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Big event 2010 programme

You may have missed the Big event, but you can still see the details of what happened. Below is the programme  divided into zones.  Each zone has a number and is colour coded.

The event was opened  by In Control's CEO, Julie Stansfield.


Zone 1 graphicAuditorium


The auditorium is the main seated conference stage on the first floor.
10 am | Welcome and the launch of In Control’s Phase 3 Report.
11 am | Matthew Taylor – Chief Executive for the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA)
With public service policy set to feature heavily in the forthcoming General Election campaign, Matthew Taylor will explore the policy trends emerging from innovative practice and the ideas being offered by the political parties. As the role of the state seems set to move from service provider to decision maker and strategic enabler in the coming years, he will consider the potential for getting the change right, the dilemmas along the way, and what's at stake in getting it wrong.
12 pm  Frances Patterson QC - Law Commission 
In February 2010, the Law Commission published detailed provisional proposals for the reform of adult social care law. This presentation will set out the main proposals in relation to principles, assessments, the provision of services and safeguarding adults, as well as providing an overview on how the proposed new legal framework would operate as a whole.
1 pm | Philip Collins – Chair of the Demos Board of Trustees
Philip Collins will discuss the inherent value of Personal Budgets as a vehicle for individual power and control. Far greater than a purchasing and planning tool for health and care, Personal Budgets represent a shift of trust and responsibility from state recipients to active citizens. He will also discuss some of the practical questions of implementation as we move from theory to practice.
2 pm | Mark Pollock – Professional Speaker, Adventure Athlete and Author
When Mark Pollock lost his sight in 1998 at the age of 22, he thought his life was over. The story of how he overcame the odds to rebuild his life and exceed his wildest expectations now inspires people the world over. Mark is able to help individuals and organisations to redefine what is possible, to reach their potential and to inspire team motivation. His message of ‘decide to avoid excuses and instead decide to make it happen’ is particularly relevant in today’s uncertain economic environment. 
3 pm | Jeff Jerome – National Director for Social Care Transformation
Jeff will discuss Putting People First as we approach the final year.
4 pm | Question Time
Make sure you're there to put your difficult questions to the the Question Time panel, hosted by David Guest, news reporter for North West BBC. Members of the panel will include:
  • Martin Routledge – Department of Health
  • Elaine Cotterill – Family member
  • Jeff Jerome – National Director for Social Care Transformation
  • Julie Stansfield – CEO of In Control
  • Laurance Clarke – Comedian
  • Mark Pollock – International motivational speaker
  • Richard Jones – Executive Director of Lancashire County Council
  • Tim Spencer Lane – Law Commission.

Zone 2 graphicPagoda Stage


The Pagoda stage is at the centre of the exhibitor hall on the ground floor.
9.30 am | Welcome and official opening – Julie Stansfield, CEO, In Control.
10 am – 4pm | Join us for entertainment throughout the day
10:30 am – Heartlift empower people to live and and love life through sport. They will demonstrate  wrestling and boxing.
11:00 am and 2:30 pm – DA DA is an innovative organisation working with Disabled & Deaf artists. DA DA will screen short films and perform poetry readings.
12:00 pm, 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm – Moveable Feast is an internationally renowned inclusive drama and training organisation and will perform  throughout the day.
12:30 pm – Is Elvis in the building? Join us for some singalong classics.
2:00 pm – Together We Can Performance group is made up of 11 young people from Shropshire. They will discuss current issues relating to taking more control and making choices for young people in transition.
3:30 pm – AFTA Thought – a forum theatre group who will perform an interactive piece focusing on the challenges of personalisation.

Zone 3 graphicComedy Club


The Comedy Club is to the side of the exhibitor hall and next to the Community Cafe.
10 am – 4 pm| Entertainment throughout the day by Abnormally Funny People.
The Comedy room stars Abnormally Funny People, a group of gifted comedians strutting their funny stuff. All but one of them is disabled. (A 'token' able-bodied person is always required for equality purposes.) Relax, laugh, be ready to be taken down paths of comedy pleasure (and maybe a little discomfort).

Zone 4 graphicCommunity Cafe


The Community Cafe is to the side of the exhibitor hall and next to the Comedy Club.
10 am | Taboo subjects: Sex and relationships – Jo-Jo.
Jo-Jo will talk through some of those subjects seen as taboo, like sex and relationships. Join this session for a fun and practical, easy-to-understand way of learning to keep healthy, safe and well.
11 am | Our Futures – Suzanne Grimshaw and Jane Ahern, In Control.
We have the biggest population in the western world of people who need support and are likely to outlive their parents and carers. This session will consider the work of Our Futures, which has helped people create sustainable futures for loved ones – for the time when parents and carers are no longer around.
1 pm, 2 pm and 3 pm | Join us for afternoon tea – connect with people on how to make a real difference in your community.
Connecting with people and having something to contribute that is of value to others is what makes life worth living. This session will stimulate, enthuse and encourage a conversation about how everyone can make a difference to their communities in big and small ways. Be prepared to get connected!

