citizen directed support newsletter - july 2011

Citizen Directed Support

Changing lives together

Swansea Social Services July 2011

Welcome to the July

edition of the CDS

Newsletter. It always

seems a bit hectic at this

time of year as we all start

to take our annual leave

and for those of us with

younger children try to

juggle the childcare over

the school holidays.

Over the last couple of

months we have been

quietly progressing many

of the workstreams

around CDS but

specifically the LATC

project. I will be

organising some open

sessions in September to

bring you up to date with

the conclusions of that

work. However, the ‘Paul

Thomas’ work has really

been the ‘head-liner’

recently and I am excited

about the opportunities

that are being discussed

and explored.

Thanks to everyone who

completed the LATCO

questionnaire, again most

of you have requested

more face to face

meetings with senior

managers and I am

currently reorganising

senior management

meetings for next year

with a view to having an

‘open session’ which will

be open to all staff.

I have continued on my

visits to various projects,

teams and services which

included taking part in a

baking session with

residents at Cartref. So a

big thank you to staff who

have sent me invites—

keep them coming in.

I hope you all enjoy any

summer holidays you

have planned.

Best Wishes

Deborah Driffield Head of Adult Services

Welcome Address from HoS Welcome from the Editorial Team

2

Outcome focused long term domiciliary care—your flexible friend!

3

Better supporting people living with dementia in their own homes

4

Work with Paul Thomas

4

Job Swap 5

Discussion around the Teams—Part 2

6

Putting relationships back at the heart of assessment and care management

8

Cwmbwrla’s Bees 9

Launch of new signpost service for adult with a learning disability

10

Consultation on Commissioning Framework and Plans

10

Norton Lodge Garden Party

11

Ty Cila—Liann’s Story 11

In this issue:

something you’d like to read more about.

Thanks to those who’ve sent in news

stories from the services for this

newsletter. People do enjoy reading

these, so please keep sending them in -

even if it’s just a few lines we can find a

corner for it. If you have a photo too,

better still! And if there’s something

you’d like the newsletter to cover, let us

know.

Remember we’re happy to include:

• Case studies of successful outcomes

and/or community involvement

• Personal stories from service users

• Positive snippets of good news or

innovative ideas (just a few lines is

fine)

• Links to articles that you’ve found

particularly useful or inspiring

Colleagues in independent sector and

voluntary organisations are also very

welcome to submit contributions.

The next newsletter will be published in

early autumn and the copy deadline for

contributions is 20 September.

If you have anything to contribute to a

future newsletter – an article, a question,

a tip, a link or even an idea for an article

you’d like someone else to write – please

contact the editorial team.

Helen Barney - 636902

[email protected]

Angela Morgan - 636902

[email protected]

Welcome to the July 2011 issue of

Social Services’ newsletter focusing

on Citizen Directed Support.

During the Planning Team’s

discussions with Assessment and

Care Management teams around

the TASS agenda this spring staff

were asked about how useful they

found this newsletter. Perhaps

unsurprisingly, many people said

they didn’t really have time to read

it, and some who did read it said

they didn’t have time to put ideas

they got from it into practice.

Others said that information they

got from the newsletter helped

them join up different aspects of

the work going on in Adult

Services.

So we’re looking at ways to make

this newsletter shorter, while still

trying to cover the wide range of

subjects that contribute to the

TASS agenda. In the longer term,

we hope to take up a suggestion

that the newsletter is produced as

a fully-fledged e-newsletter, where

readers will see the headline and a

brief taster of each story and have

the option of clicking on a link to

read more. This needs some time

to develop though so for the time

being we are trying to include

shorter articles wherever possible.

There’ll also be a list of contents in

the email that notifies you that a

new newsletter is out, so you can

quickly see whether there is

The recent formal inquiry into the human rights of older

people receiving care at home in England has highlighted how

rigid time - task care planning, along with poor support and

working conditions at the frontline, can result in poor

outcomes for older people. City and County of Swansea,

working in partnership with long-term domiciliary care

providers, the Care Council for Wales and Value Wales, took

part in a national workshop on 14th June to explore how we

might develop a more flexible and responsive long term

domiciliary care service with a stronger focus on outcomes.

