Early adopters

We are delighted to have launched our Covenant in 2022 and to have received such interest and enthusiasm from organisations across Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin.

For a while now we have been having conversations with many committed individuals across a swathe of organisations providing health, social care and related services which people, including LGBT+ people access in later life. The Covenant provides an opportunity for this to move to an organisational commitment.

Despite huge organisational demands, growing daily as the cost of living crisis escalates, the Covenant remains high on agendas and our contacts report that they find our approach useful and sensitive to the demands on their time and resources.

Scroll down to see who is signing up to the 5 commitments ….

First through the door to sign up is Citizens Advice Shropshire who have been helping us to tweak and shape and are now working with us to develop their Action Plan. Things are moving ahead nicely and they have started implementation. Their CEO was the first to talk about their commitment at the 2022 Shrewsbury LGBT+ History Festival Launch event, they have an identified lead who is helping SAND to pilot the Covenant in practice and are in the process of identifying an appropriate member of the team to take part in Facilitator Training.

Second up is Age UK Shropshire Telford & Wrekin who have started their action plan. They have an existing E & D Group working on this with the CEO and are keen to embed this across the organisation. About a dozen staff have already taken part in the LGBT+ Awareness Training and they helped us to develop this by taking part in our Zoom dress rehearsal!

On 24th February 2022, Wrekin Housing Group became the third organisation to sign up for our Covenant. They have written, and started implementing, their Action Plan. As part of that, they commissioned training for over 100 of their staff and SAND delivered 7 online sessions in June/July 2022. Two staff members, in Learning & Development roles have signed up for the EMBRACE Facilitator Training (Sept-Dec 2022) and Wrekin is kindly providing venue space for the Facilitator Training programme. They have also had a guest spot in one of our In the Cafe sessions.

On 1st March 2022, Shropshire Council Adult Social Care Team submitted their form to sign up to the Covenant. They have already indicated an interest in including LGBT+ Awareness Training and places on our upcoming Facilitator Training as part of their Action Plan, which is in first draft after initial Working Group meetings.

Radfield Home Care joined our Covenant on 2nd March 2022 and commissioned training from us which we delivered to 8 staff members on 11 May 2022. They have identified 2 members of staff to take part in our Training for Facilitators programme later in the year and have some ideas about how to improve their website and literature to be more inclusive. They are looking both at LGBT+ clients and at recruiting carers from LGBT+ communities aged 50+ and have delivered a presentation at an In The Cafe session.

Coverage Care signed up on 11th March 2022. SAND has been working with Coverage for some time now and many of their Managers are already engaged. They have nominated a member of the team to take part in our upcoming facilitator training and we are looking forward to the next stages.

Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care System (ICS) – signed up just before the launch night of the 2022 Shrewsbury LGBT+ History Festival. Great timing! We are in discussion with them about how this (huge) ‘organisation’ can develop and implement an action plan – engaging LGBT+ staff networks, E & D group and at Board level. They have drafted a skeleton Action Plan to be worked up with their internal LGBT+ Networks and have produced a cyclical review plan aiming to engage the necessary parties to ensure the action plan is resourced and implemented. They have pat-funded the Facilitator Training due to take place Sept-Dec 2022 and have filled 3 places on it from 3 different organisations: the ICS, Shropshire Community Heath Trust and Shrewsbury & Telford Hospitals

Cruse signed up with us on 25 April 2022 and we have now had a few meetings with them. They have developed a very doable action plan and are interested in researching any existing good practice around bereavement work with LGBT+ people. Two Cruse volunteers have taken part in our public training (June 2022) and both have subsequently booked onto the Training for Facilitator programme in the Autumn. All very exciting!

SPIC (Shropshire Partners in Care) signed up with us on 11 May 2022 and we are looking forward to working with them in the coming months. They have part funded and booked one place on our Facilitator Training and were the first through the door to get this place confirmed!

STAR Housing signed up with us on 30 May 2022 and we are looking forward to working with them in the coming months as they develop their action plan. They have booked one place on the Facilitator Training.