The Essex Carers Network, which became a CIC in February 2011, works to ensure the lived experiences and voices of our families informs and influences the future landscape and opportunities for people with a learning disability Which could include autism and other disabilities too and their families in Essex. We work to support our families to have the tools and resources they need to feel strong, resilient and empowered in order for them to advocate for their family. We continue to grow as a network with 402 families regularly receiving our newsletter as of the end of March 2025 and this year we opened our newsletter up to organisations and practitioners who support our families and we had 79 signed up at the end of March 2025. We have over 3,000 people following us on our social media platforms. We continue to host online space to gather meetings for our families facilitating 2 each month and our in person meetings continue at various locations across Essex As well as hosting our space to gather meetings we also run 3 creative groups (an additional one was added this year) for our family carers which are very well attended. Below are quotes from family carers who attend: “I love coming along to our Sanntangle group. Time with others who understand what its like being a parent carer, time to mindfully doodle and I now do it a lot at home when I need some me time as when I’m drawing I don’t think about all the other battles that are part of my life caring for my daughter “ “thank you so much for today. I’ve never done anything like this and always thought I couldn’t draw or be creative with drawing, but you have blown that theory out the water. I was so im-pressed with my master piece. I loved how the teacher took us step by step and we managed to create a gorgeous drawing. Time flew by I was so engaged and engrossed in my creativity. Can’t wait for the next workshop. You have gathered a reality lovely supportive group and it’s been really therapeutic. Thank you so much.” Our call back service continues to have a significant amount of calls, the team are able to offer information and resources to our families and where necessary signpost them on to other services. Below is a quote from one of the families who have used our call back service: “thank you so much for spending the time talking to me yesterday, I felt like I was chasing my tail not knowing what I needed to consider first, speaking to you and the information you have sent me I now have a much better idea of what I need to do first and what things can wait a while. I have told my friend she needs to speak to you too!” We continue to work on the resources section of our website and we are adding resources from other organisations and developing our own Essex specific resources. This year we hosted an online conference for our families called A Place to Call Home as we recognised that many of our families didn’t know all the available housing options that are available in Essex. The conference focussed on all the options and included videos from families who had used each of the options for their family member. We had over 120 families and practitioners signed up. And the feedback was very positive: “Given lots of information about things I didn’t even know existed, made me feel there’s more options for the future out there (hopefully).” “As a worker, the conference gave me a better insight into the obstacles families and carers face, when deciding the best option for their person.” “Thank you for inviting families to share their inspiring stories on how they embarked on this mindboggling journey.” Following the online conference we then developed our A Place to Call Home – A Guide for Family Carers which sits within the resource section of our website. We decided this year to continue to have some focus on reaching families whose family member was coming up to leave education and move into adulthood. We attended a further 3 moving on events across Essex which were targeted at families with young people aged 16+. The information and resources we were able to share were well received by families and most of the families we spoke to also signed up to receive our newsletter and stay in touch. We continue to strive for our goal to ensure good lives for people with a learning disability (which may include autism and other disabilities too) and their families in Essex. We continue to work hard to ensure the lived experiences of our families influences the development and design of services and opportunities for people with a learning disability and their families who support them in Essex. We are also making sure that we are part of bigger conversations across the eastern region making sure that the lived experiences of our families informs the wider picture and that we can share with our families what is happening elsewhere. The Network continues to ensure the views of family carers are being heard in the right places and therefore influence what opportunities are available for people with a learning disability in Essex. We provide family carer representatives to participate in events or sit on decision making boards. We also ensure that our views are represented at a regional and national level through representative attendance at relevant regional and national forums and events. This year we have undertaken 2 significant pieces of coproduction: Ensuring the lived experiences of our families was included when our local authority were looking at the day opportunities offer. We facilitated sessions so that commissioners could hear from our families what was working well, what the challenges were and ideas for improvement. We continue to be part of the coproduction team. Developing a carers specific guide for families around how to support their family member with a learning disability age well, we worked with the quality and innovation hub of our local authority to develop this guide which sits alongside a guide for providers.

The Essex Carers Network stakeholders are the members of the Network who are families caring for a family member with a learning disability (which could include autism and other disabilities too). Other stakeholders are Essex County Council, the local authority who fund the network through grants, plus the health ICBs and various boards and groups who influence the services and opportunities for people with a learning disability in Essex and their families. The Essex Family forum, PACT for Autism are our working partners as are other carer support organisations in Essex. Essex Carers Network ask members at our meetings, on social media via emails and through our your voice is our voice feedback route what they would like from the group, what information they feel they need and what they may need to know more about. Members are encouraged to contact us with ideas. The feedback we receive informs the themes of our meetings, webinars and events We also consult with the officers at our local authority about their strategic aims around learning disability, autism and carers and look at how we can work with them on these areas.

Renumerations for Directors: see page 6 of accounts

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