|
Chairman's Report
The Local Forums represent and respond to the particular needs and concerns of their area and feed into the core the local responses to Highland and national issues. This year, local car schemes, Access Panels and support for young carers have developed. Members of the Local Forums are involved with other organisations either as individuals or in more formal partnerships. The HCCF network has debated its role in the implementation of Joint Future. Users and carers will have the opportunity to be part of new local teams which have been set up to unsure that there is easier and quicker access to services. This year we have been glad to be part of the Joint Committee for Action in Community Care. The staff give of their time in other fields. Sheena Munro the Executive Director has just retired as Convenor of the Scottish Community Care Forum. Graham Morgan's work with HUG was recognised by a six month secondment to the Scottish Executive. Anne McDonald from the Carers Project sits on the Scottish Coalition of Carers Steering Group. Ailsa Peck has been driving the Lottery Funded project 'Connecting Communities'. This project has helped to spread the word and work of the Forum, the Local Forums, HUG, People First and the Highland Carers Project. It has enhanced communication between groups and individual projects using Information Communication Technology. Brian Hill has provided expertise in making videos and with in-house publishing. An Election Checklist, the outcome of an HCCF meeting of users and carers, was widely distributed before the May Scottish Parliamentary and local elections. Having developed 'the Carers Support Plan', a new way of assessing carers' needs, Anne and Elaine at the Carers Project have carried out joint training sessions for Social Work and Health staff. The work with young carers has grown at both local and strategic levels. The number of calls to the Carers Helpline, of enquiries at the Inverness office and to the Local Forum facilitators increases every year. In responding we gain knowledge, friends, volunteers, interest in our activities and increase our network of users and carers. The very real problem of stigma was addressed in HCCF's publication Highland Conversations and in commissioning Eden Court Theatre to write and perform a play at a number of secondary schools in the Autumn of 2003. Highland Users Group is playing its part in See Me, the national anti-stigma campaign. We are, as always, grateful to our funders both statutory and charitable. We trust that this Annual Report and other available papers will endorse their support for our current work and give confidence to support new ventures. There have been 'comings and goings'among the staff; with many discrete pieces of work this is inevitable. I would like to thank all members of staff and volunteers who have been with us during the year for their unflagging commitment to HCCF and through it to all the users and carers. Finally my thanks to the office bearers and committee members for the time they devote to HCCF particularly as the majority of them are also users and carers. We look forward to next year and the challenges it will inevitably bring. Isabel
Moore |
Annual
Report 2003 |
 |
|
©
Highland Community Care Forum.
Tel: 01463 718817 — Fax: 01463 718818 — Email: hccf@hccf.org.uk
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
In
presenting the eleventh Annual Report of the Highland Community Care
Forum, it struck me how the organisation had expanded over the years;
but that the growth had all sprung from the bedrock of 'the voice of
users and carers'.