Social Care and Education Integration Programme
The Social Care and Education Service integration programme was established to bring staff together to implement changes to support the integration and sustainability of the service. The programme is focusing on developments from the services’ business support functions to front line service delivery, with the aim to improve the outcomes for children, adults and families.
Activity so far
Staff have participated in service visioning days, which produced a new Service Vision – “Working together with our communities to enable everyone to get the best out of life”.
Six Service Joint Outcomes and Actions have been agreed, which focus on improving the outcomes for children, young people and adults.
Service staff have developed a service communication plan. The exercise has been valued, enabling both areas of good practice and solutions to be identified in areas where communication can be improved.
The Children, Young People and Families Project is changing how Early Intervention and Prevention services for children, young people and families are delivered in Conwy. Five Family Support Teams have been established across the County, which provide early support and prevention services for families. Links with other teams and services to form a wider multi-agency support are being developed such as domestic abuse, benefits advice, youth support, and disability services, for example.
The Social Inclusion in Conwy Project is implementing recommendations to develop the alternative education provision for young people in Conwy. The project in 2019 is looking at options to maximise mainstream and on-site inclusion centres within schools and our offsite specialist alternative education units (Pupil Referral Units) and other support services, enabling learners in need of support to engage more effectively with their learning.
The Children’s Services Development Project
The Children’s Service Project, which has just started in 2019 will introduce changes to models of working and support being provided through the service. The aim is to break the trend of a rising Looked After Children population, responding proactively to the crisis in care identified across Wales and the UK and to achieve better outcomes for children and families. A dedicated and experienced project manager has been recruited for a two-year period to support implementation. Work has already begun to identify lead officers for the various work streams and agree the next steps to progress. We will be looking at:
- Our workforce and practice;
- Reducing the number of looked after children;
- Our capacity to de-escalate children with complex needs;
- Looked after children’s placements, in particular their sufficiency, quality, stability and support.
The service benefits from valuable business support services, with expertise in areas such as training, performance management, management information systems and administrative support. A review exercise undertaken by staff is nearing completion, which has considered how business support can be maximised across the service going forward.
In 2019 staff will have the opportunity to reflect on progress to date and to consider the services’ integration priorities that should be delivered through the programme in the medium and long term.
A Healthier Wales
Following on from a Welsh Government Parliamentary Review of the long term future of Health and Social Care ‘A Healthier Wales’ is a plan which sets out a future vision of how Health and Social Care services will be delivered in Wales. Conwy will be working alongside our partners in Denbighshire to put into practice the ultimate aims of the plan:
- To organise care around the individual and their family as close to home as possible;
- To ensure that health and care staff, volunteers and citizens all work together to deliver clear outcomes, improved health and wellbeing, a cared-for workforce and better value for money;
- To develop seamless ways of working between organisations;
- To put people and communities in control via equal involvement in the planning and delivery of services;
- To invest in our staff through training and development to provide them with the tools to work safely and effectively.
With more of an emphasis on citizen empowerment to remain informed, independent and healthy it is hoped that over the next ten years we will see a reduction in the number of people accessing hospital-based care and treatment due to an increase in activities to support health, well-being and prevention, plus more locally-delivered care services.
We will report back on Conwy’s progress towards delivering on the Healthier Wales plan in our next Annual Report.