Partnership and Integration

Quality standards

Effective partnerships are in place to commission and fully deliver fully integrated, high quality sustainable outcomes for people
People are encouraged to be involved in the design and delivery of their care and support as equal partners

Children’s Services

The development and provision of high quality accommodation for children and young people by transforming local residential and in-house placements.

The Transformation of Children’s Residential Services Programme has been instigated to respond to Conwy’s placement strategy 2022-2027, the significant pressure on the Independent Placements budget, and the Welsh Government’s Eliminate Profit agenda to remove profit from children looked after services by 2027. Our Social Care and Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee and Cabinet approved the programme in 2022.

Care homes and placements for children and young people ensure that their needs are met when they cannot live with their own family. They are a place for children and young people to be supported to develop and grow.

We aim to increase the number of local placements to enable children and young people who are currently out of county to return to the area, or closer to home, enabling them to retain their local roots, schools, culture, friends and known support networks.

The Transformation Programme operational group and the Children’s Residential Service has learnt much over the last twelve months and decided to focus on the three homes in development rather than start any new ones.

Bwthyn y Ddôl

The construction of the residential assessment centre, Bwthyn y Ddôl, a collaboration between Conwy County Borough Council (CCBC), Denbighshire County Council and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB), was completed and formally handed over to CCBC on 4November 2024.

The Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) inspection took place in November 2024 and achieved CIW registration for the four-bed assessment centre the following month. We expect the two-bed emergency provision to be registered in the final quarter of 2024-2025.

The primary aim of the assessment centre is to reunify children with their families and if that is not possible, to provide them with a longer-term placement in foster care or residential care. All residential staff and administrative staff are in post and fully operational and moved with the children from Ingleside (Phase 1) into the new build (Phase 2) in December 2024.

Hafarn y Wern

For young people who require residential care, we are redeveloping and renaming, Glan yr Afon in Mochdre to Hafan y Wern. The artist impression below shows how we expect it to look on completion.

Hafan y Wern will provide long-term accommodation for four children looked after by the Local Authority. The photograph below shows progress so far! Cabinet approved the staffing structure of twelve full-time colleagues in August 2024 and children will move in by June 2025.

Sylva Gardens

Sylva Gardens is a residential development that will provide three two-bedroom apartments, for three children with learning disabilities. They are looked after by the Local Authority, and two young people currently reside in independent out of county placements, at a distance from their parents, friends and communities.

Housing with Care Grant Funding (HCF) was secured from the Welsh Government and our partner, the Registered Social Landlord First Choice Housing Association (FCHA), who have part-funded the development. Bryn Build was the appointed contractor, and the development was completed by the end of January 2025, six months later than reported last year, due to several infrastructure issues that arose during construction.

Cabinet approved the staffing structure of 32 full-time staff in March 2024. We have appointed a Registered Manager and eight Residential Childcare Workers, and further posts will undergo recruitment in preparation for the opening date.

Improving our Foster Care Offer

At the beginning of 2024, we were fortunate to create four additional posts from the Eliminate Profit grant funding, as follows.

Duty Officer

Intended to divert tasks away from the Supervising Social Worker and increase capacity, internal staff changes prevented us from taking full advantage of this appointment.

Connected Persons Co-ordinator

The Connected Persons Co-ordinator role enhances the support to the Special Guardian, to encourage foster carers to seek Special Guardianship, and to prevent placement breakdown of existing arrangements.

With one staff member already undertaking this role, this additional post gave us a 100% increase, and this was most definitely a success. Both members of staff were able to actively support Special Guardians, and the additional capacity enabled them to offer a more direct, and supportive role.

One example of this success was that, following specific support, a young person who was a school refusal, returned to school on a full-time basis, and stabilised his home life.

Recruitment Officer

We recruited an additional Recruitment Officer in March 2024.

Having two Recruitment Officers was positive, with both having separate skill sets, and the ability to focus on Marketing and Recruitment separately. Additional marketing material, recruitment events and an appreciation day for foster carers was a benefit of the additional funding.

