Updating Wolverhampton’s Older Peoples’ Strategy

Wolverhampton City Council is seeking residents’ views on how to improve the quality, choice and range of services for older people, within current financial constraints.

The council has launched a 12 week consultation ending in January 2012, and is asking for feedback on measures to reduce demand for critical and acute services, as well as views on how to increase opportunities for self care and community support for people at risk of losing their independence.  

Contact: Rose Powell, telephone: 01902 555 494, email: rose.powell@wolverhmapton.gov.uk .

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Link  -  http://www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/council/news/2011/october/191011b.htm

Diversifying the care market

Peter Hay, director of ADASS talks about Creating a more diverse and responsive care market on You Tube.

A Positive Approach to Risk & Personalisation: A Framework

A framework for ensuring service users can exercise their right to control their support package while making sure adequate safeguarding measures are in place, has been developed by Personalisation and Adult Safeguarding leads on behalf of the West Midlands JIP, ADASS West Midlands and NHS West Midlands.

A Positive Approach to Risk & Personalisation: A Framework, details the steps health and local authorities can take to prevent an over cautious approach to personalisation of care, by encouraging a more positive approach to risk taking.

With the pace of personalisation picking up, the JIP and its partners want to ensure the most vulnerable members of society are not left behind. The framework shows how this can be done by sharing risk between the service user, their family, carers, professional care staff, third parties and the Council. 

The goal is to manage risks in a way that improves the quality of life and promotes independence of service users, by identifying potential risks and putting systems in place to manage them. 

The publication includes examples of good practice and a self assessment tool for authorities to use as a starting point for understanding their current position.

The Framework will be available for download from the Improvement and Effeiciency West Midlands website (insert link) in a few weeks, in the meantime contact Sue Williams, telephone: 07824 605 653, email: swilliams@westmidlandsiep.gov.uk.

Demonstrating how the Dudley Telecare Service can reduce the length of stay in hospital

Dudley Council’s telecare service has adopted the novel approach of ‘try before you buy’, to encourage take up of telecare following reports from hospital social care staff that patients refused to take up the service when informed of charges. 

Telecare is one of the options used to promote independent living and reduce the length of stay in hospitals, or the need for acute care.

Dudley’s solution to the problem was to offer patients a free comprehensive telecare service for six weeks, to support them when discharged from hospital and prevent readmission. 

A pilot scheme, matched funded by the JIP to the tune of £10,000 and linked to Russell’s Hall hospital, was set up to test the scheme.  Results showed efficiency savings of £61,170, with 83% of people who would have been charged for the service and therefore may have refused it, wanting to keep and pay for telecare equipment after the six week free period. 

Contact: Marie Spittle, Service Manager, Telecare, email: marie.spittle@dudley.gov.uk, telephone: 01384 817 456.

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Places to Live Staffordshire – More independence and control through housing options

The Places to Live Staffordshire commissioning team recently celebrated their first anniversary as an operational service.

The service is distinctive, as it offers adults with learning and/or physical disabilities a bespoke service that takes into account housing, care and support needs.

Consisting of four independent living advisors, the team provides a countywide service working with individuals and their families or carers, to prepare a personalised Housing Options Plan (HOP) that will help identify and assess their housing needs.

Their role includes:

• raising awareness of the full range of housing options for disabled people
• providing information and advice to professionals, individuals, families and carers on how to access a range of housing options
• assisting individuals in making housing applications, and providing support with signing tenancies

• liaising with districts, housing providers, private landlords and key agencies to co-ordinate implementation of an individual’s HOP

The first year of the service has seen some significant achievements. Nearly 300 people have been provided with information and advice, and directed to other useful services.

Fifty four individuals have been helped to move to more appropriate accommodation. For many this means living independently, as part of a community, for the first time in their lives. 

 Service user, Mike said: “I used to live with my friend in a big care home for people with learning disabilities. We wanted to live together in our own place, but as the home was closing we were worried we would be separated. My independent living advisor worked with us to make sure our wishes were heard and helped us move into a two bedroom flat where we have support on-site all day. We both feel very happy and safe, and very glad to still be together”.

In addition to face to face work, the service has captured for the first time detailed information about housing needs for adults with disabilities, including location and types of properties, tenure and support models, and the individual’s aspirations, such as a desire to live alone or in shared accommodation. This has provided invaluable information for commissioners and resulted in team members receiving Staffordshire County Council’s ‘All About You’ award.          

The Places to Live Staffordshire Commissioning team is part of the Older People and Prevention team within the Joint Commissioning Unit.

