Press Release

08 May 2017

Self-directed Support and Community Brokerage
– helping you make the best choice

Anyone who’s interested in learning how to have more choice and control over how their social care needs are met is being invited along to a special event later this month.

‘Community Brokerage’ is a relatively new community-based approach for Scotland, where anyone eligible for social care can have a Community Broker work alongside them to help them decide how they can best be supported.

Self-directed Support (SDS), introduced in 2013, gave people the opportunity to have more control over their care and their individual budget. Shetland has unique challenges which restrict people’s opportunity to take advantage of all four options which are provided for under the legislation. However, the isles do have a wealth of community-based assets which could help meet people’s needs, and Shetland Islands Council and NHS Shetland have recently begun to look at ways to encourage the use and growth of these – including Community Led Conversations (where organisations work more closely together with practitioners and the communities they serve) and Community Brokerage.

A Community Conversation event – hosted by Anne-Marie Monaghan from the Community Brokerage Network – will be held on 17th and 18th May from 10.00 a.m. until 4.00 p.m. at Islesburgh Community Centre. All key stakeholders, including service users, community members, third sector partners and statutory officers, are invited to get involved and consider ways of developing what could be a meaningful approach to providing services in Shetland.

Anne-Marie says SDS has been challenging for local authorities, but there is a real commitment to finding new ways of working which develop strong communities and opportunities for people to help each other: "The Shetland Islands have particular challenges of geography and I look forward to sharing the community broker model, working with workshop participants to explore and discover ways for people to be supported which makes sense for the people of Shetland as well as building on the strong communities and personal assets that already exist here".

For more information on Community Brokerage, go to www.communitybrokeragenetwork.co.uk