The event was oversubscribed and the results of a lively

debate involving 60 delegates will be published in a workshop

report over the summer. Within City & County of Swansea,

members of the Contracts Team are co-ordinating a project to

explore more flexible outcome-focused commissioning with

our current providers.

For further information contact [email protected]

Outcome-focused long-term domiciliary care—your flexible friend!

"Honest

disagreement

is often a

good sign of

progress." -

Mahatma

Gandhi

"In the

middle of

difficulty lies

opportunity."

- Albert

Einstein

“It does not

matter how

slowly you go

as long as

you do not

stop." –

Confucius

Better supporting people living with dementia in their own homes

Whilst there have been some very encouraging developments regarding person centred dementia care in care homes in City & County of Swansea, it is recognised that we need to do a lot more work in terms of understanding the support needs of people living with dementia in their own homes. There is interest in developing a more flexible and responsive ‘support at home’ service within City & County of Swansea, bringing

together assessment and care management teams, in-house homecare and day services, voluntary sector and ABMU Health Board staff to explore a better way of working, including the use of ‘Just Checking’ assistive technology to help in the assessment process, and a more positive approach to risk management.

A small group of in-house homecare, assessment and care management and CSU staff visited the successful

‘Living Well’ dementia project in Flintshire in early June, and a task and finish working group has been established to take this development forward within City & County of Swansea.

Further updates on this work will be published in later editions of the newsletter. For further information con-tact [email protected]

On Twitter, Paul

Thomas has been

enthusiastic about the

work he’s doing in

Swansea. Here are just

a few of his tweets.

Helping to transform

Social Service Care

from the frontline up

is quite scary stuff. The result I'm sure

will be phenomenal though (6/6/11)

If you tap into your frontline staff the

power you unleash is breathtaking.

Social Service workers know how to

make a massive difference. (22/6/11)

Cracking session in Swansea this

morning. Positive, professional and

highly supportive of change to frontline

systems. Brilliant stuff (4/7/11)

The second phase of Paul Thomas’ work with

Assessment and Care Management is now

underway, involving five teams - the Mental

Health Teams (collectively), the Learning

Disability Team, Morriston Hospital’s Older

People Team, the Central Locality Older

People Team and the Younger Physically

Disabled Adults Team

A series of half day workshops have taken

place and a number of different approaches

are being explored.

All the teams have identified the things that

they would like to change /feel make their

jobs more difficult, and the resulting wish

lists are now being prioritised. Central,

Morriston and YPD teams have a number of

themes in common in their lists, and a

workshop is planned where some of the

processes can be looked at by all three

teams.

Work with Paul Thomas - A brief update

Job Swap

Learning Disability Services are actively investigating ways of developing a more flexible workforce. One way of doing this might be to encourage staff to undertake job swaps.

Phil Emanuel is a Day Ser-vices Officer at Trewarren Special Needs Service. Last year he had the opportunity to spend three months working at Glandwr Day Service, so we thought we’d have a chat with him to find out more about how it went. Phil told us:

“What I did wasn’t exactly a job swap, due to unexpected circumstances, but it did give me the opportunity to find out what life was like in a different type of day service.

“I’ve worked in Learning Disability services for over 20 years, during which time I’ve undertaken a variety of roles in different locations. I’d mentioned to my manager in supervision that I would be interested in a job swap in order to broaden my experience, so when the opportunity in Glandwr came up, I guess I was the obvious person to ask.

“Glandwr is a very different service from Trewarren. The service users are able to get involved in a broader range of activities, so it’s a bigger service with a lower staff

ratio. At first it was a bit of a culture shock working with people who wanted to communicate verbally; in recent years I’ve mainly concentrated on non-verbal communication, so I had to refresh old skills I hadn’t used for a while.

“Probably the most positive thing for me was the way I felt my skills were valued and appreciated by my new team. When you’ve worked in the same role for a while you’re not exactly taken for granted, but colleagues know what you can do and expect you to just get on and do it.”

At the time Phil went to Glandwr they were going through a period of change.

