I like everything here.
Usman finds his forever home
Page 11
Standing up for children’s rights • Page 4
Changing lives at the Wiliam Quarrier Scottish Epilepsy Centre • Page 9
Walking for young people • Page 14
I’m very happy to introduce you to your new look Quest.
I wanted to offer a short note about the change to our brand, the website and our logo – hopefully you like it. The website is easier to navigate, and our logo is more playful and better suited to life in the digital age. The old branding had been with us for more than two decades and life has changed, and we needed a brand that could represent the organisation in 2024 and beyond.
Dr Ron Culley
What hasn’t changed is who we are and our commitment to the people we support.
rights was too abstract, that people needed resources and support in their lives rather than a set of legislative protections.
In this issue of Quest, one topic we’re looking at is that of children’s rights.
I remember about 15 years ago having a conversation with Professor Alan Miller, who led the Scottish Human Rights Commission. We were chatting about human rights and how this concept could really help to improve the experience of disadvantaged and marginalised groups in society. I was slightly sceptical at the time. I worried that the language of human
Suffice to say Professor Miller changed my mind, and 15 years on I’m celebrating the most recent strengthening of human rights in Scotland: on 7 December 2023, the Scottish Parliament unanimously passed legislation that enshrines the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into Scots law.
It means all public authorities must now take proactive steps to ensure the protection of children’s rights in their decision-making and service delivery. It means children, young people and their representatives will have a new ability to use the courts to enforce their rights. The Scottish Government will be required to publish a Children’s Rights Scheme, setting out how it will fulfil its wider duties. It’s not a silver bullet –organisations like Quarriers will still need to argue for the promotion and protection of children’s rights, and advocate for their interests. But make no mistake about it – we will become even more effective on the back of this new legislation, and I look forward to updating you on our work with young people in the future.
Quarriers has opened a new Children’s Rights Service in Moray.
Utilising our expertise and experience in advocating for children and young people in all of our services, the service will cover a range of subjects and issues including:
• Advocacy
• Education meetings
• Seeing family
• Children's hearings
• Child protection
• Accessing a lawyer
For further information, visit quarriers.org.uk/rightsmoray
Across Quarriers, over 100 volunteers give their time to their local service or department. Each and every one of them contributes to our vision for a Scotland in which people can access support, find kindness, and thrive. They make all the difference for the people they support – and for themselves.
Claire’s team at intandem is looking for volunteer mentors in Falkirk, Stirling, and Clackmannanshire.
Could you be part of Scotland’s national mentoring service through Quarriers intandem Service? You could be there for a young person who needs a consistent, trusting relationship with a reliable adult in their lives.
It’s all about connecting with the young person you’re matched with. You spend two-to-three hours a week talking, listening and getting to know a young person, while taking part in fun activities. If you can commit to at least one year of volunteering we know you can make a huge difference in helping a young person to overcome challenging circumstances, feel heard and to become more confident. And have fun!
Claire
My mentee and I have built this relationship between two people who are so different in age (I’m 64, and they are 12), which is lovely, and we just get to have a really fun time together. I can see that they are gaining confidence when they realise that I am genuinely interested in them and their thoughts.
If you’re thinking about mentoring, don’t hesitate.
For more information, contact Claire:
07500 074 572
claire.devlin@quarriers.org.uk
Don’t think you haven’t got anything to give, because you have, and it will be hugely appreciated.
IngridIngrid, Quarriers intandem volunteer mentor
Falkirk Children’s Rights Service helps children and young people to know about their rights and supports them to have their voice heard on matters that are important to them. For young people who are care-experienced, it’s especially vital that the agencies supporting young people hear them.
We talk to siblings Taylor (16) and Grace (13) and their Children’s Rights Worker, Suzanne. (Grace preferred not to show her face in photos.)
Almost 10,000 children in Scotland are in care. Eight years ago, after a difficult time for the family, a Children’s Hearing Panel decided Taylor and Grace’s care should be under a compulsory supervision order, meaning the local authority was responsible for them.
Care-experienced young people may stay with foster carers, in a residential care home, or with a family member. Taylor and Grace went to live with their nana.
It was a time of trauma and tension for the siblings, with events outside their control changing the path of their upbringing and their family forever.
Grace, who is now 13, says, “I was only
in P3 when it all happened. I was young, and I didn’t really understand it all. It was confusing.”
When you speak to Taylor and Grace, what’s clear is their resilience in dealing with the different ways professionals enter and function within their lives.
Taylor says, “We’ve had seven or eight social workers in eight years. And you can’t count the number of meetings we’ve had about so many things.”
But what has been constant for them is the support from Falkirk Children’s Rights Service. Suzanne makes sure the siblings have access to all the support they have a right to, and advocates for them whenever needed.
She says, “In professional meetings, sometimes it is necessary to remind the adults to remember to consider the young people they’re discussing.
Nowhere is advocacy more important than at Children’s Hearings, where decisions are made by the panel of professionals and volunteers on behalf of young people. These hearings will cover issues that could affect the wellbeing of a young person: where they will live and who will be responsible for their care, contact arrangements, school attendance and choice of school, issues with the law or police, drug or alcohol issues, mental or physical health.
