Celebrating 25 years’ good practice and debate led by service-users

2016 marks the 25th anniversary of the first SHASC and this year’s event, Your Community, Your Future, will happen on Wednesday 26th October at its longstanding home, the Edinburgh Grosvenor Hotel.

Lots of conferences feature discussion of support issues in a housing context, but SHASC is unique for one very important reason. It is the only support conference that has service users at its heart.

Thanks to Scottish Government funding, not only do service users make up a substantial and very important section of the audience on the day, they also contribute to the conference through their speeches in plenary sessions and by facilitating of workshops. Service users also help shape the content of this not-for-profit event through a service user consultation day that is held each April as part of the event organising cycle.

As ever, the conference programme is an eclectic mix of best practice, cutting-edge innovation and debate of the ongoing and anticipated challenges that continue to perplex.

At a time of unprecedented cuts to service funding, one plenary session will consider how the needs and aspirations of service users can be balanced with reduced budgets, and how services will need to adapt to meet those aspirations. Service users quite rightly expect that service provision will support their lifestyle choices, but flexibility comes at a price and when staffing discussions more often than not focus on meeting cut budgets, service users are the first to notice the downsides.

Community becomes an increasingly significant concept for all of us. With the recently enacted Community Empowerment Act and an increasing emphasis on participatory budgeting, we’ll be considering what community means to users of support services and how they engage with the broader communities beyond the boundaries of their supported housing?

Briefing sessions focus on the most significant topics of the day. No one can doubt the actual and potential impact of health and social care integration on support services. The conference will be assessing impacts to date. How much positive benefit have users of services experienced to date, and how can service providers maximise those benefits?

The consultation on National Care Standards continues. We’ll be taking the opportunity to assess progress to date and to offer the opportunity to service users and service providers to contribute.

The workshops at SHASC in 2016 are as diverse as the breadth of housing support services. This year’s choice will focus on

SHASC is a truly unique event. If you are involved in the provision of housing support, don’t miss out on the opportunity to spend a day discussing the most relevant topics of the day with a mixed audience where the voices of service users and service providers are heard equally.

SHASC reflects the breadth and diversity of housing and support provision through its Planning Group made up of representatives of an appropriately diverse range of organisations: SFHA, Scotland’s Housing Network, Homeless Action Scotland, CIH Scotland, Age Scotland, Housing Options Scotland, Scottish Women’s Aid, SAY Women, HSEU and St Joseph’s Services.

Spaces at the conference are going fast, especially those service-user spaces that are free and fully funded through Scottish Government grant. For more information, or to reserve spaces at this year’s SHASC, please email contact@shasc.org.uk or visit www.shasc.org.uk.