Contact: Eve Wilson, Information Officer, Older People and Prevention Team, email: eve.wilson@staffordshire.gov.uk, telephone: 01785 854 238.

Peer Mentoring appeal

The College of Social Work is appealing for volunteers to be part of its confidential mentoring service for social workers, to be launched in January 2012. 

The service will provide full college members with an experienced and trained mentor who can offer guidance and advice. 

Training for mentors will be held in November and December 2011, in central London.  Anyone interested will need to commit to at least four meetings over one year. 

Contact: collegevolunteering@scie.org.uk


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Consultation on care and support priorities

The Department of Health is consulting on six priorities considered to have the most potential for making improvements to the care and support system, as part of its Caring for our future consultation, prior to publication of a White Paper in April 2012.

Priorities are:

• improving quality and developing the workforce
•  increasing personalisation and choice
• ensuring services are better integrated around people’s needs
• supporting greater prevention and early intervention
• creating a more diverse and responsive care market
• the role of the financial services sector in supporting users, carers and their families.

Views are also sought on recommendations made by the Commission on Funding of Care and Support.

Deadline for comments is 2 December 2011.

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Fall in social worker vacancy rates

Social worker vacancy rates in councils across Britain have fallen from 10% in 2010 to 8% this year, according to Community Care Magazine.

The finding, from its third annual Freedom of Information investigation, shows the average rate in children’s services has dropped from12% to 8%, while reduction in the adult services is lower, dropping from 10% to 9%.

The magazine features an interactive map showing results for each council. 

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WM jobsite goes from strength to strength

The region’s successful WMJobs website has grown to include a range of services for public sector employers seeking to place the right people in the right jobs in their organisations.

Managed by West Midlands Councils and led by the WMJobs Partnership, the website offers a gold, silver and bronze package of services giving different levels of support with advertising vacancies, processing applications, and appointing candidates.

WMJobs Partnership is open to any public or voluntary sector organisation.

View site

Telecare site goes public

The JIP backed telecare website askTARA, which gives information about health and social care products, is now available to the general public.

Created by social enterprise, Community Gateway CIC, in partnership with the JIP and Improvement and Efficiency West Midlands, the web based catalogue features assistive technology products to help individuals maintain their independence.

askTARA, first launched in March 2010, featured products and services provided by councils in the West Midlands to service users. The site has now been expanded to cater for the general public nationwide, and will provide information on aids such as personal community alarms and flood detectors. 

Health products such as blood pressure monitors that share data online with GPs, and services including home support assistants, will eventually be included.

askTARA has been shortlisted for a Health Services Journal award, and nominated for the government’s Big Society Awards. 

View site

Supporting sustainable social care business

Stoke Council is supporting the growth of business in the adult social care sector, by holding a series of forums geared towards ensuring high quality social care and a well trained flexible workforce. 

The forums give employers the opportunity to network, and gain knowledge and information about services available to support a sustainable workforce.

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Home repairs service scores top marks

Over 600 people have been helped this year by Telford & Wrekin’s successful HOMEfix scheme, set up to carry out minor maintenance and repair jobs for residents aged over 60 or disabled. 

Established in July 2006, HOMEfix is run by the council’s Home Improvement Agency.  The service carries out work people can’t do themselves such as fixing dripping taps, putting up curtain rails or shelves, fitting a letter basket, changing kitchen or bathroom taps, unblocking sinks, fitting fire alarms, and more.  

Customers pay £15.32 for the first hour and £5.10 an hour after that, for a maximum of three hours at a time. 

Survey scores show a 100% customer satisfaction rate.

Contact: Home Improvement Agency, telephone: 01952 381 855.

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Self assessment board game e-enabled

Staffordshire’s innovative board game, Me, Myself & I *, designed to help service users identify what they need to live independently, is being developed for wider use making it available electronically.

The original hard copy based version was produced in spring 2010. The playing board is divided into five key areas – My Health, My Life, My Home, My Safety and My Money.  Players select cards reflecting their priorities in each of the areas.  Service providers, carers or support workers act as facilitators recording the cards selected and comments made, building a picture of the service users’ needs. 

Following its initial success, Staffordshire has gone on to develop the game as a holistic self assessment, consultation and signposting tool using mobile and web technology. 

This reflects the council’s aim to increase the range and quality of appropriate channels for accessing information, and advice that will help people maintain independent lives.

The game is currently in test phase and is being showcased at several events throughout autumn and winter 2011, with a view of selling it to other local authorities.

