Newsletter - Bridgend and NPT - January 2024

Bridgend & NPT

Newsletter

January 2024

Read more about the Mirus Stars Awards on page 9

I have now been in post as Chief Executive for six months and I am deeply grateful for the warmth and welcome.

What’s inside

Since I have been at Mirus, I have loved learning about the organisation and I have really enjoyed meeting people at our Mirus Stars and Better Together events. Better Together is really important to Mirus because we have been reviewing the work that we do, and your feedback and insights as part of the Better Together process have been invaluable in shaping what Mirus will focus on in the future.

We want to increase our collaboration next year too.

Better Together updates

02

Choosing your staff

03

Social events

04

Voice, Choice and Control

05

Our Health & Wellbeing event

06

I know that lots of us have enjoyed parties and celebrations during the holiday season, and on behalf of Mirus I want to wish you all a very happy new year!

Changes to our structure

08

Meet your Responsible Individual

08

Mirus Stars Awards

09

Kirsty Davies-Warner Chief Executive

www.mirus-wales.org.uk

1

Updates from your area The Better Together process for people supported and their support circles:

What is Better Together?

Updates from your area

Better Together is our process of gathering information to make sure that we at Mirus can focus on improving the things that are most important to people.

In September 2023 we held our Better Together event.

Each year we gather information from everyone involved in Mirus. The people we support, their families and circles of support, our staff, our volunteers and Local Authorities who commission our services.

We want everyone to have a say so that we can learn about all of the things people enjoy, want, and need.

We gather this information from people in many different ways throughout the year. Once we have gathered the information, we sort it into groups of similar things which we call themes, and from these themes we make a plan of what we at Mirus will work on.

We called this plan our ‘Path’ and we have a separate Path for each region we work in, as well as one for Mirus overall.

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At the event we talked about our progress against some of the things that you told us were important to you.

You said: People want to choose their own staff.

People want more social events.

People want to have good wellbeing.

People want to have voice, choice and control.

People want better internet access.

The stories on the following pages will show you some of the ways we have been working towards achieving those aims.

Choosing your own staff You said, we did You told us that you wanted to be more involved with recruitment and choosing your own staff at Mirus.

We looked at how we recruit staff, and came up with lots of different ways that people could be involved, if they wanted to be.

Working together with people supported, their families, staff across Mirus and people from other similar organisations, we came up with a plan that helps people make decisions about the support they receive, and who they receive it from.

There are lots of ways for people to be involved in recruitment, including: • • • • • • • • • •

making a video that talks about their likes, dislikes and interests writing their own advert joining the interview panel meeting the candidates for a coffee filming a pre-recorded question for candidates to answer helping to write interview questions having a video or phone call with the candidates attending recruitment fairs and open days giving feedback on the answers candidates give telling a successful candidate that they’ve got the job

We don’t just follow this process for our support worker roles, we like to have input from people we support in our central roles too! This helps us to ensure that everyone who works at Mirus, regardless of which department they’re in, has the right values.

Watch our video bit.ly/mirusinterviewing

In Bridgend...

We have collected information about how every person we support in Bridgend wants to get involved with recruitment, using our new ‘How I Choose My Staff’ form.

In Ty Hyfred, Park Court and Woodstock Gardens all job adverts are now completely person centered, filled with details about the person looking for support, and identifying their hobbies and interests and how they like to live their lives. This has helped find Support Workers who have things in common with the people they will be supporting.

Everyone agreed that they wanted to be part of interviewing their staff, but only once they had passed the formal interview stage.

People in Woodstock Gardens wanted a structured approach – they have already decided upon a standard set of questions that they want to use for all their support staff. After asking questions they will work together to decide who should get the job.

People in Ty Hfred and Park Court instead preferred to have an informal chat. Their interactions are observed and notes taken to help decide who gets on best with the people in the houses and should be offered the job.

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More social events You said, we did You told us you wanted more social events.

We have since held an afternoon tea, folk music night, and a Christmas party. We’ve also made lots of great connections with the local community, which has helped us find even more opportunities for people to make friends.

