DCT

Time is an Illusion.Lunch Time doubly so.

2007-11-02T02:28:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been quite some time since my last posting. There are many reasons, not the least of which is that I have been so very busy, so I will start with this:

Time is what prevents everything from happening at once - John Archibald Wheeler

And as I could not make everything happen at once, the Blog has taken a back seat!

Well there have been some fairly large changes to what we are doing here at DCT, not the least of which is that we are now offering our courses free of charge to our membership. We will have some provisions and conditions on these, but as you will all have received our emailed flyer update, you will all no doubt know all the details already.

In the 2 months of so since my last update there have been plenty of things I must share with you. I have visited several of our members as well as several prospective and new members. These have been always very enlightening as they help us get a feel for what people are looking for, rather than us presenting a prescriptive list of courses to the membership. I have enjoyed these visits immensely, and they have been made even more enjoyable by the fabulous autumn we have been experiencing.

We have had a huge increase in people attending courses this autumn, and it has given us all a great sense of satisfaction to see how well these courses have been received. They have also helped us examine some possibilities of running these courses again. The NAPPI course had such superb positive feedback it will be a course we will definitely run again.

Our plans for next year are wide ranging, and we will be starting the New Year running with a full programme of courses from January to June. In addition we will be having a Business Conference at Sandy Park in February and the Main Conference,again at Sandy Park, in September.

I will be updating the main webiste with more news and developments, but these include the possibility of DCT sponsoring people to attend conferences elsewhere in the country, and acting as representatives of DCT and then writing a report back for the members to read in the newsletter.

Speaking of the Newsletter, this is going to move to a bi-monthly publication that will have more content in it too. We hope that you will all contribute articles to this as and when you feel like it. It would be great to have contributions that tell us all about achivements, innovations and developments in your organisations. Even if you have something you want to rant about we can publish it - well, as long as its not too extreme!!!!

I will do my best to update you in a more detailed manner next week - so you can have a fuller view of what next years developments will be.

In the meantime, enjoy your weekend, and if you are going out for fireworks have a fun and safe time!

Hurrah!

2007-09-07T02:33:00.000-07:00

Well, once every 4 years the Rugby World Cup rolls around and I regress to the mindset of a a 5 year old on Christmas Eve! Here is the Haka, as performed by the All Blacks - it never fails to send a shiver down my spine!

Ringa pakia!
Uma tiraha!
Turi whatia!
Hope whai ake!
Waewae takahia kia kino!

Ka mate, ka mate

Ka ora, ka ora

Ka mate, ka mate

Ka ora, ka ora

Tēnei te tangata pūhuruhuru
Nāna nei i tiki mai whakawhiti te rā
Ā upane, ka upane
Ā upane, ka upane
Whiti te rā, hī!

This year the cup is theirs to lose, but in the meantime it will be a huge amount of fun and I get to see all of it without having to get up at some unearthly hour like I did at the last one!!

And this is what its all about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt3yuuwIVaE

I am so excited............

Blink and you'll miss it.....

2007-09-07T01:32:00.000-07:00

OK so I told a small untruth in my last posting, more than a week went past but it did go quickly - but I have made it back to keep you all updated!

It has been a hectic couple of weeks as we are in the middle of an office move as the Annexe is being redesigned into one big happy open plan office - the joys of it all! So we have been packing up our belongings and getting ready to move next week. Don't worry about the new address as this will be short term (we hope) and all post will still get to us. Our numbers and emails will all stay the same.

In addition the Autumn programme has kicked in and Lucy is doing her best juggling impressions to keep all the courses running and full. A couple of courses have been cancelled as there were insufficient numbers, but we will be looking at running courses with reduced numbers in some of the more 'out of the way' places in order to increase accessibility. A full list of the Autumn Programme can be downloaded here.

We will also be offering a range of courses that are currently on offer through Devon County Council. These will have a fairly broad spectrum of titles and will be offered free to the members.

Lynne has just finished the new Newsletter and you can have a look at it here. Once again she has surpassed herself and produced another good read. In the new year we will be planning on a significant in crease in the amount of content in the Newsletter and will be chasing you all for contributions to it - so you have all been warned!