The Recruitment Officer was able to increase attendance at events, attend the ‘Paned a Sgwrs’ sessions at local libraries, and created further engagement and connection within the community, by raising awareness, displaying posters in shop windows, and banners in most of the county’s primary schools.

Short Break Social Worker

Our Short Break Social Worker has worked closely with the Recruitment Officers to generate some Short Breaks social media content and attended events to promote this service.

Following months of preparation, presenting and discussion, the new incentives for foster carers were achieved. Council Tax relief, parking permits and a Foster Friendly Employer policy were all achieved by August 2024.

Other activity in the fostering service

We received a fostering inspection from Care Inspectorate Wales in November 2024; verbal feedback, and the draft inspection report, were very positive.
We have seen a small increase in the number of foster carers, coupled with a greater retention rate this year.
If the Eliminate Profit grant funding is extended into 2025/26, we will recruit a Duty Officer and Connected Persons Co-Ordinator roles, as they are an identified need.
The Recruitment Officer and Marketing Officer will continue to focus on the areas of need, such as focusing on short breaks, keeping siblings together and teenagers.
With a lack of growth in the Short Break Disability domain, we need to understand this sector fully and explore how other local authorities are meeting this need outside of their traditional fostering resources.

The Mind of My Own app

We have mentioned the Mind of My Own (MOMO) app in previous reports as it provides a convenient and engaging way for children and young people to share their views with us via an online portal. Although this is now a regular feature of our work with Children Looked After, we continue to promote the app to bring more professionals on board and maintain enthusiasm for its use.

We have provided support to Foster Carers to increase their familiarity and confidence with the app, utilising their regular coffee morning meetings and running training sessions via Teams. Since April 2024, we have offered six-weekly online sessions to Foster and Kinship Carers, and a Foster Carer representative attends our monthly operational meetings.

We have provided training to independent foster agencies, with plans to schedule more. Since November 2024, MOMO have offered new bi-weekly support sessions, with separate sessions for staff, and parents and carers.

Despite the success of MOMO, we are aware that legacy consultation methods are still in use. Our Independent Safeguarding and Reviewing Officers feel that the legacy forms collect a greater depth of information to feed into care planning and review processes. Further discussion has led us to feel that meaningful engagement is the priority, irrespective of the methods used, so although we will promote the app, we will leave alternative online forms/booklets as an option for those who prefer them.

Last year we talked about conducting a survey to provide further insights and help to maximise the benefits of MOMO. Participants told us that:

I feel having this as an app is very handy as most young people engage better with electronic devices.

Provides them with the freedom to express their views when the time is convenient to them.

SW [Social Workers] are currently overloaded and don’t feel they have the time to use this with their children or children are refusing.

Following on from the survey, we have provided or arranged additional training sessions for services such as Kickstart and the new Bwthyn y Ddôl children’s assessment centre. Examples of good practice have emerged, such as using the apps as a way of assessing digital literacy, and we will share these as examples to inspire other members of the workforce.

Engaging with Care Leavers

We have continued to introduce a new practice model for engaging with care-experienced young people, by working in partnership with them and encouraging them to take part in research with Bangor University. We have been able to focus on what is important to young people and ensure that the toolkit devised meets those needs.

A symposium was undertaken in September 2024, where the outcome of the research and the toolkit were shared widely. We hope that this will result in a consistent approach for all young people who have experience of the care system.

This year we have dedicated some much-needed time to gathering feedback from young people who use our service. We undertook a piece of work with some of our Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASCs) around expectations and roles of staff. Students within the team produced leaflets for the young people regarding what they can expect from services and who will be involved in their care. They also produced a leaflet for staff, informing them of their roles and responsibilities when working with UASCs.

Consultation with Care Leavers regarding the Small Steps Big Future website revealed that they did not want to manage the website themselves, so this will no longer be a sustainable resource. We will instead look to transfer some of the more pertinent information to the Local Authority website.

Care Leavers also informed us that Care Leaver Week was no longer something they wished to take part in, as they felt the event singled them out and was not inclusive. Rather than Care Leavers Week we will instead focus on each young person as an individual. For example, we will celebrate all meaningful events and religious holidays by forwarding a small token in recognition of the event, e.g. Christmas, Eid and birthdays.

