Queensday (or Koninginnedag)

Today is the 30th of April, and in the Netherlands this is their national day - called Koninginnedag - or Queensday.

Well the Conference went off last Friday and although it had its stumbling points (our registration left a lot to be desired) the workshops by and large went well, to time and were well received. There were points that could have been improved on and as we look at all the feedback forms we will post the results online, both here and on the main website.

We are in wind down mode from the Conference and, although I wish I was partying with the Dutch today, I will have to settle for reviewing the good and bad points of friday and content myself with having two days off this week to study.

In the meantime here is an image of another time that makes me think of peaceful summer days and long lazy afternoons......

More from me later this week - hopefully with pictures of the big day itself.

If any of you are interested in a mini conference at the end of this year which will be focussed on Supported Living and New Types of Worker, can you email us here and let me know of your interest?

Thanks for all your support last week

Eoghan

Calvin (again) - but he does make me smile...

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Life is not merely to be alive, but to be well ~ Marcus Valerius Martial

The Conference

Well it is now one week to the Conference. All the planning is coming together and paying off. We have in excess of 160 delegates attending and this should creep up to the target of 175 by Monday next week.

We have finalised the workshop layouts, the numbers attending each workshop and which time workshop that they will attend.

This week we visited Sandy Park to look at room layouts and to find where the trade stands will be. For the first time we can say - we are full - we will have to turn away trade stands if any more apply. This is a good sign for DCT and the way we are developing.

Green Targets

The good weather continues and we had meetings this week to discuss how we could have agreener approach to how we at DCT work. We already recycle paper, plastic and glass and we have a good approach to travel, sharing cars whenever we can when we travel to meetings. In two weeks time we will be testing a new conference phone system at County Hall with a view to using it for meetings - that way avoiding travel entirely whenever possible. As County Hall has expanded its wireless networks recently we may very well have the ability to conduct our work in the bright sunshine..... (only kidding)

Other things

E Induction was launched recently, but there are some technical problems with some of the registration pages but these should be resolved very soon. Once these have been sorted then the whole E Induction system will be functioning and compliant with the Skills for Care standards as required on their web site. If anyone wishes to access this please email us and we can help with the technical set up and if a lap top is also needed please let us know.

Initial results are coming back from the National Minimum Data Set - as we get more information I will post some of the more salient observations and findings here and on the main website in order for you all to see the trends in the South West.

Finally I went to Twickenham last Sunday to support the Chiefs - what a great day to be there but what a rubbish result - oh well there will be next season I guess.

I think - therefore it must be Friday......

The weather was so nice this week - this really resonated with me!

Friday Encore Une Fois!

Its Friday again - having a short week really doesn't do us any favours as there is still the same amount of work to be done!

Well where are we now and what have we been doing?

It is two weeks to go to the conference and we have around 150 people attending. I expect this will come in finally around the 170 mark which won't be too far off the 175 we were aiming for.

There are still places so if you haven't sent in your form you have 5 days left to do so!

There was a meeting of the Steering Group this week and things are looking fairly good so far. The website is receiving 400+ unique visitors each month and that is quite good, plus we are getting hits from Poland and the Czech Republic which could be people there looking at possible Care sites in the UK - a sign of how multinational we are all becoming.

We have also looked at the possibilities of getting the course forms simplified, but as we are receiving external funding for some courses we are at the mercy of their information requests. We will be looking to see if there is any flexibility in these forms, but for the time being we will be using these as they are.

Membership is growing at an incredible rate - we have had nearly a 25% increase in the last 12 months. A sign that we are finally getting our message across and that people are happy with what we are doing.

Dee West from the Care Ambassadors for Devon gave us an update as to where that project is and things are looking good there. She will be at the Conference with several Ambassadors which will give people a chance to chat and find out more about the whole project.

Diane Helmore gave an update on the Mental Capacity Act and the briefing sessions that are available through the training admin team at Devon County Council and the DPT. Contact us if you want more information about these.

New membership flyers have been discussed and the possibility of more e bulletins will be looked at too.

Well thats about all I have for you today - I am off to shout my support for the Chiefs as the play the Cornish Pirates at Twickenham on Sunday in the EDF Trophy final - so I shall be suitably tired on Monday morning!

Things I have learned this week:

• Mintoes and Diet Coke are a very bad mix
• How to put a fence up
• Don't change stations when watching Ireland play Cricket - I changed for 20 minutes and we lost 6 wickets and the match!
• I am allergic to an insect in our garden - not sure which one and it doesn't stop me being forced to do gardening things at the weekend

Hope you all have a very nice weekend - talk to you all soon

E.

Belated Update

Hi All

sorry for the delay but things have been hectic over the last couple of weeks.

Well what has been happening?

The conference is consuming a lot of time right now, and numbers are filling up nicely. We have broken the 100 delegates figure and are well on our way to our target. I had a very productive meeting with Carol Barkwell with regards to additional workshops and the format of the day. The meeting took place walking around her farm at Hatherleigh and in the middle of the meeting I got to watch Carol deliver a lamb - not exactly and everyday occurance at a planning meeting - but certainly a conversation piece - here is the lamb for thos of you interested!

We have also been busy getting the summer and autumn training programmes organised - these will appear on the website in the next couple of weeks. Once again, if there are any courses that you are looking for and they are not on the list, do not hesitate in contacting us to ask.

I also attended the Care Show at Bournemouth and made some useful contacts at it. There are plenty of new resources and developments that will be of benefit to our membership and we hope to access these over the coming months. We have purchased a set of reference books from a company called GMP systems. You can look at their website here. These are available as refernece only for the members and will be a very useful tool for preparing for CSCI Inspections.

The next newsletter will be published in June, and if any of you would like to contribute an article about you or your organisation, please send them in to the main email address - just click here for it.

Lastly, for those of you who have not sent your forms in for the conference - hurry up! Places are being taken up rapidly - so you need to get in. It will be a great day with a lot of very useful workshops. If you are a manager, a front line worker, an owner or a provider, you will find useful and entertaining workshops for you at the Conference.

More from me soon

Eoghan