Social Services Research Group Scotland held an event in June at CoSLA HQ in Edinburgh – ‘Person-Centred Care: the effective use and dissemination of Knowledge’ (you can see the flyer here. I was at the event, which provided an interested range of underpinning research and practice examples, both from Scotland and England.

I grabbed a number of people and got them on film, and here’s my video report on the event. I also kept track of the day by tweeting throughout the event, and below the video is a list of the tweets I posted (with some minor cosmetic changes). It’s not a full report on the event, but it does give a flavour of what was discussed. You can get most of the presentations from the event at the SSRG website here, so hopefully with the videos, the tweets, and the presentations you can get a feel for the day! (And you can follow me at twitter.com/careknowledge)

Tweets:

About to go into SSRG event on personalisation in Edinburgh

Paul Hambleton introducing COSLA HQ and event.. Apologies for noise from Edinburgh teamwork outside

2x SSRG Scotland events forthcoming, one on safeguarding adults, the other on safeguarding children

Topic for today is person centred care… Wendy Harrington ADSW up now

Wendy Harrington ADSW/SE working on Changing Lives agenda with authorities

Wendy H reflecting on 21st C review and increased public expectation. Personalisation is one of three priorities for her

Wendy H is looking for good practice and feeding back across country.

Wendy H is promoting personalisation not person centred care, as care in a paternalistic way is less desirable than personalisation

Person centred practice won’t necessarily change services, organizational change is necessary, self esteem and citizenship are key

People First not service users

Staff who provide care -are- providing excellent services, but staff in our systems work within organizational constraints

Don’t underestimate the power of community, support and reablement. Don’t assess too quickly. Have high expectations.

Information captured at national level should capture qualitative information on quality of life, beyond simple school qualifactions

SE and ADSW happy to work together, more than just social work. Much to be optimistic about.

Social work students confused about personalisation – not sure why this isn’t happening already, don’t have the old ways in their heads

Wendy H now talking about evidence. Change is on the scale as closure of long stay hospitals. If no evidence are values enough

Wendy H closes – ” with sufficient thrust even pigs will fly”

Scottish Govt perspective now Double act from SDS team, previously vulnerable adults team, changed that name due to focus on vulnerable

Chris Rafferty SG talking about SDS and clarifying (he hopes!) diff between that and DIrect Payments.

SG welcomes progress to date, but wants faster change and hence the govt strategy. Wants SDS to be main delivery mechanism

Looking at stats on who is getting SDS now, and plans to broaden that out in terms of numbers and types of people getting SDS.

Mention of three test sites – glasgow, highland and dumfries and Galloway. More on these later in the day. Also work in NHS Lothian.

SG Strategy provides a framework for significant change across all clients and age groups

SG Strategy has a values framework against which the strategy will be measured. Coproduction is key.

SG Strategy should shift balance of provision, improve health and wellbeing, radical increase in uptake of SDS, with Direct Payments

SG Strategy has a clear role for support organisations in SDS and DP, clear role for social work in outcome focussed assessment+ review

SG wants CCPs to be more closely involved

SG Strategy hopes to achieve a proficient body of trained and experiences PA employers, training for PAs

SG people employing PAs want to be responsible for training their PAs, which was a surprise.

SG Strategy next steps – analysing the 140 responses, and feedback from more than ten events in LAs, which were a rich resource

SG saying that championing of SDS in a LA at a snr level was a key issue in how far the LA was in embracing SDS.

SG SDS Strategy now having a minor rewrite following consultations. Also look at training for the whole workforce.

SG SDS Strategy – some want to take risk, others risk averse and want to protect individuals.

SG SDS Strategy will link better to GIRFEG, housing. Still too professional in terms of drafting, maybe a Same As You approach.

SG SDS Strategy will engage through stories and narratives. Values and principles. Training. Not much to be taken out in redraft.

SG SDS implementation strategy, hub and spoke, coproduction, Independent Living, recommendations to Government itself on areas such as

SG SDS ..economic analysis, RAS and DP rates, eligibility criteria,legislation .

SG SDS Strategy will look at issue of eligibility criteria, need clarity when moving between councils. Bill to consolidate.