Zone 5 graphicChildren


The Children's Room – Hope, creativity and co-operation
10 am | Hope, creativity and co-operation: a single agenda? – Nic Crosby, In Control.
This workshop brings together all the work of the Children's programme and begins to draw out a single basis for supporting children and young people.The workshop outlines how children's services could evolve over the coming years and how Individual Budgets and Self-Directed Support are a key driver and ingredient.
11 am | Stories from the frontline: young people and families – Alison Cathles, Lead Commissioner Disabled Children, Gloucestershire County Council.
This workshop will share stories and lessons learned from nearly three years of work introducing Individual Budgets and Self-Directed Support to disabled children and their families. Gloucestershire is one of a very small number of children's services which is beginning to explore the application of this way of working across their whole service for disabled children and young people.
1 pm | Safeguarding and signs of safety: introducing a solutions based approach to child protection –  John Wheeler, Signs of Safety and Gateshead Children's Services.
This workshop introduces the Signs of Safety approach to Child Protection. John speaks both as a trainer in this approach and in his capacity as an experienced practitioner in Gateshead Children's Services. Signs of Safety is a solutions-focused approach to child protection which shares many elements with Self-Directed Support. In Control's Children's Programme is exploring these similarities with John and his colleagues.
2 pm | Supporting children with complex health needs – Pippa Murray, IBK Initiatives.
Pippa Murray, a key contributor to the work of the Children's Programme, shares stories and experiences in developing Personal Health Budgets for children with complex support needs.
3 pm | Making best use of what we have! – Paul Connolly with Halton Borough Council, Barnardos and Action for Children.
This workshop draws together important learning from the work of a number of children's members. This work highlights the important part played by voluntary sector and community resources in developing Individual Budgets and Self-Directed Support for children and young people. This workshop presents work done with Action for Children and others.
4 pm | Time Banking in rural Cheshire – everybody has a skill! – Susan Ross-Turner, Ashworth Time Bank.
This is an interactive workshop demonstrating that everybody has a skill they can share.

Zone 6 graphicPartners in Policymaking


Citizen leadership – putting disabled people and families in the lead
10 am - 3 pm Lynne Elwell and Partners in Policymaking graduates from all over the UK will be holding sessions throughout the day to give an insight into how you can engage people in your local communities and encourage citizen leadership. Citizen leadership is fundamental to making change happen in local communities. But how do we get people involved, engaged and wanting to make change happen? Are we not placing more of a burden on individuals and families in this new world of personalisation?
4 pm | Citizen leadership and being in control – Thomas Mcdougall, Monica Hunter and Pru Davis, Changing Lives User and Carer forum, Scotland.
Citizen leadership happens when citizens have power, influence and responsibility to make decisions. People who use services and their families have most to gain from In Control, and most to lose. So how do we make sure In Control is a movement not led by professionals, but by these citizens? How do citizens develop their leadership skills? And what part should professionals play?

zone 7 graphicProvider Room


Planning, preparing and progressing in personalisation – for provider organisations
10 am | Personalisation and excellence in advocacy – Sondra Butterworth, PAST Project.
This interactive workshop will provide information about the PAST project, and will encourage delegates to discuss their experiences. The aim of the workshop is to help delegates to learn how to develop better ways of working and engaging with people who have learning disabilities from a variety of Black and Minority Ethnic communities.
11 am | Money makes MY world go round: exploring how individual service funds can be used to help people get a real life not just a service – Frances Brown, Inclusion Glasgow and Gina Hagan, Support for Ordinary Living.
This workshop will offer the experience of Inclusion Glasgow over the last 14 years. Inclusion Glasgow has pioneered the use of individual service funds in Scotland. Participants will also learn how SOL has made considerable changes from block to individualised funding. Both organisations have been providing individualised creative support services for many years and are members of Altrum and In Control Scotland.
1 pm | This time it is personal – Ben Harrison, United Response.
This workshop will set out the journey being taken by a large charitable support provider in its efforts to put co-production into practice and become a more person-centred organisation. It will focus on 'what we have tried, what we have learned, what we are planning next, ongoing challenges and barriers to change'.             
2 pm | The time is now for innovation – Cath Titherington, Voice Marketing.
Personalisation poses many challenges to both providers and local authorities. This workshop looks at the critical marketing issues to be addressed and the importance of innovation and creativity as well as collaborative working. Innovative services demand innovative commissioning. The workshop  will also consider target audiences, tools and key messages and identify some quick wins as well as the importance of a well thought out strategy. The workshop will also launch the Innovation and Accelerator programme.
3 pm | Putting the personalisation jigsaw together: becoming a truly service user-focused and customer-led provider – Angela Newton and Elina Stamou, Together.
This interactive workshop will demonstrate how Together’s approach to service-user involvement and service-user leadership is enabling people with mental health issues to lead and influence personalisation at a strategic  and personal level.
4 pm | Anna O'Mahoney, MacIntyre.
This workshop offers  the opportunity to find out about MacIntyre's approach to personalisation and how a national support provider organisation has amended its systems and processes to promote Self-Directed Support and the use of Personal Budgets. 