“It did take me outside my comfort zone at times. However I felt I was able to have a positive input into a stressful situation, and bring some sense of order and purpose. The positive feedback I got from my new colleagues gave me confidence and fresh energy to tackle the challenges I faced. I think seeing how an outsider approached the work also helped the managers see how they might develop their service with the right sort of people in post.

“Perhaps the biggest frustration was not being

able to get fully involved with all aspects of the work that I would have done in a longer secondment. For example I wasn’t able to undertake a key working role and have input into longer term plans for service users.

“The change of scene definitely did me good, professionally. It gave me a confidence boost and some reassurance that my skills and experience were valued. I returned to my original role feeling refreshed and with a more positive attitude.

“I’d definitely recommend a job swap to others, and would love the chance to do it again in another service. But if I did, I’d like it to be a proper two-way swap, with a bit more time for me and the managers concerned to plan it all out. And I’d like to do it for longer, so that I had the chance to build relationships with colleagues and get involved in outcomes for service users.”

So, if you’re a manager, and you’re concerned that your staff sometimes feel stale or bored in their role, a job swap might be an option to consider. If more people got involved in this it could become the normal way for people to develop or refresh their skills and experience and shape their career.

Between late March and mid May members of the Planning Team visited Assessment and

Care Management teams to discuss current issues linked with the transformation of services.

The last newsletter had a summary of the discussions that took place with teams in Learning

Disability and Older People’s Services. This time here’s a summary of discussions with the

Hospital Teams, the Community Mental Health Teams and the Younger Adults Team.

Common across all these teams was a feeling that professional social work skills are being

eroded by bureaucracy and processes. The idea of working in a more person-centred way

was therefore very attractive, but there were doubts that this could be achieved in the

current climate of cutbacks.

Hospital Teams

Some of the points that came out of these

meetings were; there were people present

who thought the processes for admission to

DCAS is rigid and inflexible, and is resulting

in inconsistent care provision and negative

experiences for some services users and

their families. This was a reflection on the

processes rather than staff in the DCAS

teams.

Linked to this were concerns about the

extent to which the Intermediate Support

Team duplicates DCAS work.

People also had negative views about FACS

Panels. In order to enable people to qualify

for limited resources, staff felt they had to

‘disable’ people rather than look at their

strengths. In addition they feel the system

undermines their professionalism and

judgment, and limits creativity. It also slows

down the discharge process and in some

cases has meant that people picked up new

infections after becoming fit for discharge.

There were concerns and frustrations about

the working relationship between Health

and Social Services and the associated blame

culture.

Hospital-based staff could see the potential

of the work being done under the Community

Pillar, but as they are not linked into the

community, would like a single point of

contact for information.

There was little knowledge or understanding

of what the proposed LATC was, but interest

in knowing more.

Some people felt that, in the current

financial climate, the Council should have a

role to advocate for local vulnerable people,

and defend services to national government.

Community Mental Health Teams

(CMHTs)

Some of the points that came out of these

meetings were:

CMHT social work staff feel they are different

from other Social Services teams, partly

because of their joint working with Health

Services and the fact that different proc-

esses apply to their work (e.g. the CPA),

partly because of the regular one-to-one

social work time they spent with clients each

week. This is often their main resource

rather than a referral on to a service.

Because of these differences many of them

see themselves as detached from the TASS

agenda, and queried its relevance to their

work.

Continued/…..

Discussions around the Teams – Part 2

There were concerns that, as Health was not

currently working to the same agenda, nor

indeed with the same geographical areas, it

may be difficult for the CMHTs to become

fully involved.

Some teams had practical concerns about

the proposed LATC. These included where

the paperwork for referral to community

services (such as CREATE) would be com-

pleted, whether services within the LATC

would have access to Paris, and whether

the LATC might ‘cherry pick’ those service

users who are easier to work with. Some

felt outcomes for service users might be less

positive.

Although there was some cynicism and

scepticism about Paul Thomas’ work, most

people felt they would like to be involved

with it, just to see if it really could produce a

return to traditional social work values.

There was some doubt that mental health

clients would be comfortable using

community-based resource centres.

