Newslettter - Swansea - January 2024

Swansea

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.

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.

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!

Kirsty Davies-Warner Chief Executive

What’s inside Better Together updates

02

Choosing your staff

03

Volunteering

03

Social activities

04

Voice, Choice and Control

05

Our Health & Wellbeing event

06

Changes to our structure

08

Meet your Responsible Individual

08

Mirus Stars Awards

09

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.

At our Better Together event in September we talked about some of the things you told us were important to you.

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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You said: People want to choose their own staff.

People want more opportunities to work and volunteer.

People want more social activities.

People want to have voice, choice and control.

People want to have good wellbeing.

People want better access to their money.

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

Watch our video bit.ly/mirusinterviewing

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.

Volunteering Since July of last year Nathan from Park Road has been volunteering at the Barnardos charity shop in Fforestfach.

He had been looking online for a volunteer job for a while so when this came up he jumped at the chance.

As well as getting out and about more, Nathan really wanted to help out in the community so this job was a perfect fit. He goes twice a week and is really enjoying the work with his friendly colleagues.

Nathan said:

“It gives me something really useful and worthwhile to do” Nathan has received full training at the store which means he can do his job really well. His favourite part of the job is working on the tills as he “loves talking to customers”.

3

The Community Police often drop in to the coffee morning

Social activities You said, we did You told us you wanted more social events and opportunities to meet people. We now hold a coffee morning in Penllergaer every Tuesday. We are also working on a monthly disco in Clydach and a Morriston pop up group that meet monthly try a new activity.

Penllergaer coffee morning Mirus has been running a coffee morning on a Tuesday morning in Llewellyn Hall, Penllergaer for several months.

The coffee morning is a great opportunity for people supported by Mirus across the region to get together and have a catch up and a chat over a coffee with friends.

There are even raffles and bingo games to entertain people in between all the chatting!

4

Michael from the Glen particularly enjoys helping out at the coffee mornings. He helps by setting up the table and chairs ready for everyone to arrive. Once people are there, he enjoys handing out biscuits, selling raffle tickets and speaking to as many people as possible.

Tracey loves it when people come over to say hello

The Community Police often drop in for a chat which is something Michael particularly looks forward to.

Michael also enjoys a nice cuppa with a cake while he waits to see if his raffle ticket number is lucky. Mike loves to be a winner, and has previously been thrilled with the prize he won from the game of Bingo.

Tracey and Penelope from Glynderw also enjoy the coffee mornings, but for a different reason.

They are great people watchers and love the opportunity to sit back and watch everything going on around them. They like the friendly atmosphere of the coffee morning, and it leaves them smiling.

Tracey loves meeting new people, and likes it when someone comes over to where she is sitting to say hello.

John from Glynderw also attends…he is a particular fan of the biscuits!

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.

What are Mirus Reps?

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 Rep Name: Todd Jouevenaar Area: Swansea Watch our video: bit.ly/mirusrepsvideo 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

5

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.

7

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

Area Manager Swansea

Assistant Area Manager Swansea

People in your area Responsible Individual Name: Nichola Jones Email: NicholaJ@mirus-wales.org.uk

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Nichola says: “The past six months has been a very busy time in Swansea with the opening of two new services, and the transfer of another. I have really enjoyed getting out and about and visiting the new services, meeting everyone and their families, and seeing how well everyone has settled in.

We have also very recently had an excellent CIW inspection, which highlighted the quality of person centred support being delivered, and how people are supported have a voice, choice and control over all aspects of their lives.

This is a credit to you all and your passion and determination to make a difference, thank you.”

Reflecting on the past six months there are a number of amazing outcomes been achieved, some that instantly spring to mind are, Kat volunteering and getting a paid job in Café Darcy, the Community Project in Gorseinon hosting regular community events alongside the Local Area Coordinator which continues to thrive, the Community Garden in Clydach of which Nigel and Scott are regular volunteers, and Laurence enjoying his walks in the local community and attending the recent Better Together, to name just a few.

Area Manager Name: Abigail Phillips Email: AbigailP@mirus-wales.org.uk

Assistant Area Mgr Name: Scott Davies Email: ScottD@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.

Dancing on stage with our Freddie Mercury tribute

Swansea semi-finalist Alison Aston’s nomination:

“Alison is not used to letting go of things that she owns, because to her they represent special memories and help her feel secure.

This year we received an incredible 151 powerful nominations.

However, inspired by recent office renovations, Alison bagged up and donated some of her items to charity to help others.

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.

Letting go can be hard, but Alison has made a start because she has learned that our belongings don’t hold our memories, we do.

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

Mirus Stars winners 2023 Julie Devereux - Brecon Claire Roberts - Bridgend Franco Armitti - Cardiff Mark Griffiths - Cardiff

You can donate objects, without losing what’s in your heart.”

Nominate your 2024 Stars!

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