Minutes December 2011
Disability Focus Group
Held at Thornhill Community Centre, Cwmbran
Thursday 01 December 2011 (12:00 – 2:00pm)
Minutes
Present: Frances Wilcox; June Pound; Christine Ellaway; Kevin Ellaway; Graham Robinson; Michael McGranaghan; Marje Milner; Audrey Bonter; Jane Evans
Hafod: Michelle Llewellyn – Tenant Participation Officer
Bill Daniel – Community Development Officer
Apologies: Ricky Graciz
Feedback on Thornhill Community Centre as a venue
- Generally easy to find, taxis used sat nav systems
- Good access into building
- Not overly impressed with the room and refreshments made available
- No Thornhill tenants in attendance
- Cost of taxis was high
- Michelle confirmed that the meetings will rotate to several venues to try to get local tenants to be involved. The use of Thornhill would not come up for at least a year and it may have to be reviewed then especially the time of the meetings to make sure it did not clash with others to try to have the main hall next time.
Agenda items
1. Minutes & updates from meeting held on 12 September 2011.
Paper copies were available as well as an audio version played to the group. It was agreed to continue to providing both for future meetings
Updates
§ Tenants Conference:
Theme of Disability for the Tenants Conference was noted in last minutes, however Hafod have decided that it will be Equality. However, disability will still be an important strand for the conference which will take place in June, not September as originally thought. The change is because the Annual General Meeting which will also be held during Conference has to be held within 6 months of the end of the Financial Year.
The Annual General Meeting will be allocated a dedicated time during Conference, those attending can then choose to attend it or continue other Conference activities.
This group expressed their disappointment that the theme for Conference had been changed without prior consultation with tenant groups.
§ Focus Group Logo:
Kevin Ellaway has prepared a logo but it is stored on their home computer which has been affected by a virus and therefore could not be available today. When the problem with their computer is sorted out the logo will be emailed to Michelle who will circulate it to the group.
§ Focus Group Newsletter:
Will be discussed under “Action Plan” below
§ Code of Conduct and Terms of Reference:
Will be discussed under “Action Plan” below
§ Browse Aloud web software:
Difficulty in setting up the service on some home computers, to help solve the problem Bill Daniel has offered to make individual home visits to Graham Robinson, Marje Milner, Audrey Bonter and Mike McGranaghan
§ Maintenance Sub Group:
December’s meeting was cancelled. Staff transfers within Hafod and changes in roles mean this sub group will not be active until the New Year.
2. Action plans for 2012
§ Six key aims were agreed to be included in the Action Plan for 2012. They were:
1. Increase awareness and membership of the Disability Focus Group
2. The conference – to make it inclusive and accessible
3. Self assessment process to make sure the needs of disabled tenants were met
4. Review of Hafod literature, publications and web site to ensure they were disabled friendly
5. Terms of Reference, Code of Conduct and the group logo
6. Working towards creating a Joint Disability Network, initially with Rhondda Housing Association, but with others later on
§ Michelle will put these into an Action Plan grid which will be circulated to members of the group before the next meeting.
3. Guest Speaker – Epilepsy Wales
§ Unfortunately the guest speaker withdrew at short notice due to illness; however this item will be included for the next meeting.
4. Any other business
§ Kevin Ellaway has previously raised an issue about the risk of having disability allowance affected when doing voluntary work. He hadn’t been able to find out whether this was accurate or not.
§ Audrey mentioned local Age Concern organisations that provide services in the home on a paid basis. The contact name was Yvette Davies and pamphlets were handed out. This could also be a possible topic for a future meeting.
Meeting concluded at 2:15 pm