Email: memyselfandi@staffordshire.gov.uk, telephone: 01785 278529.

* © Staffordshire County Council, April 2010.

Making assessments on the move

Care assessments, can be processed more efficiently with the development of Sandwell Borough Council’s Electronic Access Assessment tool, which allows officers to handle assessment while on the move.

The tool using web and mobile technology is able to:

• accurately determine if individuals qualify for support under the council’s Fair Access to Care Services eligibility criteria
• deliver consistency
• increase staff productivity
• be used in real time in a variety of settings
• automatically populate self assessment and carer assessment documents
• link to personal budget assessments
• meet equality impact assessment requirements.

The application has become the council’s main tool for identifying a customer's entitlement to social care support, and can be used by officers in a range of locations, including clients’ homes, hospitals or officers own homes, using 3G connectivity. 

The tool has been rolled out to the council’s Customer Contact Centre, the Rapid Response Team (including the Hospital Team), and the Long Term Wellbeing Team. 

It has already led to dramatic reductions in assessment times.

Contact:  Sanjeev Kataria, Putting People First, Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, email: sanjee_kataria@sandwell.gov.uk .

On track for personalisation

Councils in England are on track to achieve the government target of personal budgets for all service users by 2013, according to a survey by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS).

Ninety seven percent of councils questioned say they are on target, with 40%  revealing they already have 60% of users on personal budgets. Three authorities are on course to reach the 100% mark by the end of 2011-12.

The target was set last year in government’s Vision for adult social care. 

ADASS concludes councils are making good progress towards universal budgets, helped by significant promotion and communication of direct payments, as well as restructuring of services, identification of new suppliers, and staff training and development.

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Conference round up

A summary of key speeches, activities and views expressed at this year’s NCAS conference can be found on the blog section of the conference website.

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Call to sign up to new personalisation indicators

Councils and other social care providers have been urged to sign up to
Making It Real, a new set of indicators for implementing personalisation, and to publish details of their progress against them. 

The social care sector coalition, Think Local Act Personal, has drawn up the indicators in consultation with users and carers, to define what successful personalisation looks like.

The indicators include the government target of all service users receiving ongoing council funded support transferred to personal budgets by 2013.

Although not compulsory, ADASS will encourage members to use the indicators and include performance results in local council reports due to be published from this year.

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Improving intelligence on social worker supply and demand

A model for monitoring the supply and demand of social workers in England has been unveiled by the Centre for Workforce Intelligence (CfWI).

Revealed at the National Children and Adult Services Conference 2011, the newly developed model will be made available to trial sites for testing.

The system will gather workforce data to help forecast the numbers of social workers needed in the future. 

It will work by taking actual numbers of social workers at a local level, and estimated time spent per case, plus categorising social workers according to their level of experience, and the cases according to their complexity to produce a forecast.

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Cash finds its way to prevention and reablement

The bulk of £648m transferred from the NHS to local authorities has been spent on services designed to cut hospital admissions.

Speaking at the 2011 National Children and Adult Services Conference, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley told delegates, "there was scepticism the money wouldn’t find its way, but the evidence we’ve got so far shows those fears have not been realised”. £128m has gone into developing early intervention and prevention measures, and £50m on reablement. A further £115m has been allocated to help councils avoid increasing local eligibility criteria used to decide who should receive care services.

The money, announced in last year’s comprehensive spending review, will be moved from the NHS to councils every year until 2014-15. 

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Care Minister says turn up the heat

Care Services Minister Paul Burstow has urged councils to turn up the heat on personalisation and increase the numbers of people in receipt of direct payments. 

Speaking at this year’s National Children and Adult Services Conference, Mr Burstow said “there are still too many people who could benefit from personal budgets or direct payments and are missing out”. He called for a spotlight to be shone on councils performing badly on personalisation.

The minister also emphasised the need to focus on investing in prevention as a key area of work, particularly in the light of money saved by some councils from tightening the eligibility criteria used to qualify for care services. 

Referring to reform of the social care system, the minister acknowledged change is not just about resources, but also about a drive to increase quality and standards.  The White Paper on the future funding of social care is due to be published in April 2012.

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ADASS expresses reform expectations

Members of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Service have identified three outcomes that citizens should experience as part of reforms to the social care system.
President of the association, Peter Hay, described the outcomes to delegates at this year’s National Children and Adult Services Conference as: 

• an understandable system
• freedom from fears about affordability  
• peace of mind when it comes to dignity and safety

Mr Hay warned purely sector led reforms will be unsustainable if they are not backed up by law and viable funding.

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