Every Voice Matters At First National People We Support Forum

The inaugural executive meeting for the People We Support Forum saw delegates travel from across the United Kingdom to attend.

Among those who gathered were 14 people we support, the chosen representatives by their peers, and people from many different areas of Swanton’s care and management teams.

The forum meeting, which took place at West Midlands Safari Park, was an inspirational occasion as creative and exciting ideas were shared and every voice was heard.

The PWS representatives arrived fully prepared with questions and ideas to share with CEO Gary Thompson and the rest of the group, some of whom had come from as far away as Scotland.

One thing that Gary was keen to establish from the start was the collaborative nature of the forum and that it was an opportunity to feed back vital insights from people supported at Swanton services and influence change.

Gary said: “We’re delighted that The People We Support Forum is now up and running and that we’ve been able to get together and hear their fantastic ideas.

“There was a lot of discussion about how to boost the communication we have so that the people we support can get more feedback on their progress, as well as the decisions and discussions happening within their service staff teams.

“They were also keen to discuss the wellbeing of the support staff and look at ways to help them feel happy and healthy at work.

“Getting the chance to hear their insights and discuss ideas was incredibly valuable and interesting.”

The forum also made decisions about how they would structure monthly, quarterly and bi-yearly meetings to keep the momentum going.

This included looking at alternating locations for meetings and getting people together on a monthly basis within services to talk.

Gary said: “We hope that this structure will help to ensure conversations continue regularly and every person supported in our services will get a chance to contribute if they choose to.

“There is no doubt in my mind that the work done by the members of this forum, particularly the PWS representatives, will help us do even more to enhance the lives of the people we support.”

linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram Skip to content