Yesterday we attended a conference in Buckfast Abbey. It was hosted by Skills for Care and its theme was New Types of Worker (or NToW if you like acronyms!). It was a very informative day with some excellent workshops. I attended a workshop on Complementary Therapies in Mental Health which was very good and definitely worth looking at as it is a new way of thinking around therapies and methods of treatment. This was presented by the SUCH Project from Taunton. The other workshop I attended was 'Mirror Mirror' which was a workshop based on drama as a means of looking at and interpreting 'issues' or situations. It was well presented and interesting. The group who presented it are Playback Theatre South West and were very approachable and had some great ideas and takes on things.

Buckfast is such a lovely setting for smaller conferences and meetings and apart from the welcoming staff and fantastic food, you get to see this

What a fabulous setting......

Well that is about it from me for the time being. It's Friday and I am the volunteer (in the sense of not having a choice about it) driver to take my wife and cats to a show in Birmingham tomorrow. So I will miss 4 Rugby Internationals and 2 Football Internationals as I sit in the Car Park also known as the M42! So tonight I will make the most of the first day of the Rugby World Cup - thats me sorted for the next 6 weeks!

Have a great weekend, one and all!

Eoghan and the DCT Team

Empty Head, Empty Thoughts....

2007-08-17T05:17:00.000-07:00

I have not forgotton the Blog, I have been alternately living it up in Luxembourg and working hard to catch up - so I will update at length next week - in the meantime, if the rain holds off.....

PS did you all know that the 13th of August was International Left Handers Day?

PPS the 19th of September will be International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Its not fake!

2007-08-03T06:54:00.000-07:00

I took this picture on Thursday 2nd August at an unnamed restaurant - I thought it was hilarious!

August - not much more to say!

2007-08-03T06:42:00.000-07:00

Once more its the end of a week, so I thought I would once more let you know what has been happening.

This week we had our quarterly steering group meeting. This took place at Larkbeare House in Exeter and we had a good turn out for the morning. We welcomed Tina Norman as a new member of the group. Tina wears a multitude of hats and willbe able to represent service users, carers, ME Trust and also brings her knowledge as a tutor/trainer and the wisdom of her time involved in the Expert Patient Programme to us. She has also a very impressive set of contacts in the world of training. Poor Tina had a baptism of fire as she tried to navigate the minefield of acronyms that we use on a daily basis - but in the end I am hoping she enjoyed the meeting (she did not run away screaming 'Never Again' so I am taking that as a good sign!)

At the meeting we decided to take a closer look at a South Hams initiative that we will embark on with Skills for Care - it will be an interesting study to see why there is such a low take up rate from this area for most events , training and otherwise.

We also have decided to go ahead with a mini conference in January and our main one in September/October. More of these two events soon.

There will be major refurbishments of the Annexe at County Hall coming up soon (September time onwards) and so our office will probably be relocating. More of this when we have the details.

So far this year we have had a good time. We have run 23 courses and trained over 200 people - this is twice the level of last year in the first 6 months of 2007. And now we are being used as a first point of reference by the membership - which is great news. The website has received over 65,000 hits in the first 6 months too - which is quite amazing.

I have been working slowly on the Gl0ssary pages trying to make the link system work properly - it is slow but I will gett there eventually.

I also met with the Devonline to discuss the moving of the care Ambassador web pages to their own site - this will be a slow move but should help them to stand on their own soon. The project has received such positive support from Skills for Care and now Plymouth City Council that it seems to be going from strength to strength.

That seems to be about it - so I will wish you all a fine weekend - and update you all again soon.

Friday - and what would that be without....

2007-07-20T07:33:00.000-07:00

May You Live in Interesting Times.......

2007-07-20T07:19:00.000-07:00

This week I learned something 'interesting'

The number 40 when written in English is the only number that is spelled alphabetically - I read this on the back of a seat on a Ryanair flight as I winged my way home to Dublin for a weekend.

Anyway, I have had two short weeks in a row, coutesy of a long weekend at home and so have had to throw myself into a heap of work when I got back.

This week I finally finished the Acronym list, which may be of help when it comes to checking what some of the more cryptographically written publications land on your desks. It has been a labour, not of love, but maybe pig headedness. Anyway I do hope it is of some help to you. It is accessible through the Glossary page.

Lucy has been very busy ensuring the course sections are kept up to date and that information on each course is accurate. As you can see she has been exceptionally busy as we have quite a sizable schedule in the Autumn. We will be running some courses from Boots (the Chemist) and as these are the first time we will have used them it will be interesting to see what the outcomes are.

