Here to stay…. and moving on:
The two week trial period with the new rescue puppy has ended – Sonny has now officially become a permanent member of the household. Transition from a farm in rural Ireland to a slightly more bustling existence in Brighton has gone largely to plan – first trips to the woods and the pub appropriately executed. It’s an interesting step from losing an old, deaf compliant compliant dog to having a bundle of madness but we’re in it now. Still amuses me that he has an EU Pet Passport having come from Ireland – so enjoys freedom of movement for the next three years. Sadly a luxury not available to his humans.
Have spent the last week or so enmeshed in stakeholder interviews we are undertaking for a couple of different engagements – always my favourite part of any assessment or evaluation work we do is hearing the insights, hopes and frustrations from a range of perspectives. As ever it seems that there is always more in common than divides – and the frustrations tend to revolve around the ‘how’ rather than the ‘what’.
Was lucky enough to spend some time in a couple of sevices provided the Society of St James in Southampton – including a homeless hostel and an alcohol service funded as part of the local homeless pathways. The resilience and hope of the residents I spent time with was only really matched by the resilience and determination of the staff working with them.
Behind all of this though was a palpable sense of fear about the future of services – the backdrop of Local Authority cuts and cessation of swathes of interventions should worry us all much more than it does. When you here of Local Councils spending anything up to 70% of their budgets on Adult Social Care and yet there is still no social care strategy you know we’re in trouble as a society. When parks, libraries, youth clubs, museums and day centres closed to try and meet these spiralling costs we risk the permanent loss of civic structures and cultural identity.
I’ve then found myself in a range of debates in which I (overuse) the phrase ‘and not or’…. whether this is should we fund harm reduction services or recovery providers or as pertinently ‘should we support the right to assisted dying or invest in palliative care’. Always ‘and’ not ‘or’. Personaly I hope that the assisted dying law passes – despite my own reservations that it is actually too restrictive. Assisted dying after all doesn’t mean more people die – it just means fewer suffer.
And then I gave blood – for the 36th time apparently. Everyone who can – should. Not least for the opportunity to have a Tuc Sandwich biscuit at the end.
Also then moved our youngest daughter into her new accommodation in the heart of Hackney – canalside bars, mountains of coffee shops and hipster vibes abound. Perfect for young friends in their mid-20’s. The proximity to the West Ham stadium was its only downside as far as I could see…..