Highland Community Care Forum

Overview 2001 - 2002

Security of Funding Builds Confidence This year HCCF signed its first Service Level Agreement worth £354,637 with Highland Council and NHS Highland and has reaped the benefits in many ways:

There is an increased understanding of the spectrum of HCCF's work among officials and elected members.

The existence of a Service Level Agreement is significant in attracting funding from other sources. Currently HCCF is in receipt of funding from The Community Fund, Lloyds TSB Foundation, Rural Challenge and The Unemployed Voluntary Action Fund. In the financial year 2001 - 2002, HCCF attracted £254,673 in addition to its core funding. Funding sources are a mixture of statutory and independent.

Impact of HCCF With an annual turnover of around £600,000 and a staff of 24, HCCF is a sizeable Highland employer. The organisation's impact throughout the Highland area should be recognised in both economic and community development terms. Our current emphasis on capacity building has and will result in an increase in the skill base of our workers, a number of whom are based in remote areas. The resulting synergy is illustrated in the Service Level Agreement Report of HCCF's work in the last year, which has centred around building the capacity of the Network as a whole. This is timely when set against the backdrop of national initiatives, which mark out an enhanced role for users and carers and their representatives, and the passing of the Health and Community Care Act.

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Annual Report 2002
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The Need for a Capacity Building Approach

If users' and carers' views and experiences are to be at the centre of health and community care, then enduring networks are crucial, otherwise involvement runs the risk of being ad hoc and skewed. Effective networks allow people to take part at a pace and level that they feel comfortable with.

Getting Connected - Staying Connected

Building the capacity of the HCCF Network, with the combination of baseline funding and the Community Fund and Rural Challenge Award, has focused on connecting users and carers to the HCCF Network, their own communities, service networks, local and national government and the NHS. Staying connected needs nurturing and encouragement, giving people the confidence, skills and knowledge to push back the barriers and play their part in decision making processes.

What this Means in Practice

Training in putting Community Development into practice. Introducing an accessible framework to plan, manage and evaluate all aspects of work.
Training in website design, including an interactive element.
Training in stress management for carers.
Distributing information to the Network through IT, bulletins/newsletters, face-toface contact and HCCF meetings.
Establishing a Young Carers Project in Gairloch.
New links and partnerships with Access Panels in Skye and Lochalsh, East Ross-shire and Inverness.
Producing training videos - Home Care, Assessment and Getting Involved.
Assisting North West Sutherland Care Alliance to produce a marketing video.
Supporting the Highland Users Group - 'training the trainers' courses

Significant Milestones

The role of the quarterly HCCF meetings has increased - events where users and carers contribute to policy-making, both by acting as a sounding board and presenting their direct experience.

Our growing skills in the use of Information Communication Technology have allowed us to pursue different approaches in capturing users' and carers' experiences. Our aim is to build a training/awareness-raising library and a good start has been made with Home Care, Assessment and Housing Issues videos. Throughout the year both HUG and the Highland Carers Project have carried out a number of awareness raising sessions with Health and Social Work Services staff. The developing Joint Future Agenda, with the focus on Single Shared Assessment, provided an opportunity for the Highland Carers Project to include the recently piloted Carers Support Plan - an assessment procedure that makes sense to carers. A broader independent monitoring role for the HCCF Network is under discussion - from the user and carer perspective are Joint Future initiatives working well?

Looking to the Future

In the fast moving world of health and community care HCCF needs to re-appraise its role if it is to remain at the cutting edge of identification and resolution of rural issues. Our successful bid to the Lloyds TSB Foundation's Capacity Building Scheme will assist us in this task over the next year.