Like many young people, Taylor and Grace can sometimes find these hearings an emotional and daunting experience. Taylor says, “We used to get asked to leave the meeting so that we don’t find out what was being said or what was going on. So, we’d be there at
the beginning, introduce ourselves, say what we want to say, and then leave.”
Suzanne says, “That happens because the panel may want to protect young people from some of the conversations that are happening, but as they have gotten older, Taylor and Grace have wanted to be involved, to not have that experience of leaving a room to allow conversations about you to go on without you. For me, it’s all about young people knowing what their rights are.”
Young people have the right to stay in their hearings if they want to stay. As Taylor and Grace have grown up, Suzanne’s support and advice on their rights has changed their participation in their hearings and what they have gotten out of them.
“It’s good you have the right to stay. The first meeting that I’ve really properly stayed in was the last one. It felt really different - I found some stuff out about our situation that I never knew before.”
It’s hard to explain the difference the service has made for us. TaylorGrace, left, and Taylor
As Taylor approaches adulthood having left school to work last year, the empowerment he feels from knowing his rights, making his voice heard and understanding more of his situation is clear. This friendly and focused young man is hopeful of a bright future that will include travel, despite facing setbacks like recently being made redundant. He says, “Suzanne has helped me to apply for a leaving care worker and bursary I didn’t know I was entitled to.”
Whatever happens he and his sister know they will have someone in their corner at the Falkirk Children’s Rights service until they are 26.
Suzanne says, “If Taylor didn’t need to speak to us for two years, and then something happened, he could just message me and say he needs advice. No one is ever left without support. We’re here when we’re needed. They’re not on their own.”
It’s made a difference to my confidence having support from Suzanne. I feel more able to speak up.
Taylor
“I can tell you what it’s like to be a zombie.”
Holly Richardson’s epilepsy medication was making her sleep for 18 hours a day. A stay at the William Quarrier Scottish Epilepsy Centre in Glasgow helped her back to what Holly calls “my awesome life”.
Holly had her first epileptic seizure when she was 13 but had been four years seizure-free when aged 19 a tweak to her meds due to new birth control changed everything.
She began to have more frequent seizures, until they were only 19 days apart. She was sleeping for up to 18 hours a day and had extreme reactions to noise or textures. Her dad, Pete, says, “Tiny things would set her off into an aggressive rage. If a drink was a tiny bit too warm, she could headbutt or punch the wall and scream. I kept thinking ‘she’s going to break her hand or hurt herself’.”
Holly was referred to the William Quarrier Scottish Epilepsy Centre (WQSEC). The centre is run by Quarriers in partnership with the NHS. It is a unique facility with space for 12 inpatients. Epilepsy diagnosis is challenging because clinicians rarely witness the events experienced by patients. But at the WQSEC, patients stay for a period of time to be observed using a state-of-the-art system which includes cameras and mobile EEG equipment.
Holly spent six weeks in the WQSEC, although the first four of those were spent almost entirely in bed.
“There’s lots of that time I don’t remember,” says Holly. “They measured my brainwaves and there was almost no difference between when I was awake and when I was asleep. I barely wanted my parents to see me like that, never mind anyone else, and when it was by best friend’s birthday and she wanted to come and visit, I made up an excuse to stop her coming. Instead, I tried to video a birthday message to her, but I couldn’t reach the end of the sentence.”
But there is one moment that stands out – the moment they figured out what was going on.
“I can remember it so clearly,” says Holly. “The Clinical Nurse Specialist came into my room and said, ‘you have toxic blood’.”
Holly was taken off her medication, a difficult process of detoxing, with constant nausea and vomiting.
Pete says, “The quality of the service at the WQSEC is exceptional. When Holly had a seizure or was sick, we’d press a button, and they were there within 20 seconds.”
Holly remembers the rest of her time, as new medication was introduced under the watchful eye of the team. “It was nice to have my own room and I remember the cameras vividly,” she says. “They’re there so the team can watch you all the time. One day, my dad and I were sitting chatting and one of the nurses came in and asked if we could swap places so the cameras could pick up my face better.”
A video about Holly and the WQSEC at www.quarriers. org.uk/hollys-story
The final two weeks of her stay also provided a vital resource in her journey with epilepsy: friends.
“I met other patients, the most wonderful people to connect with,” says Holly. “One person would be talking about their experiences, and we would all be saying ‘yes, I know what you’re talking about’. Now, we have a group chat we’re all on, and we’re there for each other.”
Holly has now been seizure free for one year. Pete says, “When Holly was sleeping for 18 hours a day, she was barely existing. It’s now so different. She has seven or eight hours sleep and then she’s up saying, ‘Morning, Dad!’”
Her experience has inspired the direction of her education, and Holly plans to do a degree in neuroscience.
“If I hadn’t had epilepsy, I wouldn’t have gone into science. I have no regrets.”
Mearns View is home to five men with autism including Usman, one of the stars of our new website. Service Manager Angela Denny talks about this specialised service.
We are a unique service in Quarriers. We are the only service where people are supported one-to-one for up to 130 hours a week.