We will also be running some courses on Optical Care and Foot Care, possibly in late October, but the dates have yet to be confirmed.

Lynne is working hard on the next Newsletter, and the deadline for the submission of any articles that anyone would like to submit is August 20th. I would encourage you to think about this as it is a great way for you to tell people about new ideas and practices that you have been trying out and also a way of asking questions about any issues or problems that you may be facing. Please email us here to submit anything.

It has been a constant source of surprise for me over the last couple of weeks as we find new people to carry out our training, have sourced new courses and have fulfilled many requests for some non main stream training.

Maybe Ryanair have it right and show that learning can be found in the most surprising of places!

Have a good weekend and I will write more soon

Eoghan and the team

A Great Philosophy!

2007-07-06T04:18:00.000-07:00

July? Incredibly it's true!

2007-07-06T03:54:00.000-07:00

Well here we are, now in the back half of the year already, and no sign of the fable summer yet. I am beginning to think the whole thing is a rumour put around by the Met Office!

Anyway enough of my endless complaining about the weather.

We are entering the 'summer' hiatus, where things quieten down for us from a training point of view and we have the chance to take stock and make plans for the next phase of events.

Lucy has been working hard catching up on all the course feedback and we will have a dedicated page to that on the main website soon. We feel this is the best way to let people get feedback from the courses and see what other thought of them and they types of people that have attanded certain courses.

I have been meeting with Carol Barkwell with a view to us putting on a small conference at the end of the year. We think we will be calling it 'New Types of Business' and aiming it at the owners of Care businesses with a focus on the new and different ways that you all approach your businesses and looking at new methods that will help you achieve your goals. It will be a chance to share good ideas and to see how other are innovating. I hope that I can put a more detailed posting on here in the next few weeks. If anyone would like to take part of contribute to this or ask more questions please email me here and we can have a chat about it.

We are also looking at the next round of courses and the venues for them. The next Steering Group meeting will be on the 31st of July and the members can have a look at some of the porposed new courses at that point. We will be welcoming a few new members to the group, Alsion Lear from the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital will be an NHS representative and Tina Norman will be representing the Rainbow Trust as well as her own perspective as a service user and carer. They will bring some valuable knowledge and life experiences to DCT and will help us keep a broad view on our targets and goals.

There is not much else to tell really - so I will wish you a good weekend and update you again next week

Regards

Eoghan

A Small Smile

2007-06-15T07:18:00.000-07:00

The smooth talker....

Rain Rain Go Away.....

2007-06-15T07:17:00.001-07:00

Did I miss Summer? I feel like I have just performed a Rip van Winkle! Last week I was basking in the heat of glorious June sun and worrying if I had enough sun cream to last the weekend, and now I am cursing because I left the umbrella in the car! Here is the view from our office this afternoon!

Anyway, to more important things. What we have been doing.

This week we have had an interesting Business Planning meeting, exploring the possible future sources of funding for the Independent sector. There will be many new things that will come out of this, but the first one I can tell you about is that from July 1st all Vulnerable Adults Training will have no charge. This covers all aspects of it, including the POVA Train the Trainer courses. Based on our previous experiences of what happens when courses are free we will be requiring all attendees to send a cheque for £20.00 and if they attend the cheque will be returned. If not then it will be cashed. We feel this is the best way to deal with this.

We are hoping that this move towards free training may be extended to other courses - so all I can say is 'watch this space' we will continue to fight the Independent sectors corner on these issues.

There was also a Team Meeting for us at DCT and the wider Learning & Development team which took up most of Tuesday and we learned more about forthcoming changes to our team structure. As these are nowhere near finalised I will not bore you with the details.

The rest of this week has been taken up with number crunching to see where we stand relative to the whole of Devon, regarding the numbers of staff working in Social Care and any obvious gaps or needs in learning that may exist. I have unearthed some interesting figures and will be posting them on here once I have confirmed their accuracy.

Finally we are still wrapping up feedback from the conference and will post that information as soon as we have it prepared.

In the meantime, adieu and have a bon weekend!

Eoghan

Its Friday!

2007-06-08T07:02:00.001-07:00

I've tried this with my essays for University!

The Heat! The Heat!

