Recently we invited lots of people involved with Richmond AID to join us for an afternoon event. Our service users, Trustees, volunteers, staff and others got together to talk about what we thought our priorities should be for the future. What are we good at? What could we improve? What do we need to think about for the future and what changes and developments are most likely to affect those who use our services?
We called this our ‘strategic planning day’. It was a great success. Over 45 people joined in the event and it provided an opportunity for us all to come together and shape the future direction of the organisation. You can see the presentations we had on the day if you follow the links at the end of this piece.
There were main themes to reflect on: the impact of welfare benefits reform and the personalisation movement. A number of changes to benefits including Incapacity Benefit, Disability Living Allowance and Housing Benefit will mean many disabled people will have a drop in their income and will be under increased pressure to get back in their workplace.
The national organisation, In Control, gave a presentation on how local charities need to change in response to personalisation. Personalisation is ‘the Government’s word for the new way of organising public services. Everyone who uses support should have choice and control over that support. As the name suggests ‘personalisation’ is mostly concerned with how to design support arrangements so they are more personal – which means they need to fit the person, to be suitable for them and to give that person as much control over their support as they wish to have.’ Locally, nearly all recipients of social care have been moved on to Personal Budgets which mean that people have more control over how they choose their care.
Our group worked together to plan and prioritise the organisations activities for the next couple of years. Lucy Byrne, CEO of Richmond AID said, ‘so much has changed in the year it is important to reflect these changes in our business planning for the future. We are delighted to have so many disabled people came and worked with us to develop our joint vision and plan for the future.
Here’s the presentations from the day:
Planning Day Overview: Strategy Day Overview (537 downloads)
Planning Day slides: Strategy Day slides (518 downloads)
Benefits Reform Presentation: Benefits Reform Presentation (558 downloads)
In Control Presentation: In Control presentation (492 downloads)