Special Families Special Families are a group who work to provide support to the families of children with additional needs, and people supported by Mirus are making strong connections with them.

Over Christmas the Special Families group put up a tree in their Community Centre base. On each decoration that hung from the tree was a name and interest of someone supported by Mirus.

People attending the Centre chose a decoration and bought a gift for the person, based on their interest. A wonderful surprise for people we support over Christmas and the start of some new friendships.

Bargains Galore is also part of the Special Families group. This group wanted to make sure that the Mirus staff were recognised for the work they do throughout the year, supporting people.

So they gave a Christmas box to the staff in every house in Maesteg. What a marvellous way to share the joy over Christmas!

People dancing at the Maesteg folk night

A very Mirus Christmas In November the wonderful staff in Mirus Bridgend organised an early Christmas party for everyone supported in Bridgend. The festivities took place in the Red Dragon pub in Bridgend, where there was a fantastic 3 course meal for everyone served

by Bridgend’s own sportsman and presenter Alfie!

Everyone was wearing their Christmas jumpers and enjoyed the raffle with presents sourced by staff. One staff member even persuaded her brother to make an appearance as Father Christmas!

There was a lot of fun and laughter – a great start to the festive season!

Maesteg folk night A folk night was held the end of November in Maesteg. Folk singer Tim volunteered to provide an evening full of Welsh folk music and carols.

There was a lot of singing and dancing as Tim sang Welsh songs such as Calon Lan, along with some Max Boyce Classics. ‘Hymns and Arias’ was a particular favourite of the rugby fans.

The audience asked for some carols to round off the night, and 12 Days of Christmas caused a lot of loud singing and laughter, especially when everyone belted out the line ‘5 gold rings’.

4

Santa delivering presents to people in the Red Dragon pub

That night, Tim and his wife brought happiness, laughter and Welsh pride to so many people.

Voice, choice and control You said, we did A popular theme to come out of our Better Together process was advocacy and feedback.

You told us that you wanted a designated person supported in each area who you could talk to and who would give feedback to Mirus on your behalf. Because of this, we now have a local representative in almost all areas that we work in.

Adam Bartle Bridgend/Maesteg

What are Mirus Reps?

Watch our video: bit.ly/mirusrepsvideo

Mirus Reps are volunteers who are supported

by Mirus. They are the voice of people supported by Mirus in their area. Their role is to provide feedback and opinions from other people we support to the local Area Manager and Registered Individual. They will also provide feedback and opinions to external organisations that Mirus work with.

Their goal is to make things better for people supported by Mirus, and help to make sure that people can do the things they love.

Each Mirus Rep needs great support from someone who understands what their role is – and each Rep and their support received training to learn new skills to be even better.

Training for our Reps The first time all the Reps and supporters came together in March at Court Colman.

They agreed the role of the Reps and discussed what why they thought it was so important.

Your Mirus Reps

Louise Garvey Neath Port Talbot

They spoke about the fact that Mirus has policies. A policy is a set of rules about how we do things in Mirus. The Reps agreed that they wanted to have a say about what goes into the policies that are about the people we support and their rights.

The next time the group met together was to have training about ‘Speaking Out’, which was delivered by All Wales People First.

The supporters also received training, this time from Joe Powell the Chief Executive of All Wales People First. This training was all about how they can best support the Reps and was called “Shine without Shining”.

Reps Alex and Adam have already presented at the Welsh Government’s Learning Disability: Talk To Us event in Llandudno, Carmarthenshire and Cardiff.

Alex and Adam talked about our Better Together process, and the importance of recruiting their own staff. You can watch some of their presentation on YouTube: bit.ly/mirusrepsgov

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Health and Wellbeing You said, we did You told us that you wanted more information and support with their health and wellbeing, so, in September, we organised a Health and Wellbeing Festival at Margam Park.

The Health & Wellbeing Festival, which was funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, was attended by lots of organisations from across Wales who joined us to share accessible information in an interactive way.

At the festival, people could visit exhibition stands to get advice and support about improving their health and wellbeing, as well as join in with lots of fun interactive activities throughout the day.

