The Blog

Minister for Education meets with parents of children at St Martin’s School

i May 26th No Comments by

The Minister for Education, Prof John Cortes, today met with representatives of parents of children at St Martin’s School, as part of a series of regular meetings where a wide range of matters are discussed, including work on developing a Gibraltar Special Educational Needs Strategy. Today’s meeting followed a meeting several weeks ago with the Chief Minister and is in advance of a further meeting with the Chief Minister arranged for next week. The plan is to develop and agree a strategy which will ensure that pupils and former pupils from St Martin’s are afforded joined-up care by all relevant agencies.
The Minister this morning also met a group who had walked to No 6 Convent Place to ask for such a strategy, and accepted a letter from them on behalf of the Chief Minister. At this afternoon’s meeting the Minister formally replied to the group’s representatives who are actively involved in the work on the Strategy.
He commented, “This morning I thanked the group for the letter and reminded them that there are ongoing discussions with the Chief Minister which involve their representatives. This afternoon we continued to make good progress, and we will continue our regular meetings until the Strategy is finalised. The Government is committed to developing a robust strategy that will meet the needs of these children and their families.”

Press Release

i Mar 11th No Comments by

For over 20 years the Disability Society has been calling for a statutory body to be introduced to monitor and audit all areas of the disability and care services. It is imperative that this should be independent of Government and preferably from outside Gibraltar. The Disability Society notes with interest, and fully supports, the recent call by Together Gibraltar for the introduction of an independent regulator along the lines of the UK’s Care Quality Commission.

The introduction of such a body must be fully independent of the Care Agency and Government and would ensure care standards are being met, which would include continuity of care which is paramount to the wellbeing of service users.

Press Release 25.01.2021

i Jan 25th No Comments by

Unfortunately Gibraltar is still in the midst of the Covid pandemic and enduring another lockdown. Once again the Disability Society would like to take the opportunity to publicly thank the staff of the disability services. The long hours that they are working, their dedication and understanding of the service users are second to none. This once again brings to the forefront the issue of continuity of care and the importance of knowledge and trust between carers and service users. The Society therefore, yet again, calls upon the Government to provide permanent contracts to all carers throughout the disability services. The recognition of their dedication, understanding and loyalty deserves nothing less.

Clarification from the Chief Minister on St Martin’s School

i Jan 16th No Comments by

Yesterday in Parliament, in my statement on COVID restrictions, I said this about special needs:”On St Martin’s, Mr Speaker, we are working for an even earlier date of reopening if possible.We are conscious of the difficulties being experienced by the parents of children with special needs in particular.We will ensure our teachers are going be in the very first round of those to be vaccinated beyond the ‘at risk’ groups and the teachers at St Martin’s will be the first of the first.Until then the relevant Ministers are working to provide additional facilities for children and persons with special needs at parks, and the RGP are aware of the specific provisions in our regulations for persons with learning difficulties, an innovation we did not have during the first lockdown but which Minister Sacramento specifically carved out this time.”I want to highlight this so that everyone who needs to be aware is fully informed.

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Well done Care Agency & GHA

i Jan 16th No Comments by

Excellent multiagency team-work with our GHA partner, and fantastic progress with our vaccination programme at the Care Agency!

Carlos
Banderas, CEO, commented, “We have achieved an excellent result during
what can be described as a very difficult time for both our
service-users and staff. I’m exceedingly pleased that almost all
service-users of the Disability Service have now received the vaccine.
Special thanks to our nursing team and Covid-19 coordinator, Sharon
Radcliff, for her efforts with this. We continue the fight against the
coronavirus”.

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SYNERGISE Website

i Oct 17th No Comments by

Fireside chat with Russ Shaw

i Oct 17th No Comments by

Covid Advice

i Aug 15th No Comments by

Donation

i Aug 15th No Comments by

Congratulations

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