zone 8 graphicHealth


The Health Room – whole people, whole life, sharing lived experiences.
10 am | Citizens commissioning for health: practical possibilities – Jo Fitzgerald and Tom McClean.
A chance to explore  some of the key issues around Self-Directed Support in Health, with people who have direct experience. The workshop will consider lots of questions and present some idea.  Some of the questions are, what does it mean to commission for ourselves? What kind of things do we need to consider? What have other people done? How do we make sure that shift in power and control is real? The workshop will invite participants to contribute to a strategy to take forward this important development.
11 am | Personal Health Budgets for children and young people – Pippa Murray, IBK Initiatives and family members.
In this workshop you will hear stories from families across the country with experience of a Personal Health Budget.
1 pm | Support planning in Health including mental health – Jo Harvey, Julia Winter and Bob Marshall.
A chance to hear about what has been tried and learned in support planning in health:examples of planning tools that are being piloted by PCTs in their pilot projects; how the work is being linked to other Department of Health projects to promote a more cohesive approach to personalised planning in health. Participants are invited to share their ideas and learning.
2 pm | All our lives together: participatory budgeting for health in communities – Andrea Jones and Dave Shields.
Participatory budgeting involves local people in deciding how best to make use of local public money to benefit their own community. This workshop will explore the following questions: participatory budgeting what is it? How might it work with personalised budgets? What are Personal Budgets and where did they start? What's happening around the country and how might Personal Budgets help us exercise more choice and get better services? There will also be a Case Study from Southampton.
3 pm | Peer Support – Graeme Ellis, Personal Budget holder and Kate Burgess, Lancashire County Council
Self-Directed Support.
Graeme's personal story: how Personal Budgets changed my life. Graeme gives a perspective on Personal Budgets as someone who has a physical disability.
4 pm Improving services for people with autistic spectrum conditions (ASC) and their family carers – Hugh Constant, Social Care Institute for Excellence.
SCIE has produced two new publications about adult services: Access to care and support for adults with Autistic Spectrum Conditions (ASC) and At a glance: Personalisation briefing for people with Autistic Spectrum Conditions and their family carers. The  workshop will be based on these publications. The aim is to give an overview of the  barriers that are currently preventing people with ASC and their carers to access good quality care. The workshop looks forward to a future in which more personalised services should ensure better outcomes for this group.

zone 9 graphicResearch and evaluation


Research, evaluation and pushing the boundaries of personalisation.
10 am | Approaches to evaluation: how do we know we're making a difference to people's lives?  Barnsley Council, North Lanarkshire Council, Wendy Lowder and Professor Chris Hatton.
An overview of evidence to date presented by Chris Hatton. The workshop will include case studies from Barnsley Council and North Lanarkshire Council with detail about how they evaluated their progress.
11 am | Personalisation and homelessness – Howard Sinclair, Broadway.
A fascinating case study exploring how personalised budgets have been used in the City of London to reach entrenched rough sleepers and support them to find new lives off the street.
1 pm | Living with risk – perception of risk and learning disability: learning from recent research and developing positive practice in risk enablement – Sam Smith, C-Change for Inclusion.
C-Change for Inclusion is an innovative organisation which supports adults with learning difficulties to live their desired lifestyle and to be valued members of the community.
2 pm | Market Intelligence – Claudia Wood, Demos.
Findings from the Demos Personal Budget Intelligence Programme, exploring care-user spending patterns and the potential impact on local markets.
3 pm Extra care housing for older people and people with mental health issues – Neil, Tryner, Midland Heart.
An overview of how Midland Heart, a housing association with care and support services to 700 customers is approaching the delivery of personalised care and support services.
4 pm | Each One, Teach One – Dene Donaldson and Pauline Doyle, North West Training Development Team.
The workshop will consider methods that families can use to remain in control when using support services.

