For two year now SURA has been working with SUS Social Work Team. Members of SURA have taken part in simulated assessments, met with representatives from Regulator Social Work England and been deeply involved with the Universities student social work applicants, sitting on  interview panels and working with the admissions team. This partnership has provided SUS with the service user input they need whilst going some way to meeting SURAs capacity building needs, providing and nurturing new skills for the SURA member who take part. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship and the partnership is strong and ongoing.   SURA looks forwards to continuing this unique relationship.

August 2023 SURA embarked on a research project with Action Hampshire.

Funded by the Bill Sargent Trust, the research is about homelessness, poverty and mental health.

This research projects methodology is  ‘Community Participatory Action Research’ (CPAR). CPAR is an approach to research where the people taking part are also part of the decision-making processes, meaning they are co-researchers on the project. The co-researchers help with some or all the research stages:

• Designing what the research is about and how data will be collected
• Undertaking data collection as well as participating in data collection
• Analysing the collected data or reviewing the analysis
• Writing or checking the report

For this SURA has the benefit of working with  trained researcher Jess Johnson MSc of https://actionhampshire.org.uk/

We will keep you updated on the progress of this very interesting piece of work as it unfolds.

SSJ is really embracing the presence of SURA as a valued part of the Society.

So much so that members of SURA the Vice-chair, Secretary and our very own SURA consultant took part in the recruitment of SSJs new Chief Executive.

It would be very fair to say that both the recruiting company, stating “I was really impressed” and “truly, they did a great job” were amongst some of the accolades, whilst SSJs Operations Committee seemed quite impressed too.

If it wasn’t clear enough before, make no mistake, this I believe is a clear signal from SSJ that they really do embrace the involvement of its service users and residents and are wholly committed to putting people first.

By SSJs’ Rich LP “I’m so proud of what they have achieved”.

The SSJ Service User & Residents Association (SURA)

MISSION STATEMENT

 THE MISSION what do we do

Ensure that SSJ Service Users & Residents have a active role as shapers of decisions and are partners in all SSJ planning and decision-making activities. And that, power is reasonably redistributed through negotiation and co-production between SSJ and service users and residents.

OUR VALUES what values are we bringing

SURA believes that:

• All service users and residents are the experts of their own lives and SURA also recognises that people may need support to realise this.
• All service users and residents should have equality of opportunity, regardless of race, age, religion, gender, sexual orientation, additional needs, or any other possible grounds for discrimination, to “have their voices heard” and acted upon

OUR METHODS how do we do it

The above is achieved via:

• A SURA working committee and strong membership
• A clear avenue for communication
• A wide range of activities, to both find out, acknowledge and successfully act upon the views of SSJ service users and residents
• The placement and centralisation of service user involvement within SSJ operations, with fair & mutually agreed outcomes
• The publication of quarterly reports to SSJ, acknowledgement in receipt of from SSJ and timely and appropriate response from SSJ

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A small but perfectly formed coffee afternoon at the Art House. Thanks to all who came along!

Hi I’m Darren, this is my blog…please feel free to join my conversation.