For Direct Payment users and all those interested in Direct Payments (message from the Council’s Direct Payment )
How to get involved
Come to a meeting: Just turn up to any of the virtual meetings below, if you’re happy to use Zoom. You’re bound to meet other Direct Payment users and learn something as well as getting your voice heard.
Co-production Calendar
Late Summer/Autumn 2020.
Reset Co-production meeting:
We’d like to invite you all to a meeting to discuss the question of how the Council needs to work with Direct Payment users in future, and what is important to work together on.
The meeting will be jointly chaired between the Council and a Direct Payment user. The meeting is not for solving any individual problems you are having with Direct payments. It is for working out together what a good service would look like, and what might need to change for us to achieve that.
Wednesday August 12th, 2020 2pm to 4pm
Write to us: If you prefer, write down your thoughts about what a good Direct Payment Service looks like, and send them to Direct Payments Co-production, Care Brokerage Team, The Woolwich Centre, 35 Wellington Street, London SE18 6HQ. Your thoughts will be shared with the Co-production Steering group (see below).
Join the Co-production Steering Group: This small group now meets monthly and will “steer” how co-production works and keep the Council accountable for agreed actions and changes. Right now, there are six Direct Payment users and four Council officers in the steering group. We’re looking to expand the group and we are really keen to hear from you if you’re interested in getting involved. You would need to come to a Zoom meeting on Friday afternoons each month. No experience needed- just the willingness to work as a group to achieve positive change. If you would like to join the Steering Group, email Directpayments@royalgreenwich.gov.uk and give your contact details for the zoom link.
Peer Support Group: Direct payment users from Metro GAD and Greenwich DPAC are starting a regular peer support group on Zoom. This is a great chance to meet other Direct Payment users, exchange ideas and support each other. Council staff will not be at the meetings
Tuesday 25th August 2-3.30pm
Zoom details will be sent to you on the Monday before each meeting.
Tuesday 22nd September 2-3.30pm
Zoom details will be sent to you on the Monday before each meeting.
Tuesday 20th October 2-3.30pm
Zoom details will be sent to you on the Monday before each meeting.
Tuesday 17th November 2-3.30pm
Zoom details will be sent to you on the Monday before each meeting.
Tuesday 15th December 2-3.30pm
Zoom details will be sent to you on the Monday before each meeting.
Direct Payments advice sessions: Council staff will run this six-weekly advice session on Zoom. We will pull in questions from the peer support group, questions that often come to our duty lines, and there may be a chance to ask your own question at the end.
Wednesday 16th September 2-3pm
Zoom details will be sent to you on the day before each meeting.
Wednesday 28th October 2-3.30pm
Zoom details will be sent to you on the day before each meeting.
Wednesday 9th December 2-3.30pm
Zoom details will be sent to you on the day before each meeting.
What does co-production mean? It means working together. A fuller definition has been agreed by several groups who have been involved in co-production:
“a meeting of minds born out of mutual respect, coming together to find a shared solution. In practice it involves people who use services being consulted, included and working together with the service provider, from the start to the end of any project that affects them.
In this way decision makers and Disabled residents work together in an active way to plan, design and review policy and services that affect Disabled people’s everyday lives, to remove barriers that prevent Disabled people having control and self-direction over their own active and healthy lives”
Who is involved in co-production? We hope you will be part of this! So far, we are a small group of Direct Payment users who are keen for things to change for the better, working with Direct payment officers. Some of us are members of groups representing Disabled People, (Metro GAD and Greenwich Disabled People Against Cuts).
We want this group to get bigger and represent a diverse group of Direct Payment users, so let us know if you wish to get involved.
How to use Zoom: If you haven’t used Zoom before, don’t worry. You can get Zoom on a smartphone, tablet or laptop or if you are not online, we’ll send dial in details for you to join on the phone. It’s free to join meetings. Here’s a useful guide from Learning Disability Wales to getting set up and getting the best out of Zoom. https://www.ldw.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/How-to-use-Zoom.pdf
Greenwich DPAC 