To ensure that we continue to check in with young people who access our service we have added feedback sessions to our annual audit plan.

Adult Services

Developing a mental wellness pathway with the Health Board

Last year, we talked about closer working with the Local Health Board and internal colleagues to ensure that mental health support pathways are smoother between organisations and for individuals moving to adulthood.

The Local Authority and Health Board Managers meet on a regular basis to ensure that service users receive the right care at the right time, and we mitigate any identified issues. We also attend a joint meeting to provide a multi-professional approach to those who have issues with mental health and substance misuse.

A series of monthly, half-day drop-ins with staff from Conwy Mind was a productive use of time and ensured practitioners understood what Mind could offer and gave space to discuss cases and referrals in-depth. This then evolved into a weekly meeting to ensure that we utilise the support that Mind has to offer and that, where necessary, there is a joint approach to cases, which is a valued and regular part of our practice.

We have begun to develop a pathway to straddle the Mental Wellness Team, Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) and substance misuse services (SMS), which is evolving and building on relationships to improve the multi-disciplinary approach and enhance the experience for people we support. Through this relationship building, we have also been able to create a monthly psychology clinic, which gives social workers the opportunity to discuss cases and receive advice from a psychological perspective to enhance how we work with people with complex needs.

Continued improvement is required in terms of the pace of work to build and embed the pathway for a continuum of care with the Local Health Board and CMHT, specifically. However, the monthly meeting between managers of the Mental Wellness team and CMHT facilitates improved communication and a joint approach, where required.

We are reviewing the delivery of the Mental Wellness Service with a focus on sustainability going forward, especially given the increase in referrals and the expected ten-year legacy of the pandemic. The work undertaken within Hadau Newid Creative Recovery programme will be instrumental in facilitating this change in terms of providing a preventative aspect of our service delivery. Case studies will be a powerful and critical part of how we measure this going forward.

The Team have set out our ambition and action plan, entitled The Triple Aim. However, our aim for next year is to repeat our original service user and staff satisfaction surveys, which we will combine with our performance data, and use to influence change.

Dementia Listening Campaign

Following on from last year’s campaign, we held a community event in Llanfairfechan to present the final report; it was attended by various members of the community and other organisations who have an interest in dementia in the community and deliver services in Conwy.

Using the work carried out in Llanfairfechan and other counties in North Wales, eight key priorities have been identified, and these will inform the work of the Regional Dementia Collaborative going forward:

Access to care and support
Person-centred care
Support for unpaid carers
Easy access to services
Groups and activities
Dementia-friendly communities
Improved access to transport
Providing dementia services in Welsh

It is hoped that by focusing on these key objectives and the recommendations within them, all partners can establish a more supportive and effective framework for dementia care in their communities. This will enhance the quality of care, ensuring that individuals living with dementia, and their families, receive the support they need. This approach will improve the quality of life for those living with dementia, and their caregivers, promoting a culture of understanding and inclusivity. Collaboration among healthcare providers, community organisations, the Health Board and local government will be essential to achieving these goals and creating a dementia-friendly society.

The Dementia Listening Campaign Report contains more information on the campaign in Llanfairfechan, and the changes people told us they wanted to see. View the report on the North Wales Regional Partnership Board website.

Participation and Engagement for Adult Services

Our Adult Participation Officer has carried out various pieces of engagement work over this reporting year, including:

Talking to residents and family members in seventeen supported living settings about the quality of care they receive
Consulting with individuals who receive outcome-focused care from domiciliary care agencies
Consulting with Extra Care Housing Scheme residents who receive care and support from both in-house and externally commissioned services
Consulting with individuals who use the PSS social enterprise
Annual engagement with individuals who use the Disability Community Support services
Consultation regarding a disability day service

Future participation and engagement work is planned within care home settings.

One full-time Adult Participation Worker engages with various community bodies in Conwy, such as The Involvement Network, Age Connects and other adult forums, giving them information regarding local authority activities and signposting to the departments within the Council that people enquire about.

