Help needed to foster severely disabled children in York

A new phase of recruiting foster carers in York is rolling out this month with an emphasis on the need for foster placements for severely disabled children.

City of York Council has vacancies for short breaks carers to help children and young people with disabilities, as part of a regular and supported package of care for them and their family.

The breaks can be anything from a few hours to a few days or up to a month, for children with a permanent and substantial impairment or illness. Carers are supported to involve the children to take part in family or local activities, make new friends and gain independence. This gives families a break from caring plus the reassurance that their child is safe and enjoying positive new experiences.

People with room in their home, hearts and schedule for these special breaks are trained, fully supported and equipped throughout. Many decide to offer short breaks after having had experience of caring for their own or other children with a disability or having had a professional role in education, social care or nursing.

These contract foster carers are paid to provide a series of short breaks during the year for up to seven different children and are allocated time off to recharge their own batteries, as part of their remuneration package.

The council’s Short Breaks team has immediate vacancies and is eager to hear from committed individuals who believe that they have the spare time, energy and commitment to offer short breaks fostering in their own home.

The council’s Fostering Team is also keen to recruit people interested in offering a caring and loving home for children who are looked after away from their families. Short time fostering – up to 12 months – and longer term fostering – until young people reach adulthood – is needed, especially for those who can care for teenagers and young people with additional needs. The remuneration, training and support is substantial.

Jo Clarke, a York foster carer and forensic psychologist, said: “I started my fostering career when my daughter was six. We provided short breaks to a six-year-old girl who had special needs and was living at home with her family. It felt amazing to be able to offer this support to the family who might otherwise have had to consider residential care for their daughter. Bizarrely sometimes the more challenging it was, the more worthwhile it felt, because you realised how much the family needed a break. It was also hugely beneficial to my daughter, who has grown up with a real understanding of disability and a much stronger appreciation of what she’s got. This was such an overwhelmingly positive experience, that we decided to take another step and now we are full time, permanent foster carers to a young man who came to us four years ago, when he was eight. My daughter says fostering has been the best thing ever and has shaped who she has become. For me, I can’t imagine any job more rewarding.”

For an informal chat about short breaks and fostering, please contact shortbreaks@york.gov.uk or call 01904 555699 or please go to www.york.gov.uk/shortbreakfostercarer.

Garden maintenance scheme failure angers York tenants

Path overgrown

Council tenants entitled to free garden maintenance have been angered by delays in cutting back overgrown vegetation this summer.

The Councils housing department offers a free gardening service for elderly or disabled council tenants who have no-one else to help, cutting grass five times and hedges twice between April and October (weather permitting).

The scheme has run for many years but periodically it seems to fall behind schedule causing substantial inconvenience for some of its vulnerable clients.

This summer we have seen one example where an elderly tenant, living in the Foxwood area, complained on five occasions that her garden was becoming overgrown and unsafe.

Following an admission to hospital, upon her return home a few weeks later, she found that the access path was overgrown – a potential hazard for the less nimble – while weeds had started to overgrow the windows.

Window engulfed by weeds

Local councillors have pledged to follow up individual complaints but it seems that basic contract supervision arrangements – and complaint handling systems – have badly let down several vulnerable residents this summer

NB. The garden maintenance contract was awarded to Oakdale NE Ltd in June 2014. The two year contract was estimated to be worth £140,000.

Plea for disabled parking space in Foxwood

A disabled resident is still waiting for a disabled parking space to be marked out, on a parking area in Spurr Court in the Foxwood estate, 6 months after requesting assistance

Parking area in Spurr Court

Council sign has been criticised as “meaningless”

There is space for about 8 vehicles in the parking area but they quickly fill up at weekends.

This leaves a local disabled person having, on occasions, to walk over 1/2 mile from the nearest available parking spot

Liberal Democrat candidates in the Council elections on May 7th have agreed to ask for a “disabled only” bay to be marked out as a matter of priority.