SG SDS Bill will consolidate. ‘Opt Out’ is an issue, as is consent Especially when going through guardianship, and q of res care.

SG Scottish elections next year, hope that even if administration change, most will still proceed. should be announcement soon.

SG responding to questions from the floor. Reablement and it’s role is being looked at, should PAs be registered with SSSC?

SG new models ie to get PA from an organisation. Tea break coming up…

SSRG Personalisation event, one video grabbed. Next up Christina Naismith from SWIA, on messages from inspections.

SWIA is about to become SCSWIS alongside HIP. Messages today coming from March 2010 report, which focussed on adults.

SWIA talking about context and themes. Big changes over last 20yrs, and we’re changing some of those changes.

SWIA inspection looked at four themes : choice, supporting and protecting, independence, involvement

SWIA inspection interviewed, focus groups, observation of practice, inspections, surveys, stats, spending information

SWIA are using ‘personalised approaches’ – another entry in the lexicon…

SWIA key message : most sw services at early stages of focussing on how to achieve and measure better outcomes for adults

SWIA intensive home care limited, limited choice and control, increased needs and service pressures

SWIA prevention and early interventions not readily available in some areas, being reduced in others, so risk of escalation of need

SWIA eligibility criteria being tightened, but not necessarily monitored or reported

SWIA support for people with dementia needs to get ‘a whole lot better’

SWIA in most areas health professional input into single shared assessment is limited

Christina Naismith from SWIA reporting on their recent report. Electronic sharing of information still an issue.

SWIA Quality of risk assessments of vulnerable adults is variable, and needs improvement in some areas.

SWIA Issues of choice and control. Two thirds of adults agreed they had been given choose. Organisations good at sharing info

SWIA getting warm in the COSLA conference room!

SWIA some issues around seeing care plans, assessments, or having annual reviews

SWIA many examples of good work, still issues in home care delivery : lack of time, changing staff, timings of visits unreliable etc

SWIA Direct Payments uptake has been slow. Have made some recommendations. admin systems not flexible.

SWIA What helps in giving people choice and control? Information. Options. Flexibility and responsiveness. Innovation. Risktaking.

SWIA .. Involvement in assessment and decision making, policy and practice guidance on risk assessment in person centred planning..

SWIA staff confidence important. Now looking at challenges ahead – ageing pop, dementia, complex issues with yp, older carers..

SWIA increasing alcohol and drug misuse, reducing resources. Ending on higher note with key opportunities.. Whole systems change..

SWIA learning from best practice, new legislation. End of presentation.

Lunch!

having had SWIA and SG we now have Jack Blaik from Edinburgh City Council, runner-up in Social Worker of the Year!

Jack Blaik, social worker specialising in DP, ILF, reckons he can bore for Britain. Wants chair to pull him off if he goes on too long

Jack Blaik talking about SDS purchase card, with various monies loaded onto it. Not a credit card, more a store card. Council managed.

Blaik no way of overusing, no overdrafts, 36 merchant controls ie to bar alcohol, vendor identifier, online statements better than papr

Blaik : integrating with Swift, monthly payments loaded by council, some cash withdrawals possible. Ten piloteers in 09-10, now 180

Blaik more work with RBS, SG giving council support. Shared Learning Event planned for 2011. advantages for council are many and clear.

Blaik service users welcome paperless nature, flexibility, transparency. Better skilled, fewer staff required.

some issues for users, telebanking, rbs or nothing, PIN problems. Load ILF? Clawback? Recommendations for others include no councillogo

Blaik now talking about fast track DP. strategic decision to. Offer SG monies for dementia as DP by default. Paperless process.

Blaik finishing with Wellingtons words to a young officer : in the absence of guidance, march towards the sound of gunfire
Martin Stevens from KCL on now. Videod him at lunchtime. will be on CK and sites.

Stevens is going to look at the IB pilot evaluation in England, and personalisation and risk and safeguarding.

Stevens is looking at the IB pilot evaluation in England, and personalisation and risk and safeguarding.