We offer comprehensive support.
Our support is person-centred, so that means we focus on the needs of each of the five guys who live here. But it’s also a shared environment, so we have to balance everyone’s needs.
The job is about finding out the forms of communication that work best for people.
The people we support are all good at communicating their needs. Support staff work together to compile communication pathways that outline
Angela asked Usman what he likes about living at Mearns View and his answer was, I like everything.
the intricate details of how each person should be supported. It’s all about getting to know each person and building trusting relationships.
We make a huge difference for the people we support.
The growth in Usman has been remarkable. Usman’s family shared in the care for Usman. When they came to us they were in crisis - families often don’t make the move towards looking for care until they are in crisis. What works for Usman is the consistency of a routine, and we can do that here because we are offering intense one-toone support. One notable achievement is that Usman took swimming lessons and learned to swim.
When staff look back at the difference in all the people we support since we opened, it is immense. They and staff should feel very proud. It’s great to be able to say, “that’s you that’s making that difference”.
We’re there through tough times as well as good times.
Some of our young men have had early childhood trauma. Some have experienced bereavement. Their family may have been struggling with their care. They have sometimes been moved about a lot. Many of the day centres have closed, and money is getting tighter for families whose savings are impacted by fuel bills and the cost-of-living crisis. Usman’s swimming lessons have had to stop, and that has meant he has lost a very positive relationship with his coach.
But it’s a happy home. From ordering their favourite coffee and food, to
taking them out clubbing, to college, or for a drive, to finding holidays they would like to go on, we’re focused on helping the guys live the life they choose.
I love my job.
I like working with people with autism and learning disabilities. I like that what you see is what you get – there’s a pureness to that. I am fiercely protective of all the people we support at Mearns View. I just want the best for them, and I consider this to be their forever home.
Support for a loved one affects whole families.
Farzana is Usman’s big sister and shares his guardianship. She explains how Usman’s happy home means joy for the whole family.
There are 14 years between Usman and I, and I have always done a lot for him. Looking back, I was a young carer. He was the first person in the family to have a disability and my parents found it hard. I’d be out with friends and my parents would call to say, “Can you come home? Usman is not coping.” Or I’d go home early because I wanted to make sure things were ok. But my friends were great – if we were going out they’d say, ‘bring your brother.’
I went on a holiday one time with my sister, and it was for five days, but something happened with Usman, and I decided, “That’s it, I can’t go anywhere again”.
Things became especially difficult when I got married and moved out. My parents don’t have English as a first language, so taking him to appointments etc. is difficult for them. Usman was distressed more often. They were really struggling before we found the place at Mearns View.
But since going to Mearns view Usman’s a changed man! What’s great is that its one-to-one, which is what Usman needs. He loves to get out and about for dinner and the cinema and the amazing staff at Mearns View make that happen.
Farzana and Usman
I am confident in the care he receives at Mearns view. As a family we all get together once a week for lunch at my parents’ and we love seeing the changes in Usman. He’s become more independent – he even makes himself tea and toast! He’s learning life skills and he’s so happy at Mearns View. I hope he can live there forever.
Mark Turner is a Transition Mentor at Quarriers Ayrshire Youth Support Service, which provides housing support for 16- to 25-year-olds who are homeless, leaving care, or who are at risk of becoming homeless. The service has seven residential flats and a shared house and provides an Outreach Service in both South and East Ayrshire that supports more than 130 young people to live in the community. Last year, Mark and two colleagues took on the Mighty Stride and walked 23 miles, all together raising a brilliant total of £900 for activities at the service.
Mark says, “We wanted to raise additional funds for the service. Budgets are getting tighter and we don’t get the chance to do as many activities with the young people as we used to before Covid. Life can be very hard for the young people we support. Their mood can be very low and we see them struggle with motivation. You just want to get them out, involved in the community and doing lots of things that are good for their mood.”
It is a really hard day, you do struggle - half way round you’re thinking ‘oh, I really can’t do this’. But if you push yourself and you think of why you’re doing it then you do manage to get there. I was just thinking of the young people.
Mark
We took the young people paintballing. It was good to see them enjoying themselves.
“We raised a lot of money, and we were able to take the young people for a couple of activities from it. We went paintballing, go-karting, and to a country castle and park and walked all the different trail walks.”
Grab the opportunity to be in with a chance for a FREE registration place for Kiltwalk ‘24
Email events@quarriers.org.uk
We have a limited number of free places. If you want to take on a challenge, raise funds for your chosen Quarriers service and feel great, get in touch!
2024 dates
• Glasgow: 28 April
• Aberdeen: 2 June
• Dundee: 11 August
ALMOST SOLD OUT
• Edinburgh: 15 September
quarriers.org.uk/events
With thanks to headline sponsors:
Last year’s event sold out, so don’t miss out in 2024!
Could you be a golf hero? Play a 4-ball at Quarriers Golf Day 2024.
With a shotgun start, prizes, breakfast, lunch, and 18 holes to play at one of Glasgow’s premier golf clubs, we think you’ll find this event well above par!
events@quarriers.org.uk
07776 599 210
Quarriers