2007-06-08T06:19:00.000-07:00

Crikey - what a week for heat - and it is going to look like getting hotter! I must try and sell the idea of air conditioning to the Buildings Manager - just so we can keep our suave demeanour here at the DCT office......

This week has been a hectic one as I was off for two days to study. Yesterday we were all at the Skills for Care 'Big Event' Conference at Sandy Park. It was an interesting day and it helped me to put faces to names as well. The theme was 'Creating a Learning Culture' which may sound familiar to a few of you, as that was the topic of our 2005 Conference at Buckfast Abbey - Care 4 U!!

I did get to meet up with Trevor Bevins of Skills for Care who we may end up working closer with to help identify the communications issues which appear to be pervasive in the South Hams. More of this in a later Blog.

I also met Jo Zakrzewski of Tracey House in Bovey Tracey, who has been a most enthusiastic supporter of DCT and the Learning Gallery, so I was able to have a chat about the good and bad points of some courses and it was both informative and a learning experience for me.

We also had some new members, which is a great thing as we are deifinitely getting our message across now. There are hopefully a few more possible members from the day too.

Once again Sandy Park produce a great event - the food was too good as usual - no wonder I cannot lose weight!!!

Big news about Adult Protection Training - this will be available for free from now on. As this can be a nightmare when people book on to free courses and don't turn up, we will have to have a deposit system in place which is forfeit if the person doesn't turn up on the day. This will include Train the Trainer POVA training! So watch this space!!!!

We got the statistics for the website for the month of May and they just keep getting better.
We had 562 unique visitors who had over 12,600 hits between them. This is an increase in visitors of 29% over April 2007 and an increase of 8.2% in the number of hits they have had in the same period. Compared to 2006, there has been an increase of 629% in visitors and 874% in hits from May 2007 to May 2006. This is most encouraging as people are patently using the site but the only thing that is lacking is some regular feedback.

The Care Ambassadors have recruited and trained another 7 Ambassadors and they are going from strength to strength - which is such good news as they have accomplished so much in only 6 months. Once again if you want to have a look at information about them you can look here to get details and contact details too.

Today Lucy and myself met with a COPD Nurse Tutor who will be putting on a training day later this year. This will cover bronchitis, acute asthma and emphasima - it looks like it will be a course that is well worth while and will give a respiratory experts insight into the challenging aspects of this debilitating condition.

Well that seems to be it - the weekend is almost upon us, the beers are being chilled, the forecast is sunny and there is a French Maket in Bovey tomorrow where I shall shop for fine cheeses and wickedly nice bread, so have a great weekend one and all and I will update you again next week.

Regards

Eoghan

ps here is a picture that was sent to us of my two lovely girls up by Haytor, taken by two American tourists 6 months ago and kindly emailed to us this week, Medhbh is on the left and Ailbhe on the right (If you have problems with my name I dare you to try theirs!)

This is the limit of my ability too.....

2007-06-01T05:33:00.001-07:00

A Week of Many Things....

2007-06-01T05:10:00.000-07:00

Well another short week has whizzed by no time at all!

This week we got the feedback from our first Epilepsy Courses. They were exceptionally well received and Madeleine Bexon, the trainer, will be running more of these later in the year. It was great to read how positively these courses have been received and it looks like we have hit on a good course for the future.

We have also had a few ideas about Team Building Courses. Would these be of interest to anyone? Or have they been something that you have all tried before?

I also met with Matthew Byrne of Devon Carers Link. This looks like it will be a useful meeting with the Organisation probably joining us soon. This will bring in a host of new members in the form of the informal voluntary carers from all around the County.

Lucy has been busy with the new courses and the June programme is very full already. If there are any courses that you have missed out on please let us know and we can look at running them again.

Dee West has been up working on the Care Ambassador part of the website and it is looking very good now - so anyone who is interested in this project should contact her directly.

The Learning Gallery is also available (at last) to all of you - you need to log on through the member pages - use your number as your user name and your password is your postcode - all in upper case - use Caps Lock when doing it. If you have any problems let me know.

On a down side - my car was sick this week - it involved lots of sharp intakes of breath from the mechanic and at least one 'Dear oh Dear!' with tutting noises - so after fixing it he happily relieved me of a lot of cash!!!

That coupled with the resounding spanking that Ireland A received at the hands of the NZ Maori meant it was a week of mixed moods - but a very generous person handed the five of us who went 5 free tickets for the grandstand - so that was £200 saved!! Result!

