Moving Forward

In July 2019, when North-West Care Co-Operative brought to market our innovative model of person-centred support designed by and responsive to those who use support, we saw ourselves as at the start of a journey that was about so much ‘more than care’. 

Like the African Proverb that says that ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ we aspired to create not just another ‘care provider’ but instead a ‘community of care and support’, in which ‘carers’ that provide support, and ‘clients’ that receive support, had equivalent status as a ‘member’ of that community. In this we wanted to create a culture in which ‘members’ all ‘care about’ each other, rather than an ‘organisation’ in which a ‘carer’ is ‘employed’ to ‘care for’ a ‘client’. With this equivalent status members could work together not just to provide ‘care and support’ to those needing it, but (and so much more) to enable members to ‘live life well’.

From the outset some of our founder members (parents with responsibility for their adult children who were receiving support) saw this journey as an opportunity to build a community that just like the African village could provide a safe, well governed, and supportive community that could outlive the parent, and allow the child to ‘live life well’ without them. 

This is a sensitive issue. For parents with Disabled Children, it is a huge concern that may linger on the ‘too hard’ or ‘too uncomfortable’ to think about pile. And in the traditional client/provider relationship that is understandable. But in a community of equals, where (whether disabled or not) we are all someone’s child, and all needing to face at some point the challenge of living independently without parents, we feel that the safe and sensitive conversations that are so necessary around this issue can be had, and that we have the means to create the safe, and well governed community that could outlive the parent. 

Whilst we believe that we have created a safe, and well governed community that is suitable for members whilst still supported by their parents, we recognise that the practical and legal requirements involved in creating a community that could outlive the parent is a significant piece of work.  And whilst it was always an aspiration of our founder members, we accepted that it would take time to establish North-West Care Co-Operative sufficiently to be able to invest time and some money into developing this offer. We are now comfortably in that position and able to begin this new and exciting journey. 

Like the best and most enjoyable journeys, we have a good idea of where we want to go, but no step-by-step directions as to how to get there, and so it will be a journey of exploration.  

We aim to share as much of it as we can on this page of our website and would invite anyone who is interested to follow our progress or join us on the journey.