In addition, the officer regularly holds Dementia Friends sessions for Conwy Council employees, Conwy schools and Third Sector organisations.

This year, with the help of a project support officer, the participation and engagement officer has helped set up the Supporting Carers Network, an event for carers’ organisations within Conwy to get together, bringing with them their ideas and information and to network with other organisations they don’t necessarily meet up with. This network group will be held every six months; the first was held in October 2024 and was very successful. All the organisations who attended have signed up for future sessions.

We have visited and engaged with residents and family members of people who live in care settings in Conwy. So far, there have been two visits to care homes, 17 visits to supported living premises and visits to the four Extra Care Housing facilities across the county.

We have asked for feedback on our commissioning and disability services, including consultation with individuals using the PSS service, our day care service and those who are receiving domiciliary care services from agencies, using outcome-focused care.

How we use the feedback that we receive

We ensure that any feedback we receive is used to monitor and improve the services we provide ourselves and commission externally. This may take the form of internal reports, discussions and action plans, with any recommendations for improvement followed up by the Participation and Engagement Officer and/or Responsible Individual with the services themselves.

The North Wales Learning Disability Strategy

The North Wales Learning Disability Strategy was developed in 2017 and 2018, with support from the North Wales Regional Collaboration unit. It was approved by all six Local Authorities, and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB), in March 2019.

The strategy set out the five work packages required to take this work forward and “North Wales Together”, the North Wales Learning Disability Transformation team came into being, to take forward aspects of the strategy that could benefit from being delivered regionally. The programme was initially funded for 18 months, funded from the Welsh Government, and is aligned to the ‘Healthier Wales’ initiative.

The main areas highlighted in the original strategy focused on:

Accommodation/workforce/Step up Step Down

Support to identify housing need
Working with partners (where required) to develop HCF business cases
Ongoing Programme of Positive Behaviour Support training
Development of step up/step down facilities. Aligned to the recommissioning of existing services to ensure reduction of admission and length of stay in specialist LD hospital settings

Technology

Technology training for individuals, families and the workforce
Signposting/provision of equipment
1 to 1, hub and group support to develop skills
Development and promotion of Apps (e.g., Paincheck and PBAS app)

Employment

Development of supported employment strategy
Research into work and day opportunities
Supported employment model

Communities and Culture Change

Commissioning of third sector activities. Member led and co-produced
Promotion of Person-Centred Practice
Promotion of Direct Payments

Health

Establish and match-fund the Health Check Champions. Focusing on improving the physical health needs of Adults with LD living in North Wales
Developing good practice pathways around Transition, PMLD, and Accommodation
Supporting the Pooled Budget with Ynys Môn
Ensuring robust LD community pathways with partner agencies

Children and Young People

As the newest set of priorities within the programme, the Children and Young People’s work stream will continue to progress the highlighted areas of work.

Funding the Regional Family Transition Project
Co-production of the Life after School resource and delivery of recommendations within that report
Scoping potential for short break developments for children and young people with Complex needs
Pulling together a Regional Transition protocol
Ongoing funding for activities for Children and young people including coproduction of areas where there may be gaps in provision

The North Wales Together Programme remains in place until 2027. As a result, work has been commissioned to focus on developing a new Strategy for learning disabilities services across North Wales. The aim is to develop a five-year strategy from May 2025 until April 2030. Conversations have been facilitated across the region, to focus on exploring the following key points:

Are the areas covered in the original strategy still relevant?
Are there other areas that should be included in a refreshed strategy?
What matters to people now?
What is important to people for the future?

Learning Disability Advocacy

The North Wales Flyers will be supported by the North Wales Advice and Advocacy Association (NWAAA), Conwy Connect and All Wales People First for three years, as of March 2025. All six local authorities and the BCUHB continue to be supportive of the group, who report to both the North Wales Learning Disability Partnership and to North Wales Together Board.