And I got to see this -

Have a great weekend, one and all!

If you go down to the woods today.....

2007-05-25T05:54:00.000-07:00

Grey Day....

2007-05-25T05:40:00.000-07:00

Well it has been a little longer than I planned but here is my new update.

Over the last two weeks we have been busy looking at the Autumn courses and as part of that process, Lucy and myself have had severla meetings with trainers, new and old. Last week we met with Boots the Chemist, or rather Brian and Andy from Boots (obviously there is no-one called Boots the Chemist). We are looking at trying their tailored Medication Courses, aimed at Care Staff, Dom Care Staff and an advanced one for Nurses and Managers. Keep an eye on the website to see when these dates will occour.

We have also had some very positive feedback on our first Epilepsy course, so a big thumbs up to Madeleine keep up the good work!

On a separate note we had a very informative meeting with Caroline Murphy of Business Link with regards to Train to Gain funding - you can see her contact details and what this involves on the main website here

This week Tina Norman agreed to sit on our steering group, and will bring an extra dimension to our meetings. For those of you who don't know Tina, she is the co-ordinator of Rainbow-ME, an holistic trust set up to offer support for people with M.E., carers, their family and friends throughout Exeter and surrounding areas. You can read more about them here. Tina is also a carer and so brings a whole host of life experience to the steering group.

In June we will be having meetings about possible funding changes which may make more and diverse courses available to thre membership, I will keep you all informaed about any changes as soon as I know.

Well its now a grey day outside, and form the sounds of it, the weekend will not be much of an improvement. On a brighter note, Ireland A will be playing the NZ Maori at Sandy Park next Tuesday evening, so the next update will either be one written in an atmosphere of joy or sadness, the latter being more likely.

Finally, and on a personal note, I have been playing night nurse to the new additions to our family at home - 5 new devon Rex kittens - for those of you interested my wife has posted pictures on her website - you can find them here

Wishing you all a very nice Bank Holiday weekend, hope the pesky caravans avoid you all.....

Eoghan

May Showers

2007-05-11T06:55:00.000-07:00

What a rotten day outside! At least I won't need to water the garden.

This week we have helped the Care Ambassadors get the first part of their web site up and running on our pages - keep an eye on them as they develop - www.devoncaretraining.org.uk/careambassador.htm

We have also been collating information about the conference. I also attended the Care Providers Conference in Somerset - which was an interesting day and I made some useful contacts at it.

Finally we trialled a teleconferencing system to allow us to make our meetings more time effective and also much greener - it had a few hiccups but it went well on the whole.

That is all really - another short week has meant not enough time again - more from me next week - and here is Fridays humour section

Have a nice weekend

Eoghan

It makes you think.....

2007-05-04T04:54:00.000-07:00

Here is something for the weekend....

Mayday (ish)

2007-05-04T04:46:00.000-07:00

Well Friday rolls around once more, the weeks just zip by and I don't seem to have enough time - and next week is a short week!! Grrrr!

I will be posting information about the conference next week and will also leave a set of statistics about how the website is being used, so you can all see how successful it is.

In the meantime, I am curious to know what people think about the idea of a catering course - I don't mean the normal food hygiene courses, but one which is more focussed on the economics of food and the calorific contents etc. Is there a demand for it or not?

Also we are moving the Professional Boundaries Course to September as there was such a low take up rate. This is a course which several people have asked us for and then there seems to be no interest - any suggestions as to why this would be the case?

There will be some news soon about extra courses we may have access to but more of that as it happens.

I have nothing more to tell you all, other than, have a very pleasant weekend - and I will leave you all a more up to date postings next week and the front pages of the website will be updated then too.

Enjoy the May Weekend

Eoghan

Queensday (or Koninginnedag)

2007-04-30T07:47:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-04-20T06:59:00.000-07:00

Hope you all have a great weekend!

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

2007-04-20T06:27:00.000-07:00

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......

2007-04-13T04:51:00.000-07:00

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

Friday Encore Une Fois!

2007-04-13T04:38:00.000-07:00

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

Belated Update

2007-04-02T02:17:00.000-07:00

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.

Friday Smile

2007-03-09T04:41:00.000-08:00

Just to put a smile on your faces...