Younger Adults’ Team

Some of the points that came out of this

meeting were:

The redevelopment of the UA was seen as

very important, since the current model is

not user-friendly (for either staff or service

users). Team members thought person-

centred thinking tools should be integral to

the new UA. However there were concerns

that staff from their team had not been in-

volved in the redesign – they felt all teams

should have an opportunity to get involved

as different teams focus on different parts of

the form.

They would also like to get more involved

with developing Local Area Co-ordination.

Team members felt there was a lack of

easily-digestible information about what is

happening around the TASS agenda, and

also about changes to services. Suggestions

for improving this included a bulletin board

for information, and an online discussion/

peer support forum where staff from differ-

ent teams could share ideas and information.

The DCAS system was confusing, and was

felt to have been designed without reference

to practitioners’ ideas and experience.

There was cautious optimism about the work

with Paul Thomas.

Discussions around the Teams – Part 2

Volume 1, Issue 1

"We build too

many walls and

not enough

bridges." - Isaac

Newton

“Go as far as you

can see; when you

get there you'll be

able to see far-

ther." -

Thomas Carlyle

We have recently been successful in

securing an Older People & Ageing Re-

search and Development Network (OPAN)

grant to host a seminar on relationship

centred assessment and care management

across health and social care, with a view

to explore the key issues and develop

potential research questions.

There is national concern that we have

focussed too much on forms and processes

within assessment and care management.

Relationship centred approaches recognise

the central importance of relationships and

the interdependent well-being of service

users, carers and frontline staff. Our aim

is to explore how we can best nurture this

aspect of an effective assessment and care

management service. This work is

therefore linked closely to the remodelling

of assessment and care management

under the TASS programme, including the

work with Dr Paul Thomas on systemic

change. It has received national interest,

and we will therefore be working closely

with the SSIA, the Care Council for Wales

and Welsh Government in planning this

event, which will take place sometime in

the autumn.

For further information contact

[email protected]

Putting relationships back at the heart of assessment and care management

Volume 1, Issue 1

"The best reformers the

world has ever seen are

those who commence on

themselves." -

George Bernard Shaw

"The value of an idea lies in

the using of it." -

Thomas Edison

"It is amazing what you can

accomplish if you do not

care who gets the credit." -

Harry S Truman

CWMBWRLA’S BEES: A sustainable initiative!”

Last summer, Cwmbwrla Day

Centre started a new initiative:

beekeeping. A hive has been

set up in a quiet corner of the

grounds. One service user has

attended a bee-keeping course

and is taking on most of the

responsibility for the activity,

though others are getting

interested.

The idea came from one of the

occupational therapists who has

her own hives. She helped us

to obtain European funding for

the project and register the

centre with the West Glamorgan

Bee Keeping Association, who

also run the bee-keeping

course.

We had difficulties sourcing a

swarm of bees locally so Steve

drove up to a company in

Shropshire to pick them up.

The bees arrived on six frames

and were transferred to our

waiting hive. Throughout the

winter, we have fed the bees,

as there is little pollen available

for them in the wild. Despite

concerns regarding the number

that died, our hive is now

thriving and we have harvested

our first jars of honey. We only

took three frames full of honey

from the hive, which gave us

7lb of honey, plus a small

amount of bees’ wax, which we

have extracted and molded.

Our bees have created a lot of

interest and we are hoping to

set up a web camera which will

enable others to see inside a

hive and watch how we look

after them without having to

go near the bees.

Below our ‘head beekeeper’

tells us what the bees have

meant to him.

Mr Beekeeper of CDC

“I am not a great lover of

people and yet most of my

skills lie within working with

people. Until, that was, I

discovered that CDC has bees,

then a light came on, that looks

interesting. What would I need

to become a beekeeper? In

addition, of course the big

bonus is that I am working with

animals.

To my shock and surprise the

training is not rocket science

and the input into caring for the

bees, well let’s say, an hour

once a week maybe two in the

summers, not a lot and it’s

something I strongly believe

anybody can do. The marvel

for me is of course to see the

bees in the hive, or the ladies

as I call them, and as a joke, I

tell everybody that they all have

a name about 60,000 of them.

