It’s not just the sunshine that lifted the spirits this month.
On 21st May I was at the ‘Brilliant Breaks’ conference launching the easy evaluation toolkit with 
Evaluation Support Scotland and the organisations that helped put it together. It was really inspiring to hear so many stories about the creative ways individuals, families and services have found to support increased choice and control in people’s lives. Hopefully the toolkit helps with planning and measuring that difference.
The theme continued with the CCPS ‘Progress and Possibilities’ event where I facilitated an imaginative ideas-sharing workshop on the implementation of Self-Directed Support. The most striking thing for me was the positivity on show. With this and the amazing examples of people taking control of their own lives, I walked out of the conference centre into a very different world to the one I left behind that morning.
Next up was the Penumbra Self-Directed Support event in Falkirk. Even after all my exposure to the ideas and principles behind SDS, it won’t be surprising that I finally started to ‘get it’ after speaking to someone who has used it! He helped me see what it’s really all about. He said it might take a fight to get the control you want…but it’s worth fighting for.
My next Self-Directed Support experience comes this week when I revisit Evaluation Support Scotland and the Independent Support outcome framework I was lucky enough to be involved in at ESS. After more than a year of being involved in Self-Directed Support in different ways, it feels like a long road. But really, this is just the start.