Coughs and Sneezes

2007-03-09T04:01:00.000-08:00

The Joys - I have struggled bravely with 'flu all week - and as I have no huge desire for a cuttlefish I am guessing it is not the avian variety, so I am being a brave soldier and battling on. I know that you all feel my pain..........

Anyway, what we have been doing this week...

Well the Conference is filling up at quite a pace, and we have new and old members as well as people who are not members at all but are coming along to see what we do.

We will also have a host of trade stands and publicity stands from quite a wide spectrum of organisations. In due course the website will carry a list of all those that will be attending.

We have also had interest in us from a couple of GP surgeries, which would be a great new addition to our ranks as they will be able to bring a new and different perspective on the needs and issues facing people involved in Social Care. As we all move towards joined up work with Health and Social Care under the one banner, this will prove invaluable for all of us.

We are still having a few teething problems with the website, but most of it is functioning properly now. I recently received the stats for the usage of the website and they have been fascinating (or as fascinating as statistics can be). I will post the key numbers on the website and here in the course of next week.

The new office has been reorganised (again) and there is now more space (we haven't swung a cat to test it yet but there might be enough room now) so should any of you wish to visit us to talk about any needs or plans or even to pop by for a coffee, just let us know and we would be delighted to see you.

Finally, one of the women that works for the Disability Team at Devon County Council has had her wolfhound puppy qualify for Crufts so I will be going there tomorrow to cheer her on. In this picture this is her with one of her pups parents (I think).

So on that note I will leave you with a picture of one of my 'little' wolfhound girls to look at - isn't she lovely.....?

The Fastest Week Ever!

2007-03-02T06:01:00.000-08:00

Well another week has come and gone by with a worrying whooshing sound as it seemed to be 17 minutes long!

This week we have found out that we will be able to tap into a new source of funding which will enable us to bring course costs down considerably. There will be lots of specific details that have to be completed in order to achieve this, but as it is going to help all DCT members to make their training budgets go so much further I am sure it will not be too onerous a task. You can ask Lucy or myself about this - but the details will be on the main website and it will be obvious how much of a saving there will be when the next round of course details are posted.

Speaking of this, we will be putting together the Autumn programme over the next 4 weeks or so, so if any of you have specific training requests - now is the time to start making them!

This week also saw the introduction of the new E-Induction package. This looks like it will be a handy new tool for all organisations and will help ease the whole process. Once it is fully up and running we will post the link and instructions for its use on the main website.

Well I have to go and meet up with Carol Barkwell to plan more details of the Conference, so I will take my leave and update you all next week.

I almost made it to the end of this without mentioning my unbridled joy about the fantastic win Ireland had last Saturday - but it wouldn't be so unbridled if I hadn't mentioned it!

Have a nice weekend, one and all, and as they say at home, 'Slán agus beannacht Dé libh'

See you all soon

E

It' Still Friday

2007-02-23T07:45:00.000-08:00

Just to put a smile on your faces for the weekend - well I thought it was funny!

It's Friday!

2007-02-23T07:27:00.000-08:00

Well Friday has arrived and the week has truly felt like the task of Sisyphus! The website has proven a real headache trying to add a new Members Organisations section which has proven to be a circular exercise. The page now exists - but I seem to have entered a lot of information (OK, not that much but some) that is mysteriously invisible. On the other hand the Conference is filling up nicely - I think we will hit our target comfortably. There are going to be a huge range of people attending and there will be at least 11 stands too - which is more than double our last conference. And we still have 2 months to go.

This weekend brings a sense of extreme nervousness for me as we play England in the Six Nations - so the general tone of next weeks Blog will entirely depend on the result!

So before I leave you to the weekend - I will leave you with the things I have learned this week:

1. William Blake was also an artist
2. Shouting at, and/or threatening a computer does not make text appear or correct itself
3. Conferences are notoriously difficult to arrange but immensly rewarding too
4. Chaos Theory is not what it seems - and Change is Chaotic by its very nature

Have a very nice weekend, one and all, more from us next week - I hope!

E

New Office, New Horizons (Literally)

2007-02-21T08:50:00.000-08:00

We have recently moved office - so we now have a dedicated office and not a big open plan space which provided little or no identity as to who we are!

As you can see from the pictures we now have a vastly improved view too - which is nothing to be sneezed at!

The view we had before was the one on top.

The view below is our new vista!

Which view would you prefer?

