2. NVFF Development Session 19th October 2015 - Notes From the Day

8/20/2019 2. NVFF Development Session 19th October 2015 - Notes From the Day

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This session was planned to help you think about your roles and responsibilities, both as a Forum and as individual members.

The two outcomes planned for the day were:

• to broadly agree the role and responsibilities of the different elements of the Forum: Chair, Co-Chair, Inclusion North, individual

members

• to explore and get consensus about the culture of the Forum and how you work together to get your job done.

So we agreed that we couldn’t write job descriptions, but we can get a broad agreement about the culture and the who does what

- and make plans for what needs to happen next.

The photos and words over the next few pages are a record of what we did and what we agreed.

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National Valuing Families Forum development day19th October 2015

Notes from the day

Outcomes or t e session


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We started by introducing ourselves and sharing three words that people might (or do!) use to describe us. As we went round,

we realised how many people had included the word, ‘passionate’.

Who’s here?


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So what’s the National Valuing Families Forum then?

Tricia asked people to think about another organisation that worked in a similar way to the National Valuing Families Forum.

The one we kept coming back to was the WI (Note: as I’m writing these, I thought how people even know it by its acronym -

that’s a sign of genuine influence!).

We talked about how the WI is a household name, people are clear what it stands for and what joining will mean. They have

clear and robust local, regional and national structures so everyone knows what they are doing and the part they play. As the

day went on, we kept coming back to the question….

what’s our Jam andJerusalem?

We then worked in small groups to think

about what the National Valuing Families

Forum is and what you are trying to

achieve…..but we had to try and explain it

to Tricia’s Mum. The poster on the next

pages shows what you said and the themes

you identified.


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The themes

This poster shows all the seven themes. You can see them

in more detail over the next few pages.


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Background and context: the National Valuing Families

Forum was part of making the Valuing People White paper

really happen - ‘nothing about us without us’


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Family life and life as a family carer: there to champion the concept that we

should have ordinary family lives, and that as family carers we also have

rights


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Soul food: the National Valuing Families Forum is more than just a

meeting or network - we gather strength from each other


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Values - people getting a great life: we are clear that we are

working towards all families and people with learning disabilities

getting a great (and ordinary) life. We hold that shared vision.


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Representation: this has a ? because we talked

about how hard this is. The reality is that we work

to bring the voice of all families of people with

learning disabilities to the National Valuing

Families Forum, whilst recognising that voices

speak differently around the country


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Expertise and experience: we

bring our lived experience and that

of 1000s of families. We use this to

make things better


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From front rooms to Downing Street and back: our central

purpose is to check and challenge how well people are

getting to live ordinary lives - from a family perspective. The

flow is and must be two way - we inform government

proactively and we respond to them. We are their reality

check.


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• Regional representatives always have to be a family member (but do you have to be a current family carer to stand? You said

yes)

• We noted that many of the people who are representatives have come through a family leadership programme. Building on

people’s skills and knowledge is something we have to pay attention to

• Allies - some members of the Forum are not family members and historically, we have members who are allies - who have a

shared value base. They often attend out of work time. We need to agree a recruitment process for allies and agree how we

decide whether an individual or organisation brings value to what the National Valuing Families Forum does

• Should organisations be represented (you generally felt not)? What do we do about Provider organisations as members? This is

problematical for the Forum, but the people from organisations who are currently members are there historically, and would

count as allies

• There is lots of goodwill involved - we need to look at how to make sure this is not exploited

• Outside speakers are often invited to the Forum. We need to be clear about how we decide who we invite to speak or to attend

meetings and what their role and remit is. We need to agree who makes the final decision about this

Roles and Responsibilities and how we work

• Everyone needs to have a clear understanding about why they are a member of the National Valuing Families Forum and about

what their responsibilities are. Each region has a responsibility for making sure their representative knows what their job is

• Chairing should be an elected process and a staggered overlap makes sense

• There needs to be a Chair, a small planning group and other clear roles done by people comfortable and competent in doing

those roles, working alongside Inclusion North• The Chair holds an important role as the face of the National Valuing Families Forum

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Facilitated by Tricia [email protected]

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Next steps - what all of this means we need to do!

Draft and agree:an introduction to the National Valuing Families Forum, what we stand for and what we do

a formal recruitment process for regional representativesa formal role description for regional representatives as well as thinking about ongoing training andsupporta rational and process for inviting allies to be part of the National Valuing Families Forum or to come andspeaka process for electing a Chair and planning group, including the roles and responsibilities of the Chair andplanning group alongside the role and responsibilities of Inclusion North as the support organisation

And finally, do some work to think about image and brand - this will include working on the website and onoutward facing information about the National Valuing Families Forum.

Good luck!
mailto:[email protected]

Documents

2. NVFF Development Session 19th October 2015 - Notes From the Day