Support brokerage is the process where a broker works with an individual or a team to set out goals and plans for their health and wellbeing, and finding ways to achieve and facilitate those goals and outcomes, using a collaborative, person-centred process and identifying and making use of all resources available. The broker also facilitates the individuals’ contribution to their own care, and enables creative thinking about how to holistically achieve (as far as is possible) the desired life for the individual. This can include working with a budget set by the NHS (via the local Clinical Commissioning Group or CCG), or Social Services (via the Local Authority) and building a package of care and support, as outlined in a personalised care and support plan, to meet the needs of that individual moving forwards with the funding allocated. This budget may also take note of other resources, such as benefits, grants, and other sources of income such as Access to Work. The support broker works closely with the individual – where able – and the family or circle of support, and ensures that they are central to the care and support provided.

Lucy offers her services as a Support Broker with particular expertise in NHS Continuing Healthcare and Personal Health Budgets, but works across the spectrum including social care personal budgets and direct payments, integrated budgets, and support brokerage for non-statutory support such as through the transition to adulthood, independent living, creating health passports, creating care and support plans across services and more.

Lucy has an OCN qualification in Support Brokerage with Imagineer Development UK CIC/Support Brokerage Network and undertakes regular CPD including safeguarding.

Lucy offers Independent Advocacy, fighting for the rights and needs of individuals and their families/carers. This may involve working with you to outline goals and wishes, attending meetings with and for you, writing letters, doing research, hoping you identify services and support you need, helping you to fight for funding or services you need, identifying resources, making referrals, liaising with other professionals on your behalf, as well as helping you learn skills and gain an understanding of the system and how to work with – and within – it, teaching you skills and building up your confidence, Lucy’s particular areas of expertise include NHS Continuing Healthcare, Personal Health Budgets, NHS and healthcare, disability and human rights, patient rights, personalised care and support planning, health passports, complex medical needs (including tracheostomy, TPN, IVs, PEG, JEJ, stomas, oxygen, NIV/NIPPV, syringe drivers, home infusions and so on), self-directed support, social care (including social care direct payments and personal budgets), integrated budgets, NHS Children and Young People’s Continuing Care, transition to adulthood and adult health services, Care Act 2014, NHS Complaints, shared decision making, carer’s rights and needs, rare disease and highly specialised services, personalised care, and much more.

Fee: £30 per hour (or other rate by prior agreement).

Lucy has a Level 2 Award in Independent Advocacy and undertakes regular CPD including safeguarding.

Lucy is able to offer personalised care and support planning or person-centred planning, as well as health passport development, emergency care planning, and developing care and care management plans for carers and nurses to work from in the delivery of the person’s day-to-day care – delivered in partnership with your clinical lead, social worker, health professionals and those with expert knowledge about an aspect of your care. Lucy is not a medical professional, she is a qualified Support Broker (accredited by Imagineer UK Development CIC and a member of the Support Brokerage Network) and Independent Advocate (with a Level 2 qualification in Independent Advocacy and years of experience) who combines this professional training and experience with knowledge gained through her own lived experience to support people with various aspects and types of care and support planning.

Fee: £35 per hour or a day rate (up to 8 hours) of £250.

Lucy can offer consultancy on a range of different topics and areas. This includes disability; healthcare; social care; disability and human rights; the social model of disability; self-directed support including Personal Health Budgets; palliative care, hospice and end of life care services, policy and advocacy; co-production and patient involvement; patient experience; patient rights in healthcare; service design; quality improvement; co-research and digital co-production methods; disability and employment; disabled entrepreneurship; physical accessibility; equality, diversity and inclusion with a focus on disability and complex needs; strategy and strategic planning (including participatory strategic planning); user-led organisational structures; user-led change management and innovation; lived experience leadership and training; and inclusive governance.

Lucy can offer consultancy at a day rate of £450 or a half-day rate of £275.