Our new address is Room A209, and not the old A301 - the rest remains unchanged.

Anyway, should any of you, the members, wish to visit us to discuss training needs or ideas, you are more than welcome to come by and see us - we might even stump up for a cup of tea and a biscuit!

A Grand Day Out

2007-02-16T02:21:00.000-08:00

I had a meeting yesterday with one of our Members - Pauleen Maitrise of Kent Farm in Uffculme. Pauleen will be a new member of the Steering Group and I was meeting her to run through our plans for 2007. We discussed the training programme and some of the issues that are facing the private sector at this moment in time.

We had a very productive morning and I found it very informative. Pauleen was able to highlight several concerns that I was previously unaware of, with regards to training needs and funding issues that are related to them. I found the morning was a great use of my time as it allowed me talk over many issues and to chat about future needs and best of all it meant I could put a face to a name. Pauleen was very welcoming and I look forward to her inputs and ideas in the future.

Here are some pictures of Kent Farm - my apologies for the quality but it was taken with my phone!!

Monday

2007-02-05T07:58:00.000-08:00

Well it's February already - where is the year going??? It's the first Monday of the month and there seems to be a mountain of stuff to wade through!

The website is receiving yet more tweaking but hoipefully this will be the final bit.

Bookings are coming in nicely for the conference and there seems to be a real interest in all the workshops this year. It will have a focus on the delegates this time round rather than being focussed on the people they work with - and should give everyone a great approach to their work and life.

DCT will be moving to a new office on wednesday, and although our email and phone numbers will stay the same we are being moved to our own office - ooooooh! :-)

The new address will be A209 and not A301, other than that everything else will remain the same.

More soon!

The Conference

2007-01-31T01:49:00.000-08:00

Well we have decided on 8 workshops for the conference. And to make it a little more interesting we will be running them through the day rather than just in the afternoon when everyone is suffering from food coma! The topics for the workshops are:

Mental Capacity Act 2005
Skills for Care Update
CSCI
Nutrition
Complementary and Alternative Therapies
Managing Stress
Exercise at Work
Pamper Yourself
End of Life Planning

We would like all of you attending to select two workshops you would like to go to and then after lunch you can all select a workshop you would like to go to based on the feedback from the morning - that way everyone gets to see something that takes their fancy.

We will have guest speakers as well as keynote guests who will be present but not presenting and good to have informal conversations with. To picque interest and to tease slightly all I will say is 'Watch this space'!

Eoghan

Cribbins!

2007-01-30T05:58:00.000-08:00

It's almost the end of January, the year is a Twelfth over! It is only 3 months to the Conference, so get booking now to ensure you get to attend the workshops you are interested in. There will be 8 workshops and people will be able to attend three of them.

Good luck and see you all there

Eoghan

ps its only 328 Days to Christmas! (Thought I would help you all plan your shopping!)

Devon Care Training Conference (Revisited)

2007-01-30T05:51:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

well here is some more information for you. You can email us for an application form at dctc@devon.gov.uk or you can go to the website here and have a look at the flyer and the form in the news section. The theme is 'Health & Wellbeing' and is aimed at the frontline staff and managers as well as owners. So many conferences seem to forget that these are the Movers and Shakers and without their diligence and enthusiasm there would not be the quality of care available to people throughout Devon. The Conference Centre is the new Exeter Chiefs Rugby Stadium which has fantastic facilities, easy access and great amenities. This is our next logical step with the promotion of the work that DCT does and will help show the benefits of being a member to our members and non members alike. We hope to see as many of you there as is humanly possible!

Regards

Eoghan and the DCT Team

NAPPI Training

2007-01-17T03:22:00.000-08:00

I am wondering if any of the membership would be interested in DCt running a NAPPI course. It is an american non-physical intervention course. You can read a bit about it here

"NAPPI training is accredited by the British Institute of Learning
Disabilities"

If there is enough interest then we will arrange this course. Please let us know if you are interested at any of the usual email addresses

2007

2007-01-05T03:31:00.000-08:00

Well, 2007 is upon us and this year will bring us a whole host of new and exciting challenges as well as opportunities.

Plans for the conference are progressing nicely and we should be able to give a full in depth update to all of you by the start of February.

The Spring Training Programme is in place but take up rates have so far proved slow, so we may have to cancel some of the courses in order to better use our finances. More of this anon.