zone 10 graphicAdult Social Care


Strengthening person-centred approaches in adult social care.
10 am | Developing sustainable user-led organisations – Dr Pam Thomas and Dr Laurence Clark, Breakthrough UK.
Local authorities have been set the milestone of having at least one user-led organisation directly contributing to the transformation to Personal Budgets by December 2010. Drawing on Breakthrough’s previous work, this seminar focuses on practical solutions towards meeting this target.
11am | Developing IT systems to support personalised services – Joe Cunningham, CareWorks.
The move towards Self-Directed Support means a fundamental shift is required in the way that the voluntary sector is commissioned and manages care delivery. This makes the effective use of IT an imperative if voluntary organisations want to improve, adapt and compete. In this workshop, care providers will learn how customer relationship management technology can help them embrace the personalisation agenda and efficiently deliver services under the self-directed model.
1 pm | Achieving cultural change – Jenny Pitts, Shropshire County Council.
Changing the culture in services is one of the hardest things to get right as we move to a more personalised way of delivering social care.  In Shropshire, a training approach with a difference has been used and, in this session, representatives from Shropshire and PeopleDeliverProjects describe the approach and give a taste of a way of motivating people to communicate that will instil real change.
2 pm | Commissioning and personalisation – Clive Miller, Office for Public Management.
This session will consider how we can progress market development for personalisation and will share examples from a number of local authorities.
3pm | Get IT right – procuring an IT system for a local authority to support personalisation – Margaret Guest and Brett Adshead from West Sussex County Council.
This workshop will focus on the process followed by West Sussex County Council to select an IT system to support the personalisation model for adults' social care.  The workshop presenters will share how they developed their requirements, the procurement approach they followed and the steps they took to ensure they could be confident of getting the right system from the right provider. They will share the learning gained throughout the process and describe the work they are doing to put the system in place.
4 pm | Using technology to change the market, in practice – Jeff Dandridge, shop4support.
The opportunities offered by new technologies could transform the way people get information and purchase support. shop4support is a unique web-based technology platform supplying individual consumers, service providers, local authorities and brokers with the means for the efficient exchange of needs and services – locally, regionally and nationally.

zone 11 graphicReal Jobs


People with disabilities who have real jobs tell their stories.

This is a zone where disabled people tell their stories about getting a real job. Some people will be doing this by invitation and at set times through the day. But we would like other delegates to share their experiences of the world of work. In the afternoon we will talk about the support In Control can provide for local authorities that want to help disabled people to use their Personal Budget to get job. We will encourage local authority colleagues to tell us what they have achieved so far.

10 am | Who's in control? Lorraine Gradwell, Breakthrough UK.
A consideration of potential barriers to handing over control and discussion on how to tackle them.
11 am | My life in pictures – Rachel Lambert and Jo Pearson.
Jo and Rachel will talk about their work as professional photographers. They also describe some of the challenges they have overcome.
12.30 pm | Break and networking
2 pm | What a real job means to me – Jane and Deborah.
Deborah Parker will talk to Karen about what having a job means to her and about some of the things she has achieved.
3 pm | Family leadership, self-employment, social enterprises and more: In Control's support for local authorities – Andrew Tyson, In Control and Keith Bates, Foundation for People with Learning Difficulties.
The workshop will introduce In Control’s Real Jobs programme and describe how this will support local authorities to help people get people a real job.
4 pm | Disabled Parents Network – Terri Balon.
Being a parent is the most challenging job in the world. This workshop will consider the challenges and potential solutions, such as personalisation, that families with disabled parents face. 

