Expanding into Gloucestershire

10 Aug 2015

Gloucestershire County Council has invited us to start building circles of support for people with learning disabilities, physical disabilities and/or mental health challenges. This will fit into the Council's 10-year strategy for Building Better Lives. We look forward to starting work there shortly, having signed an agreement with the Joint Commissioning Partnership of GCC and the Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group.

ACSYL has been active in Herefordshire since 2012. It feels good to be venturing across the county border, especially as we already have a trained Community Connector in Gloucestershire. We envisage recruiting and training more Connectors there to join her in due course.

This expansion in ACSYL's reach has come about through networking. Some months ago we met Antonia Noble of Carter Noble Independent Safeguarding Group. A qualified barrister, Antonia practised in London for a number of years and then served as a GCC cabinet member for adult social care. Her enthusiasm for ACSYL's vision has opened doors. Thanks to her introduction, we had a meeting in April with Chris Haynes, GCC's Lead Commissioner for Learning Disabilities and Agy Pasek, GCC's Strategy and Transformation Manager. Both are keen to promote ACSYL.

Linking our work with GCC's Building Better Lives strategy inevitably requires paperwork. Samantha Crocker, support officer for GCC's Learning Disability Partnership Board, has pulled it all together for us. "We are very excited to have you start work in Gloucestershire," she says.