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Council and ABSEN Working Together in New Project

Argyll and Bute Council is working together with members of Argyll and Bute Social Enterprise Network (ABSEN) to promote a Respite Bureau for Carers.

This Bureau would be staffed and run by a third sector organisation - either a new social enterprise, an existing social enterprise or by a consortium of social enterprises - and would have the authority to commission flexible and more personalised respite provision for carers.

Using the third sector Bureau to provide this service has a number of perceived benefits.

Among those are that the Council’s care managers, whose main priority is the assessment of need for the cared for person and their carer, could rely on the Bureau to provide an appropriate range of respite options.

In addition - as a result of the specialist knowledge and purchasing arrangements of the Bureau - the cared for person and carer are more likely to get a much more personalised and more appropriate respite provision with a wider range of choices.

And the Bureau, acting independently of the Council, may be able to access funding streams that would not otherwise be available.

The Bureau is scheduled to be launched in April 2011.

Councillor John Semple, Argyll and Bute Council’s spokesperson for the Third Sector, said: “This is another first for Argyll and Bute – the approval of our joint Public Social Partnership (PSP) is a vote of confidence that the Council and ABSEN can deliver on this innovative development”.

Although ABSEN is promoting and leading on this for the third sector, it is not envisaged at this stage that ABSEN will actually deliver the Bureau services.

Mike Geraghty, ABSEN’s Development Officer, explained: “We will be publicising this proposal throughout the local Third Sector and will be inviting expressions of interests from social enterprises wishing to have the opportunity to set up and operate this Bureau”.

Of prime concern to everyone involved is the need to ensure that the new Bureau hits the ground running and that the only difference service users will see are new contact telephone numbers and an improvement in service delivery.

“As discussions proceed we’ll ensure that all interested parties are kept informed,” continued Mike Geraghty “and we’ll be looking to ensure that carers are kept involved and informed throughout this process”.

For more information on PSPs, please go to http://www.pspscotland.co.uk/

For further information on the Argyll and Bute plan, please contact Colin Bromley, Argyll and Bute Council Special Projects Officer on 01546 604430 or at colin.bromley@argyll-bute.gov.uk

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