zone 12 graphicSupport Planning


Practical advice and everything you need to know around support planning.   
10 am | Support planning made easy – Lynne Elwell and Julie Woods, Merseyside Partners.
Planning the future for a family member who needs support is scary. Having someone to help you plan makes it easier.  In the support planning room, you will be able to talk to parents and relatives who have successfully planned with and for their children. They will give you the tips and strategies needed to begin support planning.
11 am | Reviews, reviews, reviews – Helen Sanderson Associates.
Outcome-focused reviews were designed by disabled people, families and local authorities as a way of reflecting on the outcomes agreed in the support plan. This workshop will introduce you to preparation for the review, the process of the review, and how information from outcome-focused reviews can be used to inform strategic commissioning and provider development (a process known as 'Working Together for Change').
1 pm | The provider pathway – Tracey Bush, Alternative Futures.
The workshop will cover: working with service users to enable them to have an Individual Service Fund (ISF); the choice, creativity and flexibility that goes with an ISF; and the lessons learnt from a provider perspective.
2 pm | Support planning made easy – Lynne Elwell and Julie Woods, Merseyside Partners.
Planning the future for a family member who needs support is scary. Having someone to help you plan makes it easier.  In the support planning room, you will be able to talk to parents and relatives who have successfully planned with and for their children. They will give you the tips and strategies needed to begin support planning.
3 pm |  Creativity in support planning...opening up possibilities – Kate Fulton, Paradigm.
A ssupport Plan needs to show how a person intends to use their Personal Budget.  True.  But a Support Plan should be so much more. The time spent developing a plan is a great opportunity to reflect both on what you want to keep and to open up a whole new range of opportunities. Creativity and imagination is the key! This workshop will encourage people to think creatively about the process of developing a Support Plan to open up possibilities for themselves or the people they support.
4 pm | Support planning made easy – Lynne Elwell and Julie Woods, Merseyside Partners.
Planning the future for a family member who needs support is scary. Having someone to help you plan makes it easier.  In the support planning room, you will be able to talk to parents and relatives who have successfully planned with and for their children. They will give you the tips and strategies needed to begin support planning.

zone 13 graphicSafeguarding


An exploration of some of the main issues around safeguarding.
10 am | The Mental Capacity Act – Yogi Amin and  Mathieu Culverhouse, Irwin Mitchell Solicitors.
A legal update on the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards and deprivation of liberty through the Court of Protection
11 am | Life in the fast lane – Andy and Tina Hopley, Cumbria
A positive personal story about Andy's  experience of learning about trust. This workshop demonstrates how we all need the opportunity to learn through making our own mistakes.
1 pm | Person-centred risk management – Lorraine Erwin, Helen Sanderson Associates.
A look at person-centred approaches and tools to managing risk in a positive way.
2 pm | The tensions for providers in balancing person-centred working and a commissioner's expectations – Shonagh Methven, United Response.
What does a person-centered approach to risk management look like? This session looks at how it can make a difference to a person's life, and what to do when things go wrong.
3 pm | Personalised Safeguarding – Dan Blake, Action for Elder Abuse (AEA).
This workshop will look at how how current approaches to Self-Directed Support can contribute to safeguarding of adults as well as exploring the potential risk factors.
4 pm | Positive risk taking – Linda Mason and Cheryl Page, Cumbria County Council.
Cumbria County Council will offer an insight into their policy journey through positive risk-taking in learning disability services as a way of ensuring person-centred plans actually make a positive impact on people's lives. 

zone 14 graphicZone 14 Making it real



10 am | My Life, My Budget – Carla Spain, Speaking Up.
Personal Budgets are all about people choosing how they want to live and what they want to do in a safe and healthy way. However, Personal Budgets can be very confusing for many of us,  especially for the people with learning difficulties that they are intended to support. The workshop will introduce a newly developed board game on Personal Budgets called My Life, My Budget. The game brings the focus back to enabling people with learning difficulties by ensuring that they better understand the basics of what a Personal Budget is. The workshop will be interactive and engaging, giving you a chance to see and play the game for yourselves. Suitable for professionals and service users alike!
11 am | Choice to Control – Jamie Hanson, Happy Associates.
The Choice to Control model promotes an approach that insists person-led risk assessment is a vital part of the support-planning process and can shape the way services are provided. 
1 pm | Are your leaders in the know? – Debra Dunning, Thera Trust.
How do we ensure that people with a learning disability are leading our organisations. A chance to share our experiences and learn together.
2 pm | Micro care and support services – supporting enterprise, creating choice – Helen Allen and Wendi Bennett, NAAPS.
Explore the challenges of personalisation from the perspective of the provider (including providers who have support needs and who may use services themselves). Inform people about two NAAPS projects in Oldham that advise and support providers of very small (micro) care and support services to help them to overcome these challenges. Discuss with participants how engaging with and supporting providers can result in real market choice and diversity for people who use services.
3 pm | Home ownership for people with a disability: 2010 and beyond – David Abbey, My Safe Home.
This workshop will consider the impact of home ownership and, more importantly, what councils and housing providers now need to be doing in order to give even more people the opportunities they deserve (in turn meeting both the Government’s personalisation agenda and the needs of their local community). David will  be joined by a homebuyer who will share their story of how home ownership has changed their life forever.
4 pm | From know-what to know-how – Andy Smith, Diversity Matters.
In Control Scotland's leadership and change programme for provider organisations is well into its second successful  year. This workshop explores how the programme works in Scotland and examines some of the thinking behind it:  organisational agility, right relationship and internal coherency.

To download the Big Event programme as a PDF, please click here.

Please note that the programme is subject to change. More detailed information on each session will be available soon.

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