We come to the end of 2016 with mixed
feelings. The two-year extension we were so pleased to announce in our End of
Year 5 Report has now been rescinded by our funders, Liverpool Clinical
Commissioning Group (CCG). They are facing budget cuts, like a lot of other
sectors, and are reviewing all of their services and the projects they fund. At
the moment, we are safe until March 2017, but are anxiously waiting to hear the
outcome of the review in the new year.
Rachael McMeacock, Project Manager of The Bucket Project, receiving her 5 year service award
The positive news is we are still moving
forwards with the work of Compassionate Cities/Communities and are leading a
task and finish group to develop this initiative. This could prove all the more
important with the cuts facing health and social care services, where we will
need the community to step in to support those that are dying, their families
and carers as well as the bereaved. The Telegraph recently printed a story
about a similar initiative, which you can read here.
As part of this work, we have been
compiling a list of end of life and bereavement organisations across Liverpool
as well as collecting case studies to help others plan and prepare for end of
life and death. If you have a story to share, we’d love to hear it. Read some of the stories we have collected so far here.
Both the Helper Service and Our Time Liverpool,
a time banking project, are involved with the task and finish group. They have
been sharing their expertise and best practice models to help develop the
direction of this work. We also have a great mix of people from a range of backgrounds who bring a wealth of personal and professional experience to the group, and we thank them all for their contributions.
Image taken from Nasir & Habib's Helper story
We hope to have established firm
foundations for a Compassionate Liverpool before the potential end of The
Bucket Project. If you would like to get involved or support Liverpool in getting this status, please get in touch.
You can find out more about Compassionate Communities,
Compassionate Cities, Marie Curie’s Helper Service and Our Time Liverpool by clicking the highlighted text.
We would like to wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. We hope that 2017 brings us good news and the opportunity to continue working with the people of Liverpool. Look after each other, be kind and take care.