Evaluation of IBs included RCT, user interviews with users IB leads, and providers. Followup limited to 6mths due to govt needing speed

Stevens outcomes showed bigger IBs = better outcomes, better QoL, but some mixed outcomes.

Stevens addressing concerns around safeguarding ie checked and unchecked (ISA and CRB), trained and untrained, vulnerability..

Stevens looking at implications in austerity era : decommissioning, RAS makes budget cutting easier, pressure on informal care…

Julie Ridley UCLAN up now about evaluation of SDS test site pilot in Scotland, which is a work in progress

Ridley SDS test pilots part of wider programme, the SDS were in three LA sites, and three interventions were chosen to be looked at..

Ridley 1 cutting red tape 2 leadership and training 3 invest to save/bridging finance

Ridley 3 stages – baseline, process, implications for practice. Various research methods. nb Have videod her for CK and website

Ridley now covering literature review findings, nb all PPTs and vids on www..org.uk in due course

Ridley quick overview of 3 test sites, chosen by SG in consultation with CoSLA and ADSW. so far there are variations on a theme.

Ridley Dumfries and Galloway are adapting In Control model, Glasgow expanded systems to increasing existing In Control project,

Ridley Highlands are promoting DP to LD and OP. what next for the evaluation? Moremeasuring process and outputs, then assessing implix

Final session is a perspective from Salford, led by David Entwistle, with additional Bunting and Syson

Salford will give practical and honest appraisal of their work. Reassured by preceding content. initial background to the authority

Salford citizens generally don’t need lessons in assertiveness… Good partnership working .. Co-location .. First DP in 1996

Salford making good use of Reform Grant, new director, impower external consultancy who identified strengths, weaknesses, structures

Salford : vision, leadership, workforce devt, engagement, developing an operating model for the future. QCQ approved of engagement.

Salford now describing programme management, five projects:customer journey, strategy and commissioning, finance, workforce, ICT

Salford supporting functions: user and carer involvement, stakeholder group, marketing and comms, community health and care champions

Salford clear on message to staff that move from care management to SDS via DP through supported points-based assessment RAS

Salford mature conversations needed around indicative amounts, practitioners and FLM rather than a panel, sodecisions close to practice

Salford Carers PB established at 200, 400, or 600 per annum. How to work with block of background support ie housing, with PB on top

Salford final bit from Alan Bunting, looking at how is fits into performance management, NI 130, PPF milestones ie ULO, info + advice

Salford NI 130 15% target set by GONW. actually achieving 19%. aiming at 30%, and to link to other per targets, and to review.

Salford NI 130 15pc target set by GONW. actually achieving 19pc aiming at 30pc and to link to other per targets, and to review.

3 case studies, now onto key issues, challenges, and opps. exit strategy from reform grant. Potential 1 in 7 reduction in sw staff.

Salford safeguarding referrals will go from 800 to 1000 to 1200, need to make sure that is not correlated to DP. Comments and questions

Person-centred care event now closing. Watch out for vids on website and CK Join the for discounts on future events and more.

This morning I was at a workshop at Suffolk Family Carers in Claydon, which looked at Self Directed Support and Direct Payments. Chris Pyburn and David Pintilie from Suffolk Adult and Community Directorate led the workshop, which included an overview from David on the policy background, and also a look at the latest Needs Assessment Questionnaire.

There was interactivity in the shape of opening introductions with biscuit confessions, then Chris took on the role of Bruce Forsythe in a ‘Play Your Cards Right’ quiz on facts and figures about SDS.

The RAS has been re-tuned in Suffolk recently, and discussions around the Indicative Budgets produced as an outcome of an assessment, and how these initial figures don’t always match the package of services finally agreed, were fascinating. As was the absolutely crucial role of the social worker to work with service users and carers to
tease out information and using their professional expertise to ensure that assessments accurately reflect their situation. And still lots of issues around what, and whom, money can be spent on.

There’s clearly a lot of work to be done in taking forward this big policy inititiave, and it was stressed several times that it’s going to be a long haul, instead of a quick fix, with the devil very much being in in the detail.

There will be a fuller video, courtesy of my colleague Rob, on the Suffolk ACS Stakeholder website, but here are a few videos of workshop attendees reflecting on the morning.

