Thank you for signing up to attend the workshop on Brokerage on 4th November. It has been very encouraging to see that so many organisations are interested in finding out more about the Council’s plans for support planning and brokerage going forwards.

City of Bradford Council Adult and Community Services Department is committed to offering disabled people choice and control over the services and support they receive. This includes offering people a choice over who they work with to create their support plan and who “brokers” the services and support they require. As part of the Personalisation Programme, the Department supports the development of a mixed approach to the provision of support planning and brokerage – this means developing support planning and brokerage options within the voluntary and private sectors, as well as encouraging people to create and broker their own support plans.

As a result of last week’s Comprehensive Spending Review, the Department’s plans have changed in relation to support planning and brokerage. It was originally hoping to tender for organisations to be part of an approved list of support planners and brokers whose services would be funded by the council. As with all of the public sector, Adult and Community Services in Bradford are coming under increasing pressure to reduce spend and as a result some planned projects (such as the external support planning framework agreement) have had to be postponed. However, a mixed model of support planning options for service users is still very much a key aim for the Council and will be a high priority from April 2011.

We have decided to use the scheduled event on 4th November as an opportunity for exploring what voluntary sector organisations can do to develop a support planning or brokerage offering ahead of April. Are there any voluntary sector organisations who are already offering help to service users with support planning and brokerage? Perhaps there are some organisations who would be able to expand into this area if the terms of their current grant funding were changed?

We would encourage you to attend to find out more about the current position and to work with us to shape the future plans together.