SP Council March2019 MINUTES

Service Provider Council Meeting Wed. March 13, 2019 9:30am – 12pm MINUTES In Attendance: Erin Waite (Chair), Alexi Davis, Elaine Yost, Karen Miles, Kathryn Semio, Tim Dmystryshyn, Mickey Greiner, Bill Forman, Helene deKlerk, Joanne Hart Sweazey, Deanna RachKewich, Erin O’Toole, Pam McGladdery, Ed Quiring, Dianne Jackson, Denise Young, Nilima Sonpal-Valais, Debbie Johnston, Diane Dmytryshyn, Larry Fedun, Bruce Skorobohach, John Eng, Mari-Anne Godlonton, Heather DeBoer, Tracey Reece, Kathryn Melrose, Brian Wanleeben, Dawn Burgoine 1.0 2.0 3.0

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Welcome and Introductions – Chair, Erin Waite, called the meeting to order at 9:30am and welcomed all attendees Addition to agenda – short clip from the upcoming film festival.

Motion to Approve: Bruce Skorobohach, Second: Mickey Greiner ALL IN FAVOUR Denise Young mentioned the upcoming annual film festival taking place April 10-12 and shared posters for distribution. She introduced and shared the clip, “Art Party,” a Canadian content piece film about three couples with developmental disabilities on their way to a wedding.

Policy Sharing Initiative – Erin introduced and showed attendees where to find the link on the SPC website. She explained that it can serve as a great resource for contributing, sharing, and viewing various policies. She will send out the password to all members. All policies/topics are categorized. Erin requested that attendees let her know if a particular policy is missing so she can put out a request to members. Ideas to post in the future: exploring employee perks and ideas for showing appreciation (ex: wellness program).

Election Preparation – Erin mentioned the CCVO Toolkit. As a group, Executive agreed that it makes sense to get on board with this campaign. The goal is to get the non-profit community out to vote. Erin encouraged members to access resources by going to CCVO’s site and accessing resources.

Updates: ACDS: (see recent emails for complete updates) Government Relations committee materials included creating an advocacy website to access recently developed tools. Materials include several one-page documents covering various topics and include some statistics.

ACDSadvocacy.com includes links to other sites and resources. Site is continuously updated.

The committee will be sending a survey to all political parties regarding commitment to the sector and the ongoing PDD review. All responses with be posted on the website.

The upcoming annual ACDS Conference will be held in Calgary on May 13 and 14, 2019.

Registration is available on the ACDS website.

ADWA: Denise gave a brief update (see attachment for complete updates).

ADWA has decided to focus on appropriate wages for skilled workers, employee burnout, the impact these challenges have on people they support, and education/training issues. A link on the website includes related resources and information. The committee has already seen a significant amount of interest and feedback from workers. The main campaign message is: get informed and vote. The committee is giving workers information so they can ask questions and share their own experiences.

Update on certification: it has been challenging to get people through the process. ADWA is currently trying to get feedback from people regarding obstacles and challenges.

PDD Review and other provincial news: Erin shared that they are aiming for the end of March and focus is still on the main document conveying what was heard/gathered. Recommendations will come afterwards. They received a ton of input and are currently determining how to compile all of the essential information into one document. Next steps will be generating recommendations. Whether or not the process works out, the sector and community are hopeful there will be an opportunity for change. Regardless of what government is in place, we will remain hopeful they will continue to be committed to the process. Erin emphasized that it is important to stress the Review is a community led process/initiative as a key message during door knocking/campaigning.

7.0 Council Governance – Members were encouraged to considered joining Executive. If interested in joining during the June 2019 AGM, please email Erin at erinw@connectionscounselling.ab.ca 8.0 Other Items – Pam McGladdery will share a link for the recent article about Access Calgary.

9.0 Meeting Adjournment – around 10:35am 10.0 PDD Calgary Update: Allan Govender & Heather Hansen Alan began by providing some context regarding where PDD is now: On Monday afternoon, both Allan and Heather attended the Regional Director’s Meeting. The Elections Act, passed on January 1, 2019, limited their ability to meet with “external stakeholders”. Doing so could be deemed as inappropriate and they were told they would need to defer. They were acting based on the information provided. ADM informed Allan that the writ hasn’t been dropped, so he was told they could still attend the meeting today.