6

Sharing feedback We took the feedback that we received at the Health and Wellbeing Festival to the Learning Disability Wales Conference.

At the conference we showed people the video that we made of our event, and asked them: What do you think is the most important area that the Welsh Government should focus on?

An overwhelming majority agreed that Mental Health and Wellbeing should be the main focus.

Watch our video

bit.ly/miruswellbeingfestival

Have your say...

Now is the time to have your say about what Mirus should focus on in the future by filling in our survey.

We want you to tell us: • What is going well for you • What isn’t going so well for you If you are supported by Mirus, your survey will be available from your house Manager.

If you are a family member of someone supported by Mirus, your survey will be delivered to your home address.

Please complete and return your survey

by January 31st.

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We’ve made some Changes to our structure Services structure Director of Services Assistant Head of Service and Responsible Individual Cardiff Area Manager Cardiff & Vale (3)

Assistant Head of Service and Responsible Individual Gwent & Powys

Respite Manager

Area Manager Gwent & Powys

Assistant Head of Service and Responsible Individual Bridgend, NPT & Swansea Area Manager Bridgend & NPT

People in your area Responsible Individual

Area Manager Swansea

Assistant Area Manager Swansea

Name: Nichola Jones Email: NicholaJ@mirus-wales.org.uk Nichola says: “As the new RI for the Bridgend region, it’s been great getting out to meet with you all over the past six months. I spent a day visiting services in Maesteg back in November and left feeling really inspired by the amazing person centred support. It was really evident to see that the people were happy and living fulfilled lives, and were active members within the community. The little boogie with David Millman at Park Court whilst being serenaded on the karaoke machine was one of my highlights! I’m very much looking forward to visiting all the services in Pencoed very soon.

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Neath Port Talbot continues to grow from strength to strength with the opening of Old Road - the feedback from family members speaks volumes about how well everyone has settled in. Whilst at Geraints House a person supported is getting ready to move on to her own home in the local community after

successfully completing her college course, a fantastic achievement.

Over the past six months we’ve also had two CIW inspections within Bridgend and Neath Port Talbot, both of which have reflected the excellent quality of person centred support being provided, and evidenced an array of fantastic outcomes being achieved. I want to say a huge thank you, your dedication and passion to make a difference really shone through, and you should all be very proud.

I look forward to getting to know you all even better over the next six months.”

Area Manager Name: Liz Thomas Email: Liz.Thomas@mirus-wales.org.uk

Celebrating achievements On 23rd November, we held our Mirus Stars Awards event at Brangwyn Hall in Swansea.

At the event, we celebrated our fabulous award winners, who had each gone through a tough nomination and selection process.

Throughout the year, everyone nominated the people who they thought had done something extraordinary, in line with our values; Together, Respectful, Responsible, Empowering and Courageous.

This year we received an incredible 151 powerful nominations.

Then, at our Mirus pre-awards parties in Cardiff and Swansea, our audience members voted for the people who they thought most deserved to go through to the next round as finalists.

Finalist

Neil Agnew

Winner

Wendy Jones

Bridgend - Neil’s nomination:

“Following a stroke last year, Neil has bounced back and embraced life, taking on new challenges, and finding joy in everyday things. He is trying to eat a healthier diet and is spending time at the gym. Neil has been so courageous.”

NPT - Wendy’s nomination:

Each of our 21 finalists were incredible, and our Board of Trustees had a very difficult time selecting only five winners.

“Wendy has overcome her fear of going out alone without support. She pushed her own boundaries and is now independently socialising and spending time in the community - she has even started a college course. Wendy has also lost an incredible 10 stone in weight, which has really boosted her confidence.”

Mirus Stars winners 2023

Nominate your 2024 Stars!

Julie Devereux - Brecon Claire Roberts - Bridgend Franco Armitti - Cardiff Mark Griffiths - Cardiff

Nominations are now open for the Mirus Stars Awards 2024.

You can nominate a person supported by Mirus or a Mirus staff member by filling out the form at the link below.

www.bit.ly/mirusmoments

Wendy Jones - Neath Port Talbot 9