Visionary Latest
Welcome to your weekly briefing. Thanks to all of you who have joined our online sessions this week or shared information with us on what you are up to. It is inevitable that following the Government sharing their ‘Road Map’ for ending lock down, many of you are now looking at how you plan to return to delivering services and prepare for staff returning to work, whenever this might be! Many of you will be considering how you can continue to deliver adapted services that have worked well and how and when you might safely restart other services.
Visionary are therefore continuing to deliver and develop online sessions to help you through this transition period and support your planning. A reminder that most of our sessions are open to your staff – not just CEOs. Please do share details of these sessions with your teams. A reminder that all members of your team are also welcome to receive this briefing – they can sign up here.
Membership Renewal – June 2020
As shared with you back in March, we took the decision to delay Visionary membership renewal to June 2020 in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. We will therefore be contacting you all about renewing your membership at the beginning of June. Look out for your organisation’s individualised renewal form to complete if you want to renew your membership with us (we really hope you do!) Once completed, we will invoice for fees, backdated to April.
Advice and support
We can provide immediate advice and support via our Telephone Helpdesk on 020 8090 9264 or email.
Online support sessions
Thursday 21 May at 11am
Introduction to small bid writing
To join, click here or use the dial in details below
Hosted by Tim Atkinson from TPT, join this session for tips on writing small funding applications. Please note that this session will share basic bid writing skills so is aimed at staff with little or no bid writing experience who want to submit small bids to deliver activities.
Friday 22 May at 12 midday
Managing and supporting those who are home/remote working
To join click here or call 0131 460 1196. Webinar ID: 818 4218 6577
Alison Smith, Director and Lead Consultant at Roots HR CIC will talk about the approaches to managing individuals and teams who are home/remote working and the challenges of returning to the work place. Accessible copies of the slides to be used are available for download here.
Tuesday 26 May at 10am (and every Tuesday at 10am!!)
CEO weekly support session
To join, click here or use the dial in details below.
Our regular session for CEOs – no agenda, just an opportunity to share experiences, talk about what is working and find some peer support with what isn’t working so well
Tuesday 26 May at 2pm
Fundraising Master Class – The Post COVID-19 Fight Back
To join, click here or use the dial in details below
Hosted by Fiona Ashcroft, CEO of Alder Hey Charity and Chair Institute of Fundraising North West. Join this session for ideas on developing your fundraising strategy for post COVID-19 and for an opportunity to join a Q&A on your fundraising challenges and issues. Please note this session is for experienced fundraising staff who want to develop strategy.
Wednesday 27 May at 10am
Sustaining a Low Vision Service during COVID-19
To join, click here or use the dial in details below
Hosted by Carole Theobald, CEO of iSightCornwall – join this session to hear how iSightCornwall have adapted their low vision service in response to COVID-19 to deliver it remotely so that people can still get the information, aids and equipment they need. They will take you through their five-point action plan for determining suitability and carrying out of immediate intervention through remote assessment:
- Primary triage exercise to assess a person’s initial suitability based on the referral information.
- Pre-assessment telephone call to further identify an individual’s suitability.
- Telephone assessment to be carried out.
- Follow-up call to be carried out to ascertain effectiveness of low vision aids.
- Client flagged on CRM system to make face to face contact when appropriate.
Thursday 28th May at 10am
Returning to work post COVID-19 lockdown
To join click here or use the dial in details below
Hosted by Carl Harrison (MSc CFIOSH) a Galloway’s Trustee and Health and Safety adviser with over 30 years’ experience. Carl will discuss risk assessing returning to the workplace, developing practical actions to manage risks and engaging with employees to re-mobilise offices and services. Carl and Galloway’s have already shared this comprehensive work place risk assessment and the session will further explore this guidance. The session will also include the opportunity for open discussion and Q&A’s. If you have any questions or subject areas for Carl to consider then please email us in advance.
Friday 29 May 2020 at 10am
Delivering Children and Young People Services
To join, click here or use the dial in details below
Join Clare Sweeney who leads the Children and Young People Services for Visibility to share ideas on how you have been keeping the children, young people and families that you support connected. This session would be useful for any organisation delivering children and young people services or wanting to start!
To join any sessions by phone (apart from the Roots HR sessions – see specific joining details above) call:
(Toll Free): 0800 169 0432
Access Code: 780-863-517
If you missed any of our previous sessions
CEO Support Session – 19 May 2020
7 CEO’s joined the regular Tuesday morning session, this week hosted by Stuart Clayton, CEO of Galloway’s and Visionary Trustee. No agenda, just an opportunity to come together and talk…
The group discussed how staff will return to work and delivering face to face services as the UK moves out of lockdown. Most organisations are thinking about how they will do this and are considering a phased return to work. The group recognised the challenge and psychological impact for staff who have been working from home for 9 weeks and the need for the transition back to be carefully planned.
The group discussed the complexity around risk assessment with social distancing in mind and the fact that lots of our buildings are not fit for purpose to allow social distancing. The group reflected that this crisis has been a good opportunity for cleansing databases and reviewing the types of info recorded/questions asked when calling people.
The group discussed that as we move out of the lock down, organisations could see this crisis as an opportunity for review and change. Finally, the group discussed Sensory support services and the opportunities for organisations to start partnership work with other sensory loss organisations, to be in a stronger position to bid for contracts.
Free 1 hour online mental health training*
Accredited mental health training is available free of charge through Champion Health for all staff and volunteers of Visionary members. Mental health problems are expected to soar over the next few months due to the COVID-19 pandemic and this 1 hour mental health training course provides participants with the tools to optimise their own mental wellbeing and spot signs of mental health issues in others. Please contact us to get your registration code. All of your staff and volunteers will be able to use this code to access the training.
*We are working with Champion Health to make the course more accessible as some of the graphics cause issues for Jaw software, however, we have tested this with a number of Visually impaired people who have successfully completed the training.
Visionary Annual Conference cancellation
A reminder of the cancellation of our 2020 Visionary Annual Conference scheduled for 18 to 20 November 2020. Please do continue to hold these dates as we will be taking the conference online and carrying over the spirit of sharing, connecting and developing your organisations together through a range of online events and workshops. |