The current PDD regional structure: Allan will share an org. chart for distribution.

He shared that they had provided feedback regarding concerns about the perceived disconnect between the program side and contract services. Significant work has been done to ensure minimal negative impact due to the change in structure. Allan shared that a strong connection remains between the two branches. If service providers are sensing a disconnect as a result of the change in structure, please let Allan and/or Heather know about it. The reaction of PDD staff to the internal change in structure was mixed. All Contract Specialists are currently in one location (downtown Calgary). Program staff are all at the Calgary Heritage location. To maintain connections, they have created space at both locations for meetings, etc.

The internal process is still under coming together- it is not perfect, but service providers should not see any negative external impact.

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Q&A: Stakeholders vs. Partners Allan was asked if service providers are viewed as external stakeholders or partners. He responded that he and Heather, along with their respective departments view member agencies as partners.

Process for requesting new services/position? Conversation typically will be initiated via CSC through a Contract Specialist connecting with a manager on Heather’s team.

Heather: the review team is more of a process- there is a team involved in getting to a point where new dollars are approved for an individual. The CSC is working with the Contract Specialist and the program Team Leader to determine the amount is appropriate and meeting the individual’s support needs. If new dollars are required, the request is presented to Heather with a summary of what is involved and how the request will address the individual’s support needs, mitigate risks, etc. Typically, this process occurs once a month.

SP Council Executive Committee: Erin Waite (Chair), Alexi Davis (Treasurer), John Eng, Ryan Geake, Tracey Reece, Todd Rich, Bruce Skorobohach, Elaine Yost, Kathryn Melrose

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Allan was asked: how is the budget developed/decided upon? PDD tries to forecast a number each year- projections are typically off. Heather responded that it’s a question of capacity being available. Requests for indirect dollars: process where both program and contract people work together to present information to Heather. Allan: at the end of the day, contract people will come to him with questions and to achieve clarity before presenting a case to Heather’s side.

Erin: looking at bigger picture vs. individual needs/services- the overall needs and opportunity to partner seem to be missing- currently a lost opportunity. Lots of current info gaps regarding what is available throughout the sector- looking at bigger trends/ideas.

Allan: would like to leverage that opportunity. Push creativity in service design and planning- a conversation they would be very willing to have- being cognizant of respective roles and responsibilities. They would like to have the ability to share the principles around PDD’s thinking and engage Service Providers in conversation.

Feedback Heather and Allan provided to PDD Panel- was an insightful and positive experience. Results confirmed everything they have been hearing throughout the province. The themes presented will not be news, but one theme was the lack of a coherent vision for the disabilities sector. This finding is something everyone can agree on. Also, clarifying the relationship between PDD and Service Providers is a priority. PDD would like to continue to have conversations regarding issues like capacity. Panel members had positive things to say about the relationship (for this region). Allan advised that something tangible and actionable should come out of the review process.

Historically, it has been shelved, and he doesn’t want to see this happen again. The Minister has been enthusiastic and receptive to feedback. Now, it all next steps come down to timing.

Elaine- will you share more info regarding the role of Service Coordinators? Heather: they have gone through the Workload Assessment Model (WAM) to examine time spent on various tasks, etc. New staff has been allocated in order to redistribute caseloads so that CSCs are working within reasonable benchmarks, and to ensure PDD continues to align with the process, support services in community, etc. Elaine shared that many service providers are working with challenging families. It takes up a lot of time and hasn’t been factored into the service delivery piece. Heather- WAM also showed CIR Case Intensity Rating (how high maintenance/time intensive is each individual and related family members, guardians, etc. These findings may end up reflecting down to service providers.

Erin- WAM should extend into agency work (to prevent work from being done twice).

Elaine- history piece throughout sector has also been lost over time. Heather- work is being done to hopefully better capture an individual’s story and prevent the disconnect resulting from a change in caseworkers, etc.

NEXT UP: Wed. May 8th – SPC Meeting at Prospect, 9:30-11:30am

SP Council Executive Committee: Erin Waite (Chair), Alexi Davis (Treasurer), John Eng, Ryan Geake, Tracey Reece, Todd Rich, Bruce Skorobohach, Elaine Yost, Kathryn Melrose

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