Building Better Lives Consultation

As you may know, in April Gloucestershire County Council’s cabinet agreed to run a consultation on a proposed policy called Building Better Lives.  The policy outlines changes they would like to make to the way they support people of all ages who have a disability.  The council is gathering views of people with disabilities, their carers and families and a wide range of professionals from a variety of sectors.  In addition, an online public consultation will run until Monday 2nd July.

The policy puts forward a number of important principles (such as amongst others, inclusion, contribution, and early help) and seeks people’s views about whether these are the right values to form the basis of the way in which they work to support people with a disability in the future.  Getting an agreed set of shared values and priniciples in place is key to creating a future system which is ambitious and effective. 

The policy also looks at how to improve the transition from childhood to adulthood in social care, education health.  It explores issues such as how we can progress the personalisation agenda (giving people choice and control), how we can use the talents of people with a disability so that they play a key role in delivering services, how aspirations can be raised around what children and young people with a disability will be able to do in the future, and how we can create more employment opportunities for people with a disability.

We would like to ask that you share this with any other interested parties and tell us what you think visiting www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/buildingbetterlives to access the policy document and online survey.  Hard copies and accessible copies are also available on request.

Alternatively, you can invite the consultation to lead a workshop, or attend an exisitng forum, with your team, service users, parents/carers, tenants, or any other interested stakeholders by contacting Samantha Crocker at 01452 328596 or samantha.crocker@gloucestershire.gov.uk