May 2024

Welcome from Geoff
First the good news. We and NCA are up and running and this newsletter is the first sign of how the partnership will work and save us much precious time.

And that’s all the good news I can find.

Tribute to Judith Machin
Last month our Founder Judith Machin passed way after suffering a stroke late in March. She did a great job in setting up Carers Council and pursued our cause with decision makers in our area for many years whilst in a caring role at the same time herself. I think of those of us that knew many of us were staggered by the amount of work she did on our behalf. I can’t begin to take in the number of people in our position she helped to cope and face an uncertain future. I for one am very glad to have met her and come under her influence, I only hope I can keep Carers Council going in a way she would approve.

Meetings attended
I have attended three meetings in the last month. Firstly, a meeting with Trust consultants who wanted to meet service users and carers to see how we are being treated by the trust who are under pressure of their own making. They first wanted to know what was good in the trust, this took all of ten minutes to make clear. We then went into what was wrong for an hour and a half. At the end of the meeting the consultants thanked all who attended both in person and online and said what an unexpected amount of information they had gathered in this short time.

Secondly, I met the new manager of the Carers Federation, Ros, at their offices in Pelham Road. We talked about how to make Pelham Road buzz again. Ideas like getting the carers lunches going again (I liked this one), having events on the front lawn again and many more.

Thirdly, I met the team from NCA who will be working with us to help us get back on our feet again. Much was achieved. 

Notts Healthcare Trust update
You will no doubt have seen and heard in the local media what a mess our Trust has got itself into and only last Wednesday it announced it will be £45 million in debt by the end of this financial year. Maybe the board and several chief officers should do the honourable thing but let’s not hold our breath hey.

And lastly, we have the longest serving prime Minister in recent memory saying that he is going to make PIPs even more difficult to get for the mentally ill. Just let him get out of his privileged position and spend a week doing our job – he wouldn’t last two days. But seriously I can see this leading to many more suicides in the future. Does he care? Well, he’s shown little commitment to this whole area in his time as PM.

Dates for your diary
I give below the dates for open meetings for the remainder of the year.

15th May
17th July
18 September
20th November
1th December

The Meetings will be, as usual at the Nottingham Mechanics on Sherwood Street (beside the building site) from 1-00pm to 4-00pm We have speakers lined up for future meetings in July and September (another input by NCA). If I can sort something for May’s meeting as I will now have less work to do, I will.
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Coming up at our next committee Meeting: Carers roadshows in our area & Carers week participation.

See you all soon,
​Geoff