Dee West, the new Care Ambassador Co-ordinator has taken up her post and has hit the ground running. So far several prospective Care Ambassador candidates have been identified, but there is still plenty of opportunity for prospective or interested candidates to put their names forward. For the time being please direct any enquiries to us here at DCT - dctc@devon.gov.uk, and when Dee has email and phone numbers set up we will post them here and on the main website.

Finally, there will be a launch of the new E-Induction programme in February - watch this space for more information about this exciting new development!

Mental Capacity Act

2006-12-29T03:20:00.000-08:00

As you all know, the Mental Capacity Act will be a hot topic for 2007. There will be training programmes available relating to this, but as of yet these have not been finalised. In the meantime you can read the explanatory notes on the act here and check the frequently asked questions (faq's) here and finally you can read a summary from the Department of Health here

Holidays are Coming (and Going)

2006-12-29T03:16:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note this week to wish everyone a Happy Christmas and New Year. We hope that you will all have a peaceful and prosperous 2007.

Please keep feeding back to us any thoughts or queries you have about the courses, the website and about DCT in general.

Hope that we will see as many of you as possible at the Conference in April - in the meantime enjoy what is left of 2006 - see you all next year

Action Planning Day

2006-12-13T03:58:00.000-08:00

Last Friday, December the 8th, we met at Sandy Park to discuss 2007 and to develop an action plan for DCT in the coming year. We tied this all in with the original framework business plan for DCT.

It was a very productive day, with several new initiatives coming to the fore. Amongst these are:

* A South Hams focus for the year. South Hams is the area with the lowest take up rate of membership and we need to explore the reasons why.

* Using the Devon in Touch bus to promote DCT's work and to highlight the benefits of membership at various Care events throughout the ounty across the year.

* Working with the new Care Ambassador programme in Devon. Dee West has recently been appointed to the post of Care Ambassador co-ordinator and will take up her post on January 2nd. In the meantime any enquiries about this programme can be made through dctc@devon.gov.uk

I am also endeavouring to keep the upcoming care events uo to date. This is a bit of a Pandoras box as different organisations publicise their events and not others, so if there are missing events on our web pages please let us know so we can include them on our pages.

Finally, please take the time to look at the training courses that are on offer for next year - and if there are any courses in particular that you are looking for, please do not hesitat in letting us know and we will investigate the possibility of putting the courses on.

More from us later

E

2007 Conference

2006-12-07T04:06:00.000-08:00

Well its coming to the end of the year, and looking forward to the New Year we will have our conference coming up on 27th April 2007. We have decided that this will take place at Sandy Park, the new Exeter Chiefs rugby stadium. This is a great new venue and has easy access to the M5. Although previous conferences were well received and enjoyed in the grounds of Buckfast Abbey, it was just a question of size really. They were unfortunately limited in the number of people that could attend, and as our last conference equalled that we felt the need for a larger venue was imperative

This year the theme of the conference will be Health and Wellbeing. The focus of this will primarily be the Care Staff but will also have plenty of use and information for others too. So far we have had plenty of suggestions for Workshop topics. Amongst others there will be a workshop giving an overview of Complementary and Alternative therapies that are available across the whole spectrum of Health and Wellbeing (for more information about what CAM is you can look here). As more are finalised I will keep you all up to date.

My apologies for the infrequency of postings here, as we are now an expanding organisation I hope to have more time to keep you all informed.

In the meantime, have a very nice Christmas and New Year and a successful New Year to you all

Kind regards

Eoghan and the DCT Team

At Last

2006-04-12T06:13:00.000-07:00

At last the website is now up and running. There will no doubt be some teething problems as we get it running as best we can, but at least it is a start. If anyone would like to submit articles or ask questions regarding traing, please feel free to email us and we will endeavour to answer them as soon as we can.

In the meantime, please do not hesitate in sending us any ideas, suggestions or just anything you would care to share with all your fellow DCT members.

Look for us : http://www.devoncaretraining.org.uk

Devon Care Training

2005-11-08T10:46:00.000-08:00

Well,

here goes nothing. This is to start the ball rolling for all you people out there who are involved in the private, voluntary and public sector care homes in Devon and the South West. Watch these boards for peoples musings about the issues, problems and solutions to their day to day experiences. Make contact and share your thoughts....

Eoghan

ps watch this space for the DCT address