Connecting people
2008–9 saw United Response celebrating its 35th anniversary against a backdrop of big changes and even bigger challenges in the social care sector.
Over the past year, the personalisation agenda has gathered pace and we now support more and more people on an individualised basis. We are working actively with a number of local authorities and individuals to pioneer self directed support — and to give people real choice and control over their lives.
We believe that self direction should be available to everyone who wants it and so we are working to advocate on behalf of the people we support with more complex needs and provide them with the tools that make choice a reality.
The impact of our work this year has had a strong focus on the external environment. Our Making Money Easier project is enabling people to connect more easily with the financial world whilst our Every Vote Counts! programme is helping people to engage more with local and national democracy through accessible, interactive tools.
The social care green paper "Shaping the Future of Care Together", published in July 09, sets out some bold proposals for the future funding of social care. And so it’;s vital that, more than ever before, we maintain a strong focus on what’s really important — both to keep people healthy and safe and to enable them to live the lives they choose.
Ultimately, everything we do is about Connecting People. It’s about connecting people we support to each other and supporting them to make connections and have a presence in their local communities. It’s about supporting people to develop their own interests and then to choose their own staff — who share those interests — to support them. It’s about connecting people to make friends and participate.
And it’s about connecting the people we support and our work to government, policy makers and the wider world. Most importantly, it’s about supporting people to move from being merely "present" in their community to have the confidence to contribute actively — and to be valued for that contribution.
This Annual Review sets out some of the very creative ways in which we have been connecting people over the past year and supporting them to move "from presence to contribution".
Su Sayer OBE Chief Executive, United Response