the suggestion box was empty. 5. Courtesy calls Now we have date for the annual general meeting we can start courtesy calls. To take place over a period of two and half weeks, mainly on Mondays and Thursdays. CN work with PS and MW to work with SH.

JS explained how courtesy calls work for the benefit of Sally. If someone cannot speak on the phone when we make a courtesy call then offer to give them the information by audio or print and include all opinions in our record of the call. Encourage them to attend the discussion forum. To avoid confusion SUMIT decided no messages are to be left on answering machines like we have previously.

6. Raising Profile - Open Day update; PS informed members of SUMIT that it had been agreed on the sub-committee that the new topic for the discussion forum would be; the need for more services outside Nottingham and in the north of the county. The topic would support My Sight Nottinghamshire’s Reaching Communities funding application from the Big Lottery.

The topic was previously to be a national survey for health and social care, however, the guidelines for this online survey were 13 pages long and it was considered far too complex and long to be discussed as part of a round-table discussion when not everyone will have read the 130-page document and wouldn’t be able to discuss it. Even if a person could read through all of this information if they were unable to attend or unable to use the internet it would be ineffective.

Considering the needs of service users in the north of the county would be more effective as My Sight will be applying for a funding bid of the lottery and to apply for this funding My Sight has to have evidence that they have had a consultation to determine what the needs are of its service users and part of the bid looks at reaching out to communities to ask what they are accessing to find out where the greatest needs are.

This will be a continuation of the feedback gained at last years’ discussion forum hosted by SUMIT, which also shows people SUMIT is following up on comments made at the previous event. The amount of the funding bid is not yet identified.

Questions for participants have been drafted and agreed and an invitation written by JS and sent out to service users.

7. Membership scheme All comments on the redrafted membership scheme proposal for the Trust Board should be made to PB via e mail before the deadline date.

8. Services Emma is now responsible for managing and monitoring all services. Before agreeing to develop new services she looks at the viability of the service, what its main outcome is, what resources will be needed to deliver it and the demand for it will be. She also confirmed that due to current economic circumstances, My Sight Notts has made it a priority to commit to delivering existing services but cannot commit to developing new ones due to funding.

Thanks were given to PB and PS who are representing SUMIT on the Transport Working Group. Group members include PB, PS, Emma and one of the trustees Mark Sheppard.

The agenda will include the issues of how the needs of services and services users for transport are very different. It is hoped a new policy will be made that is clear and transparent so that people will know what is available and what is not. LJ said it was important to ensure all vehicles providing transport provided wheelchair access.

There are presently services that operate from Ortzen Street but very few from Nottinghamshire county. The SUMIT consultation with people at the AGM will form an important part of the market research to help determine the demand for services; Emma will then look at the cost and the funding grants available with fundraising.

For the future it is hoped to develop the Young Peoples Services. At the moment it is in its very early stages, giving help to children with peer support. It is hoped this can be developed in the future.

Suggestions for a volunteer-led shopping service made at a previous meeting would have to be assessed for viability, cost and outcome before the service could be launched.

9. Any other business Wayne Musson, My Sight Nottinghamshire’s design volunteer had been asked to design the SUMIT Annual Report, this would be distributed at the AGM on 24 October along with the my Sight Nottinghamshire Annual Review Summary.

10. Next meeting It was agreed that the meeting in December should be the annual SUMIT Christmas lunch, which would be brought forward from the last Wednesday in the month to 10 December. It was also agreed that it should be held at the Orange Tree again as it provided easy access for everyone. LJ will circulate a copy of the Christmas lunch menu and pay a deposit. SUMIT members were asked to contact Lisa by 11 November.

 October 29th 4pm to 6pm

 November 26th 9.30am to 11.30am

th  December 10 Christmas lunch at the Orange Tree