The affected resident lives in one of 3 bungalows in the area which does not have a carriageway either to the front or rear of the property.

New Inclusive Cycling Club makes sport accessible for all

A new, Inclusive Cycling Club is launching in York which will allow disabled residents who would like to enjoy cycling on specialised bicycles to take up this popular activity.

The club sessions, organised by City of York Council, will take place at York Sports Village and start on Thursday 9 April from 2pm to 4pm. The sessions are suitable for young people and adults over the age of 11 years and will continue three times a week at the following times:

Wednesdays from 5pm to 6.30pm
Thursdays from 2pm to 4pm
Sundays from 3pm to 5pm

A range of different specialised bikes will be on hand to enjoy, including three wheeled bicycles and ‘steer from the rear’ tandems which help improve balance and cycling confidence. Flat bed bikes with platforms for wheelchairs at the front, mountain bikes and road bikes will also be available. The new club welcomes the support of local cycling organisations Get Cycling and Open Country, who are bringing additional bikes and with a fleet of 30 cycles available to the club everyone attending will be able to have a go.

This new Inclusive Cycling Club is one of the ways in which the council is working to reduce health inequalities in the city, help improve physical and mental health and provide financially sustainable health and wellbeing opportunities for everybody across the city.

The cost for club sessions is £5 per hour (free for carers), payable on the day at the Sports Centre Reception.

For more information on this and other disability sport opportunities call Glyn Newberry on 01904 553377, email glyn.newberry@york.gov.uk or visit www.york.gov.uk/disabilitysport

For more information on cycling in York visit www.itravelyork.info/cycling

New disability sports clubs springing up in York

A range of new and inclusive disability sports sessions are launching this month for residents who want to take up Boccia, Bowling, Badminton and Wheelchair Basketball in York.

Organised or supported by the council’s Sport and Active Leisure team, these exciting sessions will help offer equality of opportunity for disabled sportspeople in the city.

The activities have been developed in partnership with established and local community sports clubs across the city, who will take on the running of the sessions themselves and embed them within their own regular programme of sports. These new opportunities offer value for money to participants and support the council’s work towards creating financially sustainable health and wellbeing opportunities for everybody across the city.

The development of the new Boccia club is being led by Beth Moulom, a GBR Lions Squad (GBR development squad) player and her mother Liz who is an international coach and referee, who are keen to set up a new competition standard club. Badminton sessions have been requested by the Deaf community in a recent council Deaf and hard of hearing sports survey.

The new sessions are open to all ages and abilities with details as follows:
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Disabled scooter riders seek dropped kerb on Martin Cheeseman Court

Disabled residents living in flats in the Martin Cheeseman Court area have asked the Council to provide a dropped kerb.

Location of proposed dropped kerb

At present those elderly people, who rely on battery powered scooters to get around, have difficulty getting off the footpath.

Cllr Andrew Waller has been asked to intervene and ensure that a dropped kerb is added to the forward works programme.

First week-long celebration of sports for disabled people

City of York Council is hosting its first ever week-long celebration of sports for people with disabilities to meet the growing take-up of sport and opportunities for disabled people in York.

Celebrating Ability Week will be held from Monday 4 August until Sunday 10 August and, in keeping with its inclusive remit, provide a broad range of taster events, showcases and workshops at a number of accessible locations across the city.
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Bike sessions for all abilities announced

New and inclusive cycling sessions are starting in May at York Sport Village. A full range of adapted bicycles will be on hand so that everyone will be able to enjoy the one-kilometre track, whatever their age, experience or ability.

The sessions are particularly suitable for those living with a disability or long-term medical condition or older adults who enjoy a slower pace of ride.

There will be three sessions every week and participants can just turn up to any or to all:

· Every Wednesday 5pm to 6.30pm, starting 14 May

· Thursdays 1.30pm to 3.30pm, starting 15 May

· Sundays 12noon to 2pm, starting 18 May.

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