The representatives have been working in their local area groups:

The Conwy forum have written to their MP in regards to the PIP criteria and payments, and they have completed a transport survey
Gwynedd’s Tea at Three have completed the Transport for Wales survey
Denbighshire are consulting on their group name and logo
The Chair has attended various meetings including the Piws / S.P.A.C.E meeting at Wrexham

The group have been working on a video to share and promote the work of the group with partners and people with learning disabilities across North Wales, and have established a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/flyersnorthwales/

As mentioned earlier, North Wales Together have commissioned Dr Ceryl Davies on behalf of the six local authorities and the BCUHB, to refresh the current Learning Disability strategy. Dr Ceryl has been working closely with the North Wales Flyers to inform the strategy.

The North Wales Supported Employment Strategy is completed; the Service Manager for Conwy Disability Service was the Chair of the project group supporting the development of the strategy, which you can view on the North Wales Together website.

Employment Pathways for People with Learning Disabilities

The role of the Employment Pathway Co-ordinator is now embedded within our service. We have made good progress in supporting the shift in culture, to promote a ‘work first’ approach to supporting people with learning disabilities and raising aspirations. Employment pathways are facilitated by a central Supported Employment Steering Group, attended by Conwy and Denbighshire Councils, Co-Options, the job coaching provider, and a Regional Steering Group.

Research Partners at the University of Strathclyde have created a dashboard which presents performance information, both locally and regionally. This enables us to track performance locally, and to benchmark against other local authorities in North Wales. They are undertaking research to show the outcomes delivered through the SPF project, and to make recommendations. We have identified that a clear strategy is needed across day and work opportunity services, both internal and externally, to ensure that we continue to progress supported employment.

By the end of 2024 we had helped nine people into work, three people into voluntary positions, four people on a work placement and one on a paid work trial.

The North Wales Together Lead and Disabilities Service Manager has worked with Conwy Heads of Service to look at how to make our job application process more accessible. We submitted an IMPACT bid and were successful, the bid focuses on reviewing our processes to ensure that we are more accessible and inclusive to people with learning disabilities.

There is a corporate commitment to working with our services to ensure that people with learning disabilities have equal access to paid work, through a fair and accessible recruitment processes. We have had two work trials at Venue Cymru, which is a positive step. We would like to see that Conwy is leading the way as an employer of people with learning disabilities.

We hope that in 2025, people with learning disabilities, referred through this service, will be able to undertake a work trial, in place of a formal interview. This would aim to demonstrate that they are able to do the job, even though they may not have been able to convey that, using the current application form or job interview recruitment style.

Home Farm Trust have been appointed as the café providers at Bryn Euryn Nursery. They work closely with the Employment Pathway Coordinator and Co-Options. The café provides opportunities for individuals to progress to employment, via Co-Options support. Conwy secured Shared Prosperity Funding (SPF) for 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 and have used it to support the change in culture across our services.

Disability partnership: working with the Sustainable Food Partnership Co-ordinator, the BCUHB Dietetics department and Family Centres

People with learning disabilities have poorer health outcomes, often linked to poor diet and a lack of exercise, and would benefit from learning how to cook healthy, affordable meals. We felt that it was important to include families and support workers who often opt for the easy ready meal option due to time pressures and a belief that it is cheaper.

We started running adult cooking sessions in the autumn, working with BCUHB Dietetics and using the Family Centre kitchen as a venue. The adult cooking sessions have worked very well, and we are now planning to run them again in 2025. The sessions have ignited a real passion in one individual, who has started cooking from scratch with his mum at home and wants to attend a cooking course at college.

An individual who lost her husband three years ago told us that the sessions are helping her to find her passion for cooking again after feeling lost when she became a widow. Another individual, who was hesitant to attend any groups previously, now looks forward to attending each week, and it has made her more mindful of her diet generally. Another is just happy to do something productive with his time and it is giving him a sense of achievement.

Another man has been able to reduce some of his support because he is learning skills that support staff would have helped him with previously: cooking, checking food labels and going shopping, independently.

We have identified the need for better pre-consultation with the dieticians around recipes and ingredients, so that we can source our ingredients from local suppliers. We can encourage this, through education at a younger age with schools, and by engaging our service users to cook and eat healthily, when accessing our respite services. We want to take every opportunity to promote healthy lifestyles in a positive way.

