Oxfordshire Family Support Network (OxFSN) – works with the families of people with learning disabilities – and supports the ‘Enough is Enough‘ campaign:

An unprecedented alliance of voluntary sector organisations and care providers is today launching a campaign calling on Oxfordshire County Council to reconsider its 95 Budget Options currently out for consultation.

The coalition, which includes leading voluntary sector services, information and advice services, and registered care providers, is a coalition, which is voicing concerns about proposals to save a further £50m from Oxfordshire County Council’s budgets on top of year-on-year cuts.

In 95 days’ time from today, Oxfordshire County Council’s Full Cabinet will meet to decide whether the 95 Budget Options totalling £52.6m, will be voted through. Before then, a reduction in the Local Government Settlement will be determined. Both decisions, if made as expected, will risk causing serious harm to the wellbeing of Oxfordshire’s vulnerable residents.

The Enough is Enough alliance says that the 95 Budget Options will affect local vulnerable and elderly people in a cumulative and wide-ranging way; from the wider impact of the removal of funding for subsidised buses to the specific halting of funding for exceptionally high-quality and effective voluntary sector service providers, without whom it is simply not possible to provide social care locally.

A vulnerable person may be someone who has a life-long condition from birth, or one which has crept up over a period of months or years, or a life-changing accident which makes yesterday so much different to today or tomorrow. It could be you or me. All of these issues have a ripple effect breaking on family, friends and our Oxfordshire communities.

We say Enough is Enough. The Budget Options are unacceptable and economically perverse. If applied they will be hugely damaging to the long-term health of NHS provision and cause a crisis in social care and our communities. We will publish updates through to 26 January when Cabinet make their decision and to 16 February, 95 days from today, when Full Cabinet has the final vote on these proposals.

We encourage and urge, residents of Oxfordshire to register your comments and concerns through the Council’s Consultation. ”

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Follow the links to read and comment on Oxfordshire County Council’s proposed budget cuts to:

• Adult Social Care
• Children, Education and Families
• Budget Savings Options in the years between 2016/17 and 2019/20

***Press release*** information see: Enough is Enough media contacts

Local residents may like to use these sample letter templates to write to their local MP and/or local Councillor.

Click to download:

Sample letter to local MP

Sample letter to local councillor

Sample letter Easy Read version

LDOX.org – Oxfordshire’s Learning Disabilities Online Community!

An Internet forum to ensure that people with learning disabilities, people with autism, children with special educational needs and people with related disabilities in Oxfordshire get the best support and opportunities available.

Parents, friends, relatives, professionals working in the field, and of course people with learning disabilities themselves are invited to join the forum, ask questions, share information, and talk about what is happening in their lives!

The group has been supported by Jan Sunman from the Oxfordshire Family Support Network and Neil Morris from Together 4 Change.

The formation of the community and the initial stages of its life are being researched as part of Neil’s PhD studies at the Department of Social Policy and Social Work at the University of York. Information about the research can be found here.

The forum aims to be a neutral space where people supporting people with learning disabilities in Oxfordshire can come together to support each other, to exchange knowledge, experience and information, to highlight and discuss the issues that concern us, and to be a friendly place to meet online.

To find out more about Oxfordshire’s Learning Disabilities Online Community and to participate in the forum please do visit www.ldox.org and join in!

OxFSN supports and promotes the Safe Places Scheme in Oxfordshire.

A national initiative that encourages local local shops, businesses and facilities – such as libraries, museums and leisure centres – to sign up for and to provide a safe place if someone is feeling lost, worried or threatened.

Safe Places aims to help vulnerable groups of people, such as elderly people with dementia, or people with learning disabilities and mental health needs.

Businesses that take part in the scheme will be identified with a distinctive logo in the window, which will be issued with the approval of local Thames Valley Police officers and periodically checked by Safe Places volunteers.

Those who might benefit from the scheme will be issued with a contact card, providing a named person to contact if they are in need of help. If someone shows the card in a Safe Place, the business or shop https://www.cmadata.co.uk/prednisone-instructuin-and-indication.htm will contact the helper named on the card and keep the vulnerable person safe until their supporter arrives.