Lucy can offer training on a range of areas. This includes:

• NHS Continuing Healthcare
• Personal Health Budgets
• Support Brokerage, especially for NHS Continuing Healthcare and Personal Health Budgets
• Self-directed Support
• Developing personalised care and support plans
• Patient experience
• Co-production and patient involvement
• Supporting people with Personal Independent Payment forms
• Helping parents with Disability Living Allowance forms
• Gathering evidence for assessments and reviews
• Transition to adulthood
• Developing health passports
• Personalised care
• Shared decision-making
• Disability rights
• Disability, agency and autonomy
• Young adult palliative and hospice care
• Co-research with young disabled people
• Disability and sexuality (with the Open University Sexuality Alliance)
• Writing an NHS complaint
• Planning for end of life care (advance/anticipatory care planning)
• Assistance Dog awareness and access

Don’t hesitate to get in touch and ask Lucy about other training or to build bespoke packages. Cost depends on duration of training, level of bespoke development, travel distance and other variables.

Also check out Lucy’s other business, www.livedexperiencelearning.co.uk for lived experience-led training.

Lucy can deliver speeches on a range of topics and issues. This includes keynote speeches, after dinner speaking, motivational talks, health and social care speeches, informational and educational talks, personal narratives, and more.

This includes – but is not limited to – speeches on:

Personal speeches:

• Living with a life-limiting illness, knowing you are going to die prematurely and managing to continue living life to the fullest
• One sentence that transformed my life (my TEDx talk from TEDxNHS 2019)
• Life as a disabled person and overcoming obstacles
• Being a change maker
• How I effected change with the World Health Organisation and influenced its Director-General
• I became the role model I needed growing up: now I want to inspire the next generation
• The impact of stories in innovation and change
• Every movement starts with a story
• The power of personal narratives
• How we can all make a difference
• How knowing I was dying, taught me what it means to live
• I couldn’t find a career so I made one for myself
• I became the advocate I needed: the importance of advocacy in disabled people’s lives

Disability talks:

• Disability rights
• The social model of disability
• The independent living movement
• Disabled identity
• Disability activism
• Change-making as a disabled person
• We need to raise our expectations of disabled people to help them reach their full potential
• Independence doesn’t mean what we think it does. Disabled people are independent too
• Disability, employment and entrepreneurship
• Animals, pet therapy and disabled people’s mental and emotional wellbeing
• Assistance Dogs and the way they transform lives

Healthcare and social care topics:

• NHS Continuing Healthcare
• Personal Health Budgets, including how Lucy innovated a very unique package
• Being an Independent Advocate
• Being a Support Broker
• Patient rights in the NHS
• Co-production and patient involvement
• Palliative, hospice and end of life care
• Be your clients’s hero: the impact of independent advocacy
• Self-directed support – its origin, its creation, legislative changes and its transition into mainstream health and social care
• Patient experience
• Personalised care and support planning
• Transition to adulthood
• Personalised care
• Shared decision-making
• What is wellbeing? How do we achieve it?
• Supporting unpaid and family carers

Other:

• Non-standard career paths and the benefits of entrepreneurship
• New co-research methods: using digital tools to facilitate research co-production and data gathering

Amongst others.

Lucy is a trained facilitator, a Member of the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) and has completed courses with ICA UK including Group Facilitation Methods and Participatory Strategic Planning. Lucy has a lot of experience in facilitating co-production activities, workshops, focus groups, meetings and undertaking other facilitation work.

Lucy’s particular expertise includes:

• Co-production facilitation
  • Focus groups
  • Workshops
  • Participation in strategic planning, governance and policy
  • Patient, service user, public and young people’s involvement groups
  • Meetings and committees
  • Task and finish groups
• Meeting facilitation
• Workshops
• Research focus group facilitation
  • Patient / service user involvement
  • User research involvement
  • Research advisory groups/boards
  • Co-researcher facilitation
• General group facilitation
• Participatory strategic planning
• Facilitation of training
• Circle of support facilitation (see Support Brokerage)