Julie Paterson, Director of the Mental Welfare Commission met with CEO, Heather Gray, Co-Chair, Donny Lyons, Betsy the Cosgrove mascot and families, staff and supported people.
We talked to Julie about the challenges in social care and what Cosgrove Care is doing to address these issues. We discussed low hourly rates for social care staff and the impact on recruitment and retention, cuts to social care support stopping preventative work for people we support, and the challenges with income generation. We discussed the wellbeing of supported adults and children and how this is being impacted by cuts.
Julie met with Alison Hiddleston who is supported by Cosgrove Care. She spoke of the challenges of cuts and increased costs for families and the need for long term planning.
Julie visited our new supported living service, Dover Lodge and heard about the ways we are trying to spread support costs, and integrate volunteer led activity to meet outcomes within reduced budgets.
We shared video clips to allow Julie to hear about our work in more detail.
We showed Julie our delivery spaces and sensory room and talked about future plans including using public resources currently not used at weekends.
We will continue to share the work that we are doing around realising Human Rights and finding positive solutions with the commission.
