Carers Capacity Building Fund 2022 (360G-SCVO-a133z00000KnNv8AAF)

VOCAL offers over 450 carer events and support groups per year, attracting 2,000+ carer registrations. The events, run in partnership with a range of agencies across Edinburgh and Midlothian, are a core part of VOCAL’s carer support offer, seeking to provide early interventions with a preventative focus (eg. practical training, emotional support, peer support and social opportunities). Evaluations highlight the positive impact that these events have on carers’ confidence, health and social wellbeing, and caring relationships. Over the last two years events have been primarily digital, but as in-person events increase, there is growing demand for hybrid opportunities which would improve the choice and flexibility for carers and enable them to fit attendance around caring and employment responsibilities. To enable the delivery of high quality, hybrid events for carers, VOCAL is seeking:• 1 x smart screen for our Midlothian Carers Centre (CTOUCH Riva Touchscreen)• 2 x Logictech RoomMate interfaces (for our Edinburgh and Midlothian Carer Centres). The RoomMate devices interface with Jabra Panacasts and touchscreen displays to provide a smooth integration with Microsoft Teams for hybrid meeting spaces.• 2 x Logictech Tap devices (for our Edinburgh and Midlothian Carer Centres). The Logictech Tap devices are small tablet-like devices that can sit on the meeting room table and allow the host or participants to control the remote users’ experience of being at the meeting.This technology would work with three existing Jabra Panacast video cameras in our Edinburgh and Midlothian carer centres, to provide: Intelligent camera technology that can auto-focus on the speaking participant to ensure a more equitable experience for online participants. Wide-angle views to allow online participants to feel as if they are in the room and to have the sense of what is happening in the physical space. Integrated speakers and microphone – easy to set up and bypasses the need for the host and other participants to pass around an additional hand-held microphone for the benefit of online participants.To support the technical aspects of delivering hybrid events, VOCAL’s training team have undertaken external training and written best practice guidance to support staff in the facilitation and management of these events. As a result, if VOCAL was successful with this application, we could progress quickly with this project and the offer of hybrid opportunities to carers from July onwards. Whilst funding is for this financial year, the additional capacity and benefits would extend for many years and have a positive impact on an increased number of carers (N.B. the number of expected carers who will be impacted listed in a previous question is based on an estimate of 1,500 per year for five years, although we would expect this technology to last much longer).