Tuesday, 11 January 2011
In business for learning in Coventry
Brandon Wood Farm in Coventry, a vocational training service in Coventry, has set up a number of social enterprises to help adults with learning disabilities gain work experience and learn new skills.
Backed by Coventry City Council, the farm has set up enterprises offering employment opportunities in horticulture, catering and woodcraft.
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Supporting small enterprise in Dudley
Dudley Borough Council has appointed a coordinator to help local people set up small health and social care services.
Lorna Reid from consultancy, Community Catalyst, has taken up the two year appointment.
Lorna is also working with existing service providers finding it difficult to progress, and other providers wanting to diversify in the field of social care.
Help will be given to ensure entrepreneurs operate safely, legally and offer good quality services.
Telephone: 01384 811744 or 0758 411 756,
email: lorna.reid@dudley.gov.uk .
Read more
Lorna Reid from consultancy, Community Catalyst, has taken up the two year appointment.
Lorna is also working with existing service providers finding it difficult to progress, and other providers wanting to diversify in the field of social care.
Help will be given to ensure entrepreneurs operate safely, legally and offer good quality services.
Telephone: 01384 811744 or 0758 411 756,
email: lorna.reid@dudley.gov.uk .
Read more
Embracing social enterprise in social care
Social enterprise has received the thumbs up from government in its vision for the future of adult social care.
Published in November 2010, 'A Vision for Adult Social Care: Capable Communities and Active Citizens’, sets a new agenda for adult social care in England.
Emphasis is on making services more personalised, preventative and focused on delivering the best results for people who use them.
Pointing to personal budgets as a catalyst for change, whereby people will be in charge of purchasing their own care, the government wants to see a more diverse range of organisations, including social enterprises, providing services.
Local authorities have been given responsibility for shaping and stimulating a social care market in which new service providers can do business.
As part of the market shaping process, councils and their NHS partners have been told to move away from using block contracts to commission services, to increase the use of personal budgets, including direct payments, and to support the growth of a market in services that people want.
Government is considering how to deal with barriers, in particular to social enterprise, that prevent a dynamic and varied market.
The purpose is to create an even playing field for providers, especially small set-ups that struggle with formal tendering processes, but can offer specialist and valuable solutions.
Read more
Published in November 2010, 'A Vision for Adult Social Care: Capable Communities and Active Citizens’, sets a new agenda for adult social care in England.
Emphasis is on making services more personalised, preventative and focused on delivering the best results for people who use them.
Pointing to personal budgets as a catalyst for change, whereby people will be in charge of purchasing their own care, the government wants to see a more diverse range of organisations, including social enterprises, providing services.
Local authorities have been given responsibility for shaping and stimulating a social care market in which new service providers can do business.
As part of the market shaping process, councils and their NHS partners have been told to move away from using block contracts to commission services, to increase the use of personal budgets, including direct payments, and to support the growth of a market in services that people want.
Government is considering how to deal with barriers, in particular to social enterprise, that prevent a dynamic and varied market.
The purpose is to create an even playing field for providers, especially small set-ups that struggle with formal tendering processes, but can offer specialist and valuable solutions.
Read more
Wednesday, 8 December 2010
JIP e-bulletin No 18 December 2010
Welcome
In this issue we bring you details of the Total Place approach to providing public services, and how it affects adult social care.
More than ever councils are seeking to find creative solutions to meet the challenge of ensuring satisfaction with local services, while at the same time fulfilling government demands for efficiency savings.
Total Place was a high profile attempt at addressing this issue. The aim was to look at spending as a whole, across organisations, to identify where money is spent unnecessarily due to duplication and bureaucracy, and to maximise the impact by sharing funds and resources.
The approach was tested in a year-long pilot study involving 13 areas - three localities in the West Midlands, namely Birmingham, Worcestershire and a sub-region of Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire. Results show great potential for local authorities to reduce costs and improve outcomes for local people. Their focus ranged from intensive family intervention to gang crime, from frequent hospital users to high need neighbourhoods.
Recently the coalition government announced its plans for taking Total Place forward by setting up new Community Budgets: the first set will go live in April next year.
The idea is for councils and their partners to put various strands of funding into one pot from which money will be allocated to spend on priorities mutually agreed by the organisations involved.
As with Total Place, Community Budgets will operate on the premise of breaking down barriers that prevent collaborative working across and between organisations, as well as improving results for local people while reducing costs.
Greater emphasis is placed on making services more people centred – something we are familiar with in adult social care.
Community Budgets, along with moves to transfer responsibility for public health back to local authorities as outlined in the government’s Public Health White Paper, mean social care and the health services will be increasingly required to adopt a joined up approach to providing services.
Andy Hancox
Director
Improvement and Efficiency
West Midlands
In this issue we bring you details of the Total Place approach to providing public services, and how it affects adult social care.
More than ever councils are seeking to find creative solutions to meet the challenge of ensuring satisfaction with local services, while at the same time fulfilling government demands for efficiency savings.
Total Place was a high profile attempt at addressing this issue. The aim was to look at spending as a whole, across organisations, to identify where money is spent unnecessarily due to duplication and bureaucracy, and to maximise the impact by sharing funds and resources.
The approach was tested in a year-long pilot study involving 13 areas - three localities in the West Midlands, namely Birmingham, Worcestershire and a sub-region of Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire. Results show great potential for local authorities to reduce costs and improve outcomes for local people. Their focus ranged from intensive family intervention to gang crime, from frequent hospital users to high need neighbourhoods.
Recently the coalition government announced its plans for taking Total Place forward by setting up new Community Budgets: the first set will go live in April next year.
The idea is for councils and their partners to put various strands of funding into one pot from which money will be allocated to spend on priorities mutually agreed by the organisations involved.
As with Total Place, Community Budgets will operate on the premise of breaking down barriers that prevent collaborative working across and between organisations, as well as improving results for local people while reducing costs.
Greater emphasis is placed on making services more people centred – something we are familiar with in adult social care.
Community Budgets, along with moves to transfer responsibility for public health back to local authorities as outlined in the government’s Public Health White Paper, mean social care and the health services will be increasingly required to adopt a joined up approach to providing services.
Andy Hancox
Director
Improvement and Efficiency
West Midlands
How assistive technologies can deliver efficient social care and health
Hosted by Improvement and Efficiency West Midlands, this one day event is by invitation only and sees the launch of the West Midlands assistive technology information website.
It takes place on 4 March 2011, in The Studio, Cannon Street, Birmingham.
Read more
It takes place on 4 March 2011, in The Studio, Cannon Street, Birmingham.
Read more
Virtual demonstration of assistive technology
National charity, Home Farm Trust, has launched an online virtual smart house to demonstrate how technology and gadgets can be used to help vulnerable people stay independent and safe in their homes.
The site features a range of gadgets for use around the home, such as fingerprint door locks, bogus caller panic alarms, voice prompts to remind people of things to do, and environmental controls to switch on and off TVs and lights.
Read more
The site features a range of gadgets for use around the home, such as fingerprint door locks, bogus caller panic alarms, voice prompts to remind people of things to do, and environmental controls to switch on and off TVs and lights.
Read more
The public service challenge: implementing the lessons from Total Place
As the public sector implements the next stage of Total Place, this joint publication highlights the lessons from the pilot studies.
Produced by the Local Government Group and the 'Municipal Journal', it serves to collate all the views of the Total Place participants in one source document.
Read more
Produced by the Local Government Group and the 'Municipal Journal', it serves to collate all the views of the Total Place participants in one source document.
Read more
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