"New Community hub pilot carrickfergus focus group"

My son attends the focus group in Carrickfergus which is a hub of Hawthorn’s adult centre.

My son is incredibly happy with the current setup at focus group, he loves the people.

The reason I am posting this is that the NHSCT has proposed a new initiative with three pilot sites, one of them is the Carrickfergus focus group.

The initiative aims at providing service users with the skills to progress to day opportunities, for example money management, environmental safety etc.

Service users can opt in or decide to opt out – no clarity on opting out.

The pilot does not seem to have any plan and if there is a plan there has been no public consultation (other than poorly advertised presentation at September carers group) or provided any FAQs, so far all that has been provided is a phone call from the registered manager at the time and a letter to attend a coffee morning for the roll out there was no opportunity to have a public discussion

We were told the aim of focus group (hubs) had always been to provide life skills that would equip service users as a stepping stone to progress to Day Opportunities. Users can opt out of this initiative, but it means they would have to be based in the adult centres, as the hubs should always have been a stepping stone between the day centres and Day Opportunities.

We were never made aware of this and if we had we would not have allowed our son to go down this path that could end up with him having a backwards step to the adult centre and the possibility of him refusing to return there.

The proposed changes had been discussed with our son with without any communication with us even when the know that our son has a limited understanding, it feels like the Trust is deliberately trying to exclude us as Carers.

Our social work had never heard of the initiative and my wife had to explain it to them.

Could the Trust explain the impact on mental health for both the Client and the Carers for opt in opt out, this is an emotional time for both the service users and their Carers.

My son does not tolerate change, and this is reflected in his behaviour. He said he loves Focus and will not go back to Hawthorn’s.

We are not happy with proposed changes nor feel that the Trust has engaged properly or consulted with us meaningfully prior to the Launch at the coffee morning in November.

To date two months later the Trust has failed to even to give us the opportunity to ask questions or provide a plan or timetable.

Could we get a Public consultation or coffee morning with all the Parents \ Carers in the room so we can get the opportunity to get answers to our questions.