I was at Newmarket’s Rowley Mile Racecourse last Friday, at an event organised by Dyllis Faife for the Joint Improvement Partnership/ADASS/Improvement East. It was aimed at providers working in a number of local authorities in the east of the country, and featured a number of speakers and workshops. There were policy overviews and perspectives from Mike Hay, Head of Transformation at Cambridgeshire CC; Dr Sam Bennett from the DH looked at commissioning and contracting issues; and Les Billingham, Interim Head of Transformation and Independence from Thurrock Council, looked at a regional initiative on contracting. There was a presentation from the father of a young man who was receiving a personal budget and making good use of it; and David Wolverson, Executive Director of Dimensions, gave a view on the challenges faced by providers – not least in moving from having a £50kpa contract to provide support to an individual, to having a much smaller sum of money coming from that individual under the new regime.

Workshops sessions gave the opportunity for more interactivity, and I opted in to one to hear about Cambridgeshire’s Provider Champions Group. The day closed with sessions on adult safeguarding, marketing for providers, and the help that Business Link can give to providers. The event was perhaps a little top-heavy in terms of presentations from government (central and local), and could have done with losing a couple of presentations in favour of another workshop session, but was still a good day at the races!

When we set up CareKnowledge back in 2002, we were very pleased to establish a relationship with Pavilion Publishing, and license some of their content. Having spent many years running the National Institute for Social Work Library, their journals always stood out to me as providing articles with a real focus on management and practice issues, rather than being too academic in focus. And we also chose several of their books to go onto CareKnowledge – two excellent books on supervision, and Terry Scragg’s ‘Management at the Front Line’ textbook. They were successful with our readers, to the exent that one authority was about to advise all their managers to print off the textbook. I suggested that rather than using reams of printer paper, and boxes of toner cartridge, getting Pavilion to do them a special price on bulk copies would be more appropriate. They took up that suggestion.

In fact, we liked the Pavilion content moment we had a Victor Kiam moment (from his 1970s TV adverts : “I liked Remington Razors so much – I bought the company!”) Now we are an integrated unit, we are looking at innovative ways of bringing their content to the social care workforce. One of the first stages of this is to pilot an electronic version of Terry’s ‘Managing at the Front Line’, rather than simply providing a PDF of the textbook on CareKnowledge.

Which is why I was in Brighton this sunny morning, with Terry, and colleagues Jan and Kerry. We’re experimenting with software previously called Breeze (hence the title of this post), now Adobe Presenter, which enables a more interactive presentation of material.

And part of the Breeze presentation includes getting Terry on film to do a video voiceover for the text. We’re using the same Flip mini-camcorders we’re using for the Engagement projects we’re running, but I got Kerry to take some footage of Terry and I using my Kodak zi8 camcorder (other mini-camcorders are available!).

At the end of a couple of hours, we got Terry to re-do the opening sequence, and as you’ll see below, whilst not quite being a Dennis Norden moment, it did require a second take! We’ll have the electronic version of the opening part of the textbook – ‘On Becoming A Manager’ – online in a couple of weeks, and we’ll be very keen to get your feedback.

We’re sending out the first CareKnowledge emails using our new design.

The design is intended to make it easier for you to get to grips with the latest additions to CareKnowledge. We’re still providing highlights, but there are other areas of the email which are designed to profile other important content. We’ve also now got a weekly editorial blog from Jim Kennedy, with separate entries for adults and childrens services in England, and one for Scotland.

It’s been a team effort, including graphic designers, and developers, with the editorial team tweaking content to get the email nicely balanced between the columns. It would be a lot easier putting the email together if we simply produced a single email, but we feel it is important to provide different emails for service areas, and across England and Scotland.

We’ve got some exciting projects underway for CareKnowledge – and as interactivity and video blogging are elements of those, I’m going to introduce this new blog and user group by walking the walk with the video below..

 Comments below please! And you will find the CareKnowledge User Group here. If you want to register with us, can you email me in the first instance – mark.watson@pavilion-interactive.co.uk. And if you’re not familiar with CareKnowledge, head over to http://www.careknowledge.com.