Andrew Matthews Report on the Partnership Board Meeting
As Chair I welcomed everyone to the meeting and took the
meeting through the agenda.
We looked at and approved the minutes from the last meeting.
We talked about finance. We will only have a 
financial report every six months as this will be
more accurate than a 2 monthly report.
There will be a report about the pooled fund in
December. The pooled fund is the money that is
available for Learning Disability services within
Cumbria.
We talked about Health. There will be training
packs for doctors so that they can have training in
their own practices to support doctors to do annual
health checks.
A review of Annual Health Checks is due in November.
A Health Self Assessment has been sent to the
Strategic Health Authority.
We talked about Housing. There is going to be a 
leaflet produced about the best way for people to get the
right housing in Cumbria.
The commissioners still need to put forward a proposal
to the commissioning and contracting group to help them
make a decision on housing management agreements.
We talked about Employment. The Partnership 
Board talked to the Provider Forum about the
Partnership Boards ideas for supporting people with a
learning disability to get some work.
The Employment Sub Group is talking about job
placements, for people with a learning disability,
with the County Council and in hospital settings.
We talked about the Person Centred Approach.
The person centred sub group have agreed an action plan.
The group will find out where training and information about
person centred planning and support plans is needed to
support those who use services, family carers and providers.
We talked about Transition. A plan is being made to help
young people to move into adult services and support.
Colin Glover from Adult Social Care gave a
presentation about Personalisation. He told us about the
difference between Support Plans and Person Centred
Plans.
A Support Plan is needed when a person has had 
an
assessment by a Social worker to find out if he or she
is eligible for social care services and what services
adult social care will pay for. A person should be
supported when being assessed. Once it has been
decided how much money is allocated to meet
the persons need then a Support Plan can be made.
A Person Centred Plan is a plan about a person’s
life. It deals with every part of a person’s life and not
just about support needs.
In Person Centred Planning the making of the plan
and the plan is controlled by the person (and
sometimes their closest family and friends).
As there are no set forms, tick boxes or checklists,
the Person Centred Plan is totally different for each
person. It makes a complete picture of who the person
is and what they want to do with their life and brings
together all of the people who are important to the
person including family, friends, neighbours, support
workers and other professionals involved in their lives.
The Plan becomes a plan to use in day to day life to
say about a person’s wants, needs and dreams and
should be reviewed regularly.
Support and training must be available to help 
people
to make person centred plans. Care providers can help
people to make plans or people can contact People
First to find out who can help them to make a plan.
Muriel Nixon showed us the final Learning Disabilities
Plan for the next 3 years. The committee approved the plan.
The next meeting is on December 14th.