Flintshire Disability Forum
February 1999 Meeting
The Forum met again on Tuesday 23rd February at 10am at Flint Pavilion Leisure Centre. These are some photos taken on the day. A report of the meeting is included below.
Above: Amanda James (Disability Association volunteer) and Ian Jones (Flintshire Disability Action) on reception at the Forum.
Above: Workshops in action discussing when and where the Forum should meet and who should be members.
Above: Tim Ruscoe (Barnardos Young Carers Project) & Sue Cunnington (Flintshire Carers Project)
Meeting Report upon the establishment of a Flintshire Disability
Forum held at Flint Pavilion Leisure Centre, Tuesday 23rd February 1999
10:30am Welcome
Alex Warr, Community Development Worker of the Disability Association/ Cymdeithas Anabledd
introduced herself and welcomed delegates to the meeting. She informed delegates that the
Disability Association/ Cymdeithas Anabledd is the umbrella organisation for over 130
disability-related groups and people with disabilities in North Wales and operates from a
fully accessible high street location in Buckley.
The Assocation had successfully submitted bids to Comic Relief and the Lloyds/TSB Foundation earlier this year, to help establish a forum in Flintshire and Wrexham County.
This funding would help facilitate and support the forum for a period of one year and included funding for administration costs, publicity, training, venue costs and funding for sign-language interpretation, guiders, enablers and other support requirements that members may have.
Alex added that securing funding to support the forum, would give the members and the forum project the luxury of time. She explained that the forum would not be immediately required to find its own funds and as a result, members could take advantage of the opportunity to build the foundations of the forum and to develop good working relationships at a comfortable pace.
She stated that she believed that the 24th November consultation meeting upon the establishment of a disability forum for Flintshire had been a fantastic success; particularly because delegates present had unanimously agreed that a forum should be established. Alex added that she had been extremely encouraged by the fact that people with a range of physical and/or sensory impairments had attended both meetings; it was important that if the forum was to be fully effective and representative, that the forums membership represented a range of impairments. As a person with a physical impairment, she felt that she still required greater awareness of the needs of people with sensory impairments.
Alex Warr presented a summary of the meetings programme and gave a brief description of what would be included. The meeting would largely consist of workshops, in which members could discuss practical arrangements for future meetings and membership status of the forum.
10:50am Break/Divide into Workshops
11:00am Member Workshops:
Members divided into six workshops facilitated by Alex Warr, Ian Jones, Wendy Jones, Ann
Earlam, Eddie Furber and Anne Warr which would be held over two half hour sessions.
Members were asked to discuss the following questions relating to a disability forum for
Flintshire: 11:00-11:30am Workshops: How often should the forum meet? Where should the
forum meet and at what time/day? Did members require only refreshments or lunch? If lunch
was required, were delegates willing to make a financial contribution towards their lunch?
11:45am-12:15pm Workshops: What should the membership status be for carers, disability
user-led voluntary groups and voluntary organisations?
12:20pm Feedback Session
Alex Warr, Ian Jones, Wendy Jones, Kieran Duff, Eddie Furber and Anne Warr reported back
on the issues raised from their workshops. The feedback demonstrated that there was
consensus on a number of points:
11:00-11:30pm Workshop Feedback
How often should the Forum meet?
Four of the workshops agreed that meetings should be held monthly initially, although this
could be reviewed in the future. Two workshops believed that meetings should be quarterly,
with regular reviews.
At what time should the meetings be held? Any particular day?
All workshops agreed that meetings which began in the morning were more suitable, with a
number of workshops suggesting a 10:30am start. A number of workshops believed Tuesday was
the most appropriate day to hold the meetings on, preferably at the end of the month.
Where should meetings be held?
All workshops agreed that meetings should be held at the Flint Pavilion - delegates agreed
that the Pavlion was suitable because it was fully accessible, had free parking, it was
close to public transport routes and could accommodate the number of delegates currently
attending meetings. A number of workshops acknowledged the need to review this at a later
stage; other suggestions included Ewloe council offices, County Hall, Cyfle in Shotton and
Delyn House, which could be possible meeting venues in future.
Should lunch and/or refreshments be provided? If so, should delegates make a financial
contribution?
All workshops agreed that refreshments should be provided. Workshops suggested that the
lunch should be subsidised, with delegates making a contribution towards the costs. A
workshops suggested that this contribution should be voluntary. Alex informed delegates
that there was no room hire charge made if lunch was required; however a charge of
œ9-94 per hour was levied when lunch was not required.
It was noted that if delegates did not make contributions towards lunch then the cost of
hiring the room alone was far cheaper for the Forum than having to solely pay for lunch.
It was agreed that a subsidised lunch should be made available for delegates who required
lunch, as it provided members with an opportunity to network following the meeting.
11:45am-12:15pm Workshop
What should the membership status be for the following:
Carers:
3 Workshops agreed that carers should be full (voting) members, the other 3 Workshops
agreed that carers should be associate (non-voting) members.
Disability user-led groups
3 Workshops agreed that disability user-led groups should be associate members; 2
Workshops did not agree and 1 Workshop agreed that disability groups should have full
membership status.
Voluntary Organisations
All workshops agreed that general voluntary organisations should be granted associate
(non-voting) membership of the forum.
A number of workshops agreed that further discussion was required though regarding the
membership status for carers and disability user-led groups, as a result of the varying
feedback.
12:50pm Summary: Alex Warr - Disability Association
Alex Warr thanked all the workshop facilitators and scribes for their contribution to the
meeting. Alex stated that from the workshops feedback, it appeared that the majority of
those present, favoured monthly meetings on a Tuesday, although this could be reviewed at
a future date. She therefore proposed that the next meeting be held on a Tuesday morning
in late March at the Flint Pavilion, with lunch being provided for members who requested
it. Members agreed to this.
Alex informed members that she had recently submitted a funding application to Flintshire County Council Social Services for future funding for the forum itself. She explained that this funding would provide administrative, training, publicity and support costs to the forum and also included a travel expenses budget for members. She apologised that travel expenses could not currently be reimbursed (the funding which the Association recevied to facilitate the forum, did not include travel expenses for members) but she was hopeful that this would be rectified if the funding bid to social services was successful.
Tricia Bochanski, Chair of the Flintshire Forum for Learning Difficulties, enquired why the Flintshire Disability Forum's membership referred to people with physical and/or sensory impairments, as opposed to making no reference to a type of disability.
Alex Warr said that when the Disability Association had originally planned to facilitate a forum, it was felt that it was important not to duplicate the excellent work of the Flintshire Forum for people with learning disabilities and other agencies which represented people with mental health disabilities or people with head injuries. As no identifiable local forum existed to specifically represent the views of people with physical and/or sensory impairments in Flintshire, the Association, following consultation with its members, had received funding and support to facilitate such a forum. However, it was important that the forum itself was representative of its members' views and that it should be recognised that the forum's membership, structure and title was still open for discussion.
Alex Warr thanked everyone for attending the meeting and she hoped that many of the delegates would be able to attend the next meeting. Many delegates accepted the invitation to remain at the conference for lunch and continue the discussion raised at the meeting.
1:00pm Close. Followed by Buffet Lunch.