EVENT: Disabled People - Help to find and keep a job

[This event is being hosted by Wiltshire Centre for Independent Living]

Wednesday 27th February 2013

Main Hall, The Wiltshire County Scout Centre,

Potterne Wick SN10 5QT

10.00am—1.00pm

Jonathan Edmondson from JobCentrePlus and Jane Mielnik from Access to Work will describe the assistance available to help disabled people to return to work and stay at work as their situation fluctuates.  

There will also be the chance to hear from people who have returned to work from benefits using this assistance and to give your views on what is available.   

This workshop is for disabled people with all impairments and long term conditions. 

Contact Wiltshire CIL if you would like to attend:-

Tel: 01380 725400

Email: info@wiltshirecil.org.uk 

EVENTS: Free Health Fair to help get healthy for 2013

An exciting week-long series of events taking place at County Hall, Trowbridge starts on 1 February 2013 this week highlighting the benefits and importance of good health.

The interactive Health Fair, run by Wiltshire Council working with partner organisations, will be launched on 1 February 2013 with a visit from Duncan Selbie the Chief Executive of the new national organisation Public Health England. The public are encouraged to attend the launch event, which starts at 10am, where they can take part in a range of interactive Public Health activity stands. There is no need to book, people can just turn up on the day and join in.

Full Details on Wiltshire Council

Three-quarters of local authorities to put up council tax for poorest families

Three-quarters of local authorities in England plan to put up council tax for the poorest households, often by hundreds of pounds, new research reveals.

From April local authorities in England will take control of a previously national scheme of subsidies for the hardest up families, usually with no working adults or those working on the minimum wage – at the same time as funding for the scheme is cut by 10%.

The Resolution Foundation thinktank surveyed councils and found that while some planned to make savings from other budgets, 74% said they would have to make households that did not previously pay any council tax start paying some of the bill, and/or reduce discounts to low-income working households.

Full Article on Guardian Society

SURVEY: Tracking the costs of caring and benefit changes

Carers UK is gathering evidence about the financial costs of caring.

We need carers' stories on the extra living costs they face and the impact on their ability to earn.

In addition, 2013 will see the implementation of many of the Government's changes to the benefits system - including the start of Personal Independence Payment and Universal Credit, the benefits cap and changes to Housing Benefit and support with Council Tax.

In February we will be launching our second State of Caring survey into carers' lives but we also need to recruit group of carers who can help us build detailed personal accounts of the costs they face as a result of caring and to track the impact of changes to benefits on their families.

This will help us demonstrate the huge financial pressures carers face and set out the consequences for carers of the Government's changes and cuts to the benefits system.

Take the Survey

The spare bedroom tax: a mess of contradiction an impossibility

The Holden family live on the end of a terraced street in the middle of Hartlepool. There are six of them: Stuart, 36, his wife Lorna, 33, and four kids: Faith, 8, Noah, 6, Elijah, 2, and Sam, 4.

You'd think of them as a thoroughly ordinary family, finding their way through the kind of trying circumstances that now seem to define the national condition, were it not for one detail: Sam, is autistic, and just starting to talk. "He was very non-verbal: shut off," Lorna tells me. "Now, he's starting to communicate what he wants. But it's still only one or two words at a time."

Full Article on Guardian Society

EVENT: Theatre Production "Finding Joy"

Vamos Theatre, in a co-production with The Courtyard Theatre Hereford, is touring its new full mask production about memory loss, Finding Joy.

We will be playing at  North Bradley Peace memorial Hall on Sat 16^th March 

TICKET BOX OFFICE – 01225 765644

£7adult, £6conc, £4.50 child, accompanying carers go free, negotiable rates for block bookings.

VENUE WEBSITE - northbradleypeacememorialtrust.wordpress.com

Vamos Theatre is one of the UK’s foremost full mask theatre companies, creating imaginative and accessible theatre that combines a good story and great characters with music, puppetry, humour, and invention. The tale of Finding Joy is told through mask, mime, music, and physical theatre – there are no words.  Over the last six years, supported by Arts Council England, Vamos has built a loyal following of intergenerational audiences and Finding Joy is aimed particularly at carers and communities who have a direct connection with dementia and memory loss, as well as health sector professionals.

The Play

Finding Joy cuts straight to the heart of raising awareness and understanding about dementia in an accessible, proactive and positive way.  This piece of live theatre hopes to encourage finding and celebrating the person beyond the illness, stimulating conversation and supporting all those that care for people with memory loss at its various stages.

Joy is creative, funny, loves to dance, and is losing her memory: her grandson Danny is rebellious, fearless, bright, and always getting into trouble. When out of the blue, Danny decides to become Joy’s carer, where will their unexpected and playful bond lead them?

Finding Joy is based on real life events and true stories, and is created in association with movement play specialists JABADAO. It is theatre that is both moving and comical, reminding us that elders enjoy varied and valuable lives, and despite memory loss remain important members of society, wherever they are living.

CONSULTATION: Draft Care & Support Bill

We would like to let you know about an opportunity for carers to give their views and experiences to a Parliamentary Committee.  Please do pass this information on to others who may be interested.

The Joint Committee on the draft Care and Support Bill, chaired by Paul Burstow MP, is conducting pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Bill and has set up a web forum to hear the views of carers.  Please take part in this web forum, and pass this on to any of your colleagues, contacts or friends who may wish to contribute.

The forum can be accessed here: http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/joint-select/draft-care-and-support-bill/web-forum/

The Committee would like to hear about your experiences as a carer and what impact you think the Government’s proposed legislation might have on your own situation, either positive or negative. Your comments will help inform the recommendations the Committee makes to the Government in their report.

The Committee would particularly like to hear the views of carers on three key areas:

·         Responsibilities of local authorities

·         Assessing need

·         Safeguarding adults at risk of abuse and neglect

Thank you for your interest.

Parliament’s Outreach Service