This is a great chance to get together with colleagues from across the mental health voluntary sector – as well as some commissioners and other statutory sector workers. You can discuss and learn about some of the important issues that the sector is currently facing, or things that will be important for our work in the future.

We’re lining up some excellent speakers and workshop facilitators, including representatives from Adult Social Care, NHS Leeds, the Dept of Health, service users and of course, our own member organisations. This should all add up to a really exciting – and useful – event.

What people said about last year’s conference:

“Another fantastic event!”

“I go away better informed and dealing with issues of relevance to my work”

“The day was a great success – lots of information and ideas – and will be a useful springboard for me to reach out to organisations locally”

“Very valuable”

This conference is open to anyone who works in the mental health voluntary sector in Leeds, whatever your role. And we welcome people who haven’t come to a Volition event or conference before. Please pass this information on to other colleagues in your organisation, and display the poster.

We’ve kept the cost of the conference the same as last year – just £30. So book your place now, the booking form gives more information. The poster and booking form are available from our website.

Breaking news!
The following speakers have confirmed their attendance:
Peter Bates – National Development Team. Peter delivered a very successful and thought provoking workshop around the challenges of real social inclusion last year. This year we hope he will challenge us all!
Kim Adams and Sinead Cregan – Leeds Adult Social Care. Kim and Sinead will explore the developments and challenges of self directed support/ personalisation within the context of Leeds mental health services. We particularly welcome Sinead’s view of the future challenges from a commissioner’s viewpoint.

The first thing to note is the name;  it is no longer the Away Day,  it is now the Volition Members’ Annual Conference, to better reflect what it is and what we do on the day. The event is an opportunity to share good practice and learn about national and local developments in mental health. It is an essential networking and development day for people working in the Leeds mental health voluntary sector.

The theme for the conference will focus on the current picture and future challenges for the mental health voluntary sector, so if you’re interested in facilitating a workshop it would need to fit in with this. We have a few ideas so far, including hot topics such as employment, risk management, and measuring outcomes; new policy initiatives such as the Mental Health Act, Mental Health Needs Assessment and the NHS contract; and new voluntary sector service developments and partnerships.

If you have any suggestions for workshops or stalls please contact the Volition office before the end of November.

Further details about the theme, workshops, speakers and how to book will be available soon – watch this space or keep an eye on the events page of the Volition website: www.volition.org.uk.

Please keep visiting us while this new resource develops, and feel free to offer suggestions about what should be included.

Wendy Kennerley, Volition’s Communication & Information Worker