Cromarty Care Annual Report AGM 1/10/2018

Cromarty Care Project ( CCP ) became a charity in June 2015 and so this is our third AGM. We have
been working along side Highland Home Carers and taking on clients since February 2016. During the
past 12 months at our highest point there were 16 clients being looked after which meant 168 hours
of care a week. Sadly several of our clients have died or gone into care homes and so we now have
10 clients. The sudden drop in client numbers has been very difficult to cope with because of the
reduction in hours of work for the care staff. Some of our staff have therefore had to seek work
elsewhere. They do have the facility of working within Highland Home Carers in other areas but this
does mean travelling which is not possible for some of them.

Conversely there was a difficult period in the Autumn of 2017 when suddenly one of the carers carrying out a significant number of hours left and another decided to reduce her hours. At this time we had 16 clients, many of whom needed several visits a day , and so this was very difficult to cover. We are very grateful to all the staff who helped out at this time and in particular Maria Barnes, who was the coordinator at that time. Maria held the service together ,for many weeks working 7 days. Relief staff have also helped out on many occasions.

Maria Barnes resigned from her coordinator role in August of this year but continues to work as a
carer. Maria as I have already said has kept CCP afloat through some precarious times in order that
clients were cared for. It is not an easy task working out a rota that suits everyone.
At the present time Angie Macdonald is acting as our coordinator , she is employed by Highland
Home Carers and oversees other similar community projects as well as our own. Angie is an
experienced carer and has a good understanding of Self Directed Support. It is hoped that she can
remain with us for another 6 months. We now have 10 clients , 8 regular and 6 relief staff.

The Chair of CCP has met with the new GPs at the surgery to explain about the Care Project and have
arranged for our coordinator to meet with them once a month to highlight needs of our clients.
After months of looking for office space , in December 2017 ,we took on the tenancy of Ardyne
Studio, which is owned by Cromarty Arts Trust.The Arts Trust board agreed to lower the rent that
they were asking in order to help us as a charity. The office space has allowed our coordinators to
have a place in which to work ; there is a land line and a printer. Accessing consistently the Internet
has been an issue but we hope that this has now been resolved thanks to huge efforts on the part of
one of our trustees , Nigel Shapcott and with help from Carsten working for the Arts Trust. The office
is used by the staff for meetings and for storage of equipment such as gloves ,aprons and
paperwork.

We have been grateful for private donations which have helped to pay the rent. However we have
to think about future sustainability and so have been exploring options for an office that would be
rent free.We have been looking at developing the left hand wing of Townlands barn. If we could get
a capital grant to purchase a purpose built shed to put on the concrete base a reasonable office
space could be made along with a multipurpose meeting room. As I have said we are only at the
exploratory phase and have been working alongside the Cromarty Community Development Trust.
Sustainability has been a focus of discussion of CCP trustees and the board of Black Isle care.We
have met with Brian Devlin the Chair of BIC and with the agreement of both sets of trustees it has
been decided that a representative of each group will attend the others board meetings.

We want to maintain the identity of Cromarty Care Project as an advocate for the care specifically of ourpopulation but will benefit from working on long term strategy by pooling ideas with a larger group.The value of maintaining such a local identity has been seen not only in fundraising but also in CCP being able to respond quickly to care needs that have arisen in the community.

Table tennis

Cromarty care Project will run table tennis sessions each Monday morning for 3 months for adults.
Table tennis has been shown to be beneficial for dementia prevention. There will be tea and coffee
too and we hope that this will be a fun social occasion. Simon Evans is working on an information
sheet covering the health benefits for playing table tennis and this will be distributed to the local
surgery and community council members in the first instance. The sessions will take place in the
West Church Hall 10.30 – 12 noon and be free to participants.

Cycling Without Age

Cromarty Care Project is currently trying to get funding for one or two purpose built cycles that will carry two people with poor mobility. This project will have many benefits for the community ;
reducing social isolation; allowing those less mobile to get out in the fresh air ; it will be good
exercise for the person piloting the bike; it will bring different generations together. If we are
successful at acquiring the bikes we will have to work on storage provision for them. It is hoped that a demonstration of the bikes will be possible at a session of the Fourways club. Shirley Matheson , one of our trustees , is heading up this venture and has been liaising with the organisation ‘ Cycling Without Age’. Each bike costs in the region of £7500.

Fundraising

Cromarty Care Project wishes to thank all those who have made such enormous efforts at
fundraising this year. Helen Robinson carried out a tremendous walk of the Camino way despite
having 4 new joints ; Nigel Shapcott organised an excellent evening cruise on the Cromarty ferry
complete with BBQ on Nigg beach with music and games; the open gardens day was a great success once again and we are very grateful for the donation from that ; the Gala committee made a donation; there has been an anonymous donor who has been thanked privately and the St Regulus Carols by Candlelight donated half of the collection made.; Corrie Jeffrey has produced beautiful cards which are being sold in aid of CCP.

I sincerely hope that I have not forgotten anybody. The community of Cromarty has been very
generous and supportive of CCP.

Alongside fundraising we have received donations from Global Highland and Caring and Sharing
Highland.

Summary

As we look forward we need to work on sustainability for the future – ensuring that office costs are
low so that there is not so much pressure on fundraising. We continue to raise the issue of Zero
hours contracts for the staff which give them no job security and means that we rely heavily on their
goodwill and support of the project. The issues have been raised with our local MSP and the Chair of
NHS Highland.

We wish to improve the speed with which clients receive Self Directed Support – this could be
achieved if our coordinator could carry out the initial assessment. There is also a need for immediate care to be it in place prior to an assessment – at present there is no provision for this by the NHS and
yet this is the reality on the ground.

We are keen to develop projects which have health and social benefits for many members of the
community – the table tennis and cycling projects are examples of these.
I wish to thank all our trustees who each bring different skills to the table and a lot of wisdom. Thank
you for your continued support and for the time each of you give up in order to keep CCP going.