A new Barnet-based social care company has appointed its first carer director as part of a drive to involve customers at the highest level of decision making.
Rebecca Toloui becomes the first ever carer in Barnet to be able to directly influence future social care provision at director level after joining the Board of Your Choice Barnet.
Your Choice Barnet is a new organisation, launched on 1 February 2012, which will offer people with disabilities support to live their lives as independently as possible, and to exercise genuine choice over the care and support they receive.
It has taken responsibility for a number of learning and physical disability services from Barnet Council, and is part of The Barnet Group, a new council-owned umbrella company that includes social landlord Barnet Homes.
The service will be partly managed by those it supports, with another dedicated position on the board to be filled by a service user.
Along with her husband Simon, Rebecca cares for her son Andre who has autism syndrome and attends Flower Lane Autism Service, one of six services run by Your Choice Barnet. She runs her own HR consultancy and brings over 25 years experience as a Human Resources Director for both public and private sector organisations, including not-for-profit.
Over time Rebecca’s role on the board will be to increase carer involvement throughout Your Choice Barnet’s services and help shape and determine the company’s future direction.
Rebecca said: “Flower Lane has been amazing for Andre. He does gardening, cooking, computer work, office filing and day trips. He goes every week day and absolutely loves it.
“The staff are exceptional. They’re the ones who make you want to give something back for all the hard work they do.
“I’m thrilled and honored to have been chosen for this role. I’m really looking forward to seeing all the services and gaining a thorough understanding of what we together can do for the benefit of everyone involved.”
Along with her role on the board, Rebecca is Chairperson for the Flower Lane Action Group (FLAG), a charity operated by families and carers of the 40 adults who attend the specialist day centre to raise funds for extra resources.
Your Choice Barnet’s Chief Executive, Tracey Lees, said: “This is a first-of-its-kind opportunity for service users, their families and staff to shape the services we provide and help people live as independently as possible.
“We’re excited to have Rebecca – with her perspective as a carer – join the Your Choice Barnet board. We look forward to working with her to drive service performance and help service users and their carers exercise genuine choice over the support they receive.”
The Your Choice Barnet board will be chaired by Deep Sagar, who has been appointed Chair of The Barnet Group and its subsidiary companies.