Whilst there was a good improvement early in the year in the timeliness of reviews, further work is planned to improve in this area, to achieve consistent results.

Our current target is that at least 90% of clients with a care plan at 31 March whose care plans should have been reviewed, were reviewed during the year.  At present our performance is not meeting our ambition, with the latest data shown below:

2013/14	2014/15	2015/16
95.76%	88.9%	88.24%

 

Q1 2015/16	Q2 2015/16	Q3 2015/16	Q4 2015/16
91.25%	81.33%	73.38%	70.91%

After a positive first quarter, the performance through 2015/16 showed a decline, largely due to staffing issues.

In order to improve performance the Disability Team have addressed staffing issues, implemented  ways to maximise capacity and reduce duplication, and are confident that performance will improve through 2016/17.

The Older People Team have reviewed how the Carers Team work and plan for additional capacity to carry out reviews due.

In addition, the new assessment framework (not yet live) will reduce the impact of the size of the review documentation, and presents a further opportunity to improve performance.

Our web information has been reviewed and will be launched in the Spring as part of the new Conwy public website.
All of the web content has been reviewed in preparation to implement a new content management system for Conwy’s public website, to go live in Spring 2016. This will result in a more streamlined presentation of the information that users are most likely to be looking for, with clear links to communication channels such as phone, email or web based services.

We will review the web content during 2016-17 after implementation of the new Content Management System.

Management of applications for DoLS authorisations within time scales has seen a reduction of 32% over a six month period.

Conwy has placed “The risk of legal challenge” due to DoLS on the Corporate Risk register.  Positive changes have been observed in the number of cases waiting to be assessed, and the number of assessments being signed off.

We have increased resources such that there are now three full time assessors and a commitment from the six Best Interest Assessors located in other services to undertake at least one assessment each per month.

Changes made to the renewals of authorisations are being processed differently with a positive effect but this is resulting in additional pressure on the team of up to 12 additional referrals per week.  In addition, part of the assessment process involves GP’s, to assess Mental Capacity. In order to optimise our use of GP’s time, we have been concentrating our efforts within residential homes in order to complete any outstanding DoLS within each home.  This has also had a positive impact.

The waiting list is now down to 309 (at the end of March 2016), which represents a reduction of over 32% over a six month period.

All Mental Health placements have been reviewed to ensure appropriate and proportionate services and commissioning has shifted to emphasise the recovery model. 

A ‘Sustainable Mental Health’ framework will provide a vision and outline for the effective management, especially in light of growing demand and constrained resources.  A review of all mental health placements is underway to ensure all service users are receiving appropriate and proportionate care packages. Commissioning with the Third Sector places an emphasis on the recovery model to enable service users to move out of statutory services into a more appropriate community setting for long term sustainability.

A “Memorandum of Understanding” has led to agreement being reached regarding improvements to services, and senior staff in Health and Social Care have given a commitment to meet every month to monitor progress on improvements and developments. A review of the Memorandum of Understanding will be undertaken in July to ensure that agreed improvements to the service from a Health and Social Care perspective have been achieved.

Mapping work and consultation work has been undertaken in order to identify gaps in the current provision of community services for people with dementia. 

A detailed service mapping exercise was undertaken, which included consultation with the public. This helped to identify gaps in current provision and drive the commissioning process.

The Conwy Dementia Partnership, which aims to promote the wellbeing of people living with dementia in Conwy and their carers, completed a draft Market Position Statement in relation to dementia services.  This has been used to inform the Social Care Commissioning Strategy development, particularly the chapter relating to Older Peoples Services. Key themes from the Regional Needs Assessment, data analysis and research reports have been identified.  Engagement and consultation workshops on the themes for the population needs assessment and market analysis are being undertaken during May – July 2016 with service users, carers and Conwy citizens.   A draft Conwy Commissioning Strategy taking in to account Engagement Feedback, will be available in Oct 2016 and will go through the final consultation and approval process Nov 2016 to Jan 2017.

The “Ageing Well in Conwy Action Plan 2015 – 2019” was approved by the Council in December 2015.  This plan focuses on building and promoting “dementia supportive” communities, with the following key themes:

• Conwy is an environment where people affected by dementia feel confident, valued and understood
• People affected by dementia in Conwy note an improvement in the timely identification of dementia and support provided before, during, and after identification.
• Enhanced and extended education, training, information and advice around dementia is established.