Welcome to the first blog of the year! I hope everyone had a lovely time over the festive season. I would like to wish all of our supporters, people we support their families and our staff a Happy New Year – I’m excited about all the great things we will achieve together in 2020!!

There are a few things to update you on below, but first I would just like to say a thank you to all of our staff for their continued efforts and hard work throughout the festive holiday season in ensuring our services continued to run. Here are the latest updates:

Care Inspectorate

Our grades were finally confirmed last month- and I’m delighted to announce we received a grade 6 (excellent) for Quality of Care and Support and a grade 5 (very good) for Quality of Staffing. This is a fantastic achievement and something to be very proud of! Well done to everyone for making this happen. If anyone would like to read a copy of the report it can be found at the following link

https://www.fair-deal.org/care-inspectorate-visit/

If anyone would like an easy read copy or a copy in another format please don’t hesitate to contact us.

February Fridays

You may remember in my last blog I mentioned I would be holding informal engagement sessions for people we support, families and staff to come and have their say, give feedback and chat about organisational matters and anything around service delivery etc. With that in mind I will be holding these sessions every Friday in February- please see dates and times below and come along if you can! If you could telephone ahead on 0141 634 4996 if you are coming along that would help us make sure there are enough cakes and seats for everyone! All sessions will take place at our Fair Deal Office at 355a Tormusk Road Castlemilk. If you can’t make it along to the dates below or would prefer to meet in the evening/weekend I’d be happy to arrange this.

Visits

In addition to the above sessions I plan to visit as many people and services as I can in February, I will attempt to get round as many as possible of those of you who are happy for me to visit at times that are convenient for you. I will also however have every Thursday in February free in my diary for time spent in services so I’ll be looking forward to spending time with you all.

Brexit

As you will be aware the UK is scheduled to leave the EU on 31st January this year. Some people have asked how this will affect social care and service delivery in Scotland. To reassure everyone we are following the advice and guidance of the relevant organisations and we are taking steps to ensure we prepare for this however I am not anticipating any issues for our service delivery so please be reassured. If anyone would like more information on this it can be found at the following link https://www.mygov.scot/brexit-healthcare/

Social Committee

Fair Deal is developing its very own social committee and we would like to invite the people we support to lead on this. The group will be responsible for overseeing and arranging all the major social events for the organisation for the year. Our Business Support and Operational Team Leaders Jill Grace and Ryan McCrory are leading on this and would be delighted to hear from anyone who is interested in joining the committee. You can call them at our office or email at  ryanmccrory@fair-deal.org or JillGrace@fair-deal.org

Farewells

Some of you may know that our Business Support Coordinators Elaine Davidson and Laura Donovan are leaving us for pastures new. Both Elaine and Laura are embarking on exciting changes in their careers. I would like to wish them both all the very best of luck in their new ventures and thank them on behalf of Fair Deal for their contribution to the organisation.

If you would like any more information or wish to discuss anything please email me at fionadunwoodie@fair-deal.org