York Carers Centre is now moving towards independence.
Recent consultation with carers in York showed that they wanted the Carers Centre to be independent from North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (NYYPCT, now known as NHS North Yorkshire & York, NHSNYY). The PCT agreed it did not want to host the Carers Centre after March 2009. Together with City of York Council (CYC), they provided funding for York Council for Voluntary Service to support the creation of an independent Carers Centre, with a commitment to provide funding to the Centre for its first three years of operation.
In order to do this, it was essential that a number of things happened. First, it was important to bring together a group of people interested in overseeing the new organisation. It was then essential to explain what they would be responsible for if they became the management committee. They also had to decide what sort of organisation the new Centre should be, including whether it should be charitable.
This has now been done – the management committee has formed and received initial training in their roles and responsibilities. They have decided on a legal structure and have chosen to be a registered charity and company limited by guarantee.
Meet our trustees
David Broadhead (Chair) – David joined the Royal Navy after leaving school and spent the next 15 years with them, during which time he obtained a BSc in Engineering. In 1998, he became involved in a local Charity as a Trustee, and has been the Chair of this organisation from 2007. He is therefore familiar with Charity Law and Charity Commission compliance. He stepped down as Chair at the end of October, and will step down from the committee at the end of the year. Keen to keep busy, he has also completed a part time “Introduction to Counselling” course at St John’s College, a Distance Learning MA Degree in Archaeology at Leicester University, and recently received an honorary doctorate in Archaeology from the University of Tehran. His wife has recently had two operations for cancer, and this has given him an interest in carers issues.
Stuart Brown – Stuart and his wife Julia are proud parents of a son and two daughters, grant parents to eight – four boys and four girls – and great grandparents to two boys, making him something of a family man. Since Julia’s MS worsened Stuart has become her full-time carer. Stuart has previously been a trustee for crossroads and a member of the original Carers Forum, the Carers Strategy Group and the Carers Health Steering Group. He resigned from the latter two to take on the position of Treasurer of the newly formed York Carers Forum and be a member of their steering group. He wishes to carry on trying to make the carers lot a better one.
Katie Smith – Katie was born in Birkenhead on Christmas Day and spent her childhood in far-flung places such as Hong Kong, Malaya and Egypt. She trained in General & Mental Health Nursing, and is qualified as a Further & Adult Education Teacher & Assessor.
Katie has one daughter and two grandchildren, and is a carer for her 92-year-old mother. Her hobbies include family history, painting, flower arranging and card making. Katie is a Christian and Secretary of York Carers Forum.
Alice Showell – Alice joined the Civil Service as an Executive officer in the Inland Revenue department in 1949. From 1950 she worked in the Estate Duty Office where she obtained a law degree (LLB) as a part time student, completed in 1953. She left the Estate Duty Office when she married in 1958, but rejoined the Civil Service as a VAT officer in the Customs and Excise Department in 1975. Whilst working there she obtained a Certified Diploma in Accountancy and Finance. She retired in 1990 and since then has been Treasurer of the Cambridgeshire Local History Society for 12 years, and is currently Treasurer of the York Group of the Civil Service Retirement Fellowship. Alice is a carer for her husband who is increasingly disabled following a stroke in 1998. She would like to be a Trustee of the Carers Centre, partly to help other carers, and partly for interest and companionship for herself.
Ewan Main - Ewan grew up in South Manchester, coming to York in 1997 to study Languages and Linguistics at the University. Like many others, he couldn't bring himself to leave this city and has lived here ever since. After a fair bit of voluntary work, he began his career as a youth worker and gained an MA in Community and Youth Work from Durham in 2004. He worked in various youth and advisory settings, before joining the Princess Royal Trust for Carers as one of the two people who staff the internet-based support service for young carers at www.youngcarers.net. He is now greatly looking forward to becoming more involved with adult carers issues, and with carers in York specifically.
At the same time, Ewan has spent several evenings a week for the past nine years as a tour guide for The Ghost Trail and also works as a freelance graphic designer and photographer. He is a member of the British Humanist Association, has been married for five years, and is very excited about his ongoing involvement with the fantastic work at York Carers Centre.
Rosemarie Temple - Rosemarie was born and bred in Leeds, and spent almost all of her working life at Leeds University in an administrative capacity, gaining a BA in Business Management in 2002. Now retired, she lives with her partner and two dogs in Tadcaster, and runs a small cake-baking business from home.
Rosemarie has been very heavily involved with Girlguiding for most of her life. Her particular passion is for the international aspects of guiding, and the benefits they can bring to girls and young women both at home and abroad. Through Girlguiding she became involved with an Indian Centre for disadvantaged women and children, and spent several years as a trustee of a support group for the Girlguiding World Centre in India.
She is a past President of York Ebor Soroptimist Club, part of an international organisation for women that helps to improve the status of women throughout the world. It was through Soroptimists that Rosemarie first came into contact with the Young Carers, and she looks forward to her involvement with them and to giving them as much support as is needed.