For me the biggest benefit has

been confidence, as bees will

sting you if you handle them

wrongly. A couple of months

ago I wouldn’t have gone near a

hive without complete

protection but now with the

knowledge, skills and

confidence I gained I’m quite

happy to go out and check them

just wearing a veil as I am able

to now judge how the bees will

respond. I also feel I have

control over something, not in a

negative way, as looking after

bees has responsibilities and

therefore in many ways as we

are reliant on them, they are

reliant on me.

By doing the bees, it has put

me in a position whereby I have

had to work with groups of

people who are not linked with

CDC. Although I sometimes

find this difficult, on a positive

note, without their input I would

not have the up-to-date skills

and knowledge to look after the

bees. I would strongly

recommend anyone to join a

local group of beekeepers.”

Read more about the bees and

other activities at Cwmbwrla

Day Centre at

www.mentalhealthswansea.com

/cdc

are striving to achieve.

The Commissioning Plans are based on the Framework and set out how Social Services intends to use its re-sources in the near future in each service area, and what changes we are going to make. These documents are on the website at www.swansea.gov.uk/socialservicesplans.

A three week consultation on the draft Framework and Plans took place

As part of the remodelling of Adult Services we are developing a new Commissioning Framework and a Commissioning Plan for each service area – Physical Disability, Learning Disability, Mental Health, Older People and Carers.

The Commissioning Framework sets out the social care needs of the population of Swansea, the way we currently spend the money allocated to Social Services, and the values and priorities we

during July to get views from a wide range of stakeholders. Feedback from the consultation is now being considered by the commissioning groups, and the plans may be updated before being considered by elected members in late August.

For further information, or if you have any comments on the Plans, please contact Heather Hughes, Planning Manager, on 636289 or at [email protected]

Wednesday 6th April saw the official launch of the new Signpost Service. The event was held at St Phillips Community Centre in the heart of the city where the service runs every Wednesday afternoon between 1.30-3.00pm.

Service users, care managers and staff enjoyed a cream tea while celebrating the opening of this new and exciting service.

The service is for adults with a learning disability who live within in the City & County of Swansea and is run by The Flexible Support Service within Social Services. Staff will be available to provide support and on-the-spot advice and information or signpost individuals to the support needed. It is anticipated that the resource will become a valuable one for those service users with little or no services at present.

A service user who had been attending Signpost for a number of weeks before the official launch said “Signpost is great, I can meet my friends and discuss any problems I have with bills and letters, and I would recommend coming to Signpost”.

For further information on Signpost contact Rebecca John or Alison Leggett on 01792 470616

Launch of new signpost service for adult with a learning disability

Consultation on Commissioning Framework and Plans

Volume 1, Issue 1

Cathy Murray, Principal Officer, officially opens the Signpost Ser-vice

Norton Lodge Garden Party In the May Bulletin we let you know about a garden

party taking place at Norton Lodge on 28th May as

part of a community volunteering weekend. Social

Services staff linked up with volunteers from

Swansea’s Project Hope and young people from the

Red Café in Mumbles. The event was designed to

attract local people to volunteer to make friends with

residents living in care homes and older people living

at home alone.

This fits with the aims of our Community pillar,

bringing together various providers of social care and

support in a locality, with the hope that everyone in

that community will benefit.

This event was a great success, with well over 200

visitors dropping by. Staff at Norton Lodge asked us

to share a few pictures from the event.

disability, she had to

learn about our culture,

social etiquette, daily

living skills and even our

monetary system.

Now, having been in our

service for three and a

half years, she has made

fantastic progress. So

much so that this May, at

the age of 20, she was

able to move out into a

shared bungalow, where

she is continuing to

complete her education

and improve her

independence and

Ty Cilâ - a residential unit

for younger physically

disabled adults under 65

years of age - recently

had had a successful

conclusion to a service

user’s stay that staff

there would like to share.

In 2007 a young lady,

aged just 17, came into

our service having

previously lived abroad.

She attended school and

later, Swansea College at

Tycoch.

During this time, as well

as coping with her

participation in society.

This is a true success

story for the many pro-

fessionals who worked

together to help her

achieve this goal, and an

even bigger success for

her.

Ty Cilâ—Liann’s Story

citizen directed support newsletter - july 2011

Documents