Working in partnership with the Housing Service

Social Care and Housing Working Group

Housing and accommodation requirements within Social Care are varied and span across several services within the department. These can include (but are not limited to):

Older people accommodation such as Extra Care Housing
Solo and group placements for children and young people
Care leavers
Vulnerable people
Accommodation for people with disabilities including learning disabilities, physical disabilities, sensory impairment, acquired brain injury and autism
The Social Care and Housing Working Group was established towards the end of 2023 to ensure there are clear links between Social Care housing and accommodation requirements and the development of the Housing Services led Local Housing Market Assessment (LHMA) and Housing Prospectus.

The working group meets every other month, and they have been able to share potential opportunities for the respective services to exploit. This includes providing Housing colleagues with details of properties within the Social Care portfolio that may become vacant, and which could potentially be re-purposed for general housing needs, and vice versa.

A key success in respect of the work undertaken by the Working Group to date is the inclusion of the Social Care accommodation requirements within this year’s Housing Prospectus, a public document published annually which identifies Conwy Council’s housing needs, and which is shared directly with Registered Social Landlords.

Meeting the accommodation needs of vulnerable people

Our aim has been to move housing provision for vulnerable people away from traditional shared houses, which are no longer an appropriate or preferred option for residents and can prove costly to the Council if rooms are vacant for any period. In collaboration with Housing colleagues, we have been able to transfer two residents from our Vulnerable People project house in Abergele to a more appropriate accommodation location, which is not shared, and therefore gives them a more home-like environment.

The house has since been repurposed to meet the needs of an extremely complex young person who requires 24-hour care. This provides a stable environment to manage their behaviours, and the multi-professional team involved in their care can now plan towards reducing needs and staffing; eventually achieving their desire for independent living.

The Vulnerable People Service participate in the Social Care and Housing Working Group, to benefit from their ability to reach Registered Social Landlords and to ensure that service users open to us, are considered in any upcoming housing schemes. Over the forthcoming year, we will continue to review housing opportunities and the needs of our service users via the multi-disciplinary Vulnerable People Accommodation panel.

We therefore continue to advocate for individuals and strive towards our aim of accommodating those who require a safe, stable and affordable home.

Accommodation Strategy for disabled adults

In last year’s report we said that we’d create an accommodation strategy that focuses on providing appropriate accommodation for the needs of disabled adults which also supports their well-being. Our Service Development Officer is leading on this piece of work, and they will engage with service users to create an action plan for the next five years. We hope to make it available by early in the 2025/26 reporting period.

We are continuing to deliver supported living services in Conwy. By April 2025 we have opened five settings in twelve months. One of these is a replacement for another property, which is no longer suitable, but it does provide additional capacity. One other project has funding approval at this time, which will deliver six flats in Llandudno for vulnerable and disabled people. We have received funding from North Wales Together to review our supported living services over the next two years.

The review focuses on a range of issues, including:

The quality of the services being provided in terms of the value base and ethos of supported living
The outcomes being delivered for individuals
Ensuring that Personal Plans of Support are person-centred and co-produced with people
Ensuring people are involved in the review of their Personal Plans of Support
Ensuring that providers are focused on positive risk taking
That providers are using person-centred approaches to support people
Understanding how providers are supporting people to make choices about what they do to achieve their outcomes
Understanding the way in which support is being provided
Ensuring best value
Exploring potential alternative options to support an individual’s independence, for example Telecare, or shared support with other services
Make recommendations to the operational project group in terms of any re-tendering of services identified as necessary
Supporting the shift to outcome-focused commissioning away from time and task to right-sizing the service to meet the outcomes of all tenants
Development of a process for ensuring individuals experience a holistic review of their wellbeing outcomes, such as creating a checklist of questions to support an analysis of the evidence to support service delivery and outcomes
Contribution to the Accommodation Strategy in terms of existing services and future need
Support the shift to a more progression-focused service that supports people to move on to greater independence

The availability of residential care in Conwy and across the region that can support people with very complex needs is limited; we would benefit from increased capacity within residential care as part of the pathway for individuals to increased independence in supported living.