• Implement the Youth Homeless action plan for 16/17 year olds
• Attendance and feedback from the Joint SSD and Housing Board
• To review the trend over time relating to the volume of people entering residential care in relation to the general population
• To review the trend over time relating to the volume of people receiving domiciliary care packages that are in excess of the weekly cost of residential care services

We all have the same rights, and nobody should ever be discriminated against because of their age, gender, sexuality, marital status, ethnicity, ability, choice of language or political or religious beliefs. The Stigma Strategy is a great example of a schools based project in Conwy that’s been working to promote equality and rights for people with Learning Disability. [Read more…]

Independence is the ability to make our own decisions about what we want, how we choose to live and how we plan our own futures. In an ideal world, everyone would have a level of independence to be “in control” of their life. We all sometimes need a bit of help to achieve this, whether it’s about learning some new skills, gaining the confidence to “have a go” at something new, or finding out where to get help from.

In Conwy, we’ve been making this a priority for people living in poverty, through projects like New Work Connections, and looking at new ways to help young people to gain access to education, employment or training. [Read more…]

We recognise the commitment and dedication that’s needed to be someone’s carer, and have been developing ways to help provide support for carers in Conwy.

Young carers in particular are often “hidden” within our community, and we’ve led in commissioning a new regional Young Carer’s project across North Wales. We’ve also improved things for young carers as they become adults, with a new “Young Adult Carers” project, to help bridge the gap. [Read more…]

The easiest way for Social Services to guide you towards the change you’re looking for, is to really understand what you need. We want our staff to “put themselves in your shoes” so they understand what it’s like for you, and what’s going on in your life.

By improving this understanding, we can come up with care plans that will make a difference.

There are some very useful techniques that our staff can use, such as “Outcome based planning” and “motivational interviewing”, and we’ve been busy training staff in children and families services in how to use these methods.

Outcome based planning and Motivational Interviewing

Background
The basic idea behind Outcome based planning, is that following an assessment of a person or family’s needs, there will be a clear sense of what needs to change. If everybody is clear about what needs to change (the “outcomes” that you want to achieve), it becomes much easier to plan how to get there, and it will be easy to recognise when the outcome has been achieved.
Motivational Interviewing helps staff to really understand the issues a person is facing, and to help them towards making positive decisions for themselves about how they can move forward.

What’s changed?
Outcome based planning training has been delivered to 11 managers who oversee the quality of outcome based care plans. Integrated Family Support Service (IFSS) has now been set up in Conwy, and 15 staff have been trained in the use of Motivational Interviewing.
10 social workers have taken part in a pilot project run by SSIA (Social Services Improvement Agency) to improve communication skills with clients. This has involved monthly follow-on sessions to develop their learning.

What difference has it made?
Through this training, social workers have:
• Better understanding of the barriers that some people experience to getting help. They’ll be able to help lower these barriers and engage service users.
• Improved understanding of where people’s motivation comes from, and how to help people to find their own motivation.
• Additional skills to help service users to build on their own strengths and resources

Further Motivational Interviewing Training is being delivered to staff in June 2014
An evaluation of the effectiveness of the SSIA project will be conducted in August 2014.

 

Developing Care and Treatment plans

Background
The Care and Treatment plan is a new way of working with young people with mental health and/or emotional care needs. Under the mental health measures and continuum health care, the child care social workers have a lead role to play, and the aim is to make sure each child has an up to date Care and Treatment plan that is reviewed when their needs change.

What’s changed?
Joint training was provided to senior practitioners and managers. This new model was then shared with team members who were supporting a child with a Care and Treatment plan.

All Care and treatment plans are monitored through strategic multi-agency meetings.

What difference has it made?

Children and young people receiving CAMHS services have a Care and Treatment plan in place.

We understand that if people have a genuine need, it’s in everybody’s interests to make sure that they get good quality advice, information or support, and that they get it quickly.

Nobody likes waiting lists.

Two areas where we’ve made significant improvements in Conwy are for Young People (16+) with a disability as they move towards adulthood, and for Care Leavers we’ve improved links with Welfare Rights and careers advice. This has made it much easier and faster to make sure that young people are getting any benefits they are entitled to, and it’s helping them to be aware of all their options around carrying on with their education, doing some training, or getting a job. [Read more…]

As individuals, we’re all different. We have different likes and dislikes, different hopes and dreams for the future.

If you need help, support or advice from Social Services, we will always strive for the best outcome for you. To do this properly, we need to understand what’s most important to you and your family and make sure that we’re helping you to plan ahead in a way that’s going to make the difference you’re looking for.

We’ve been improving how this happens for young people with disabilities, as they “transition” into adulthood, and looking at innovative ways of listening to Looked After Children. [Read more…]

Social Services provides a wide range of services to the community, from children and their families, care leavers, to older people, and people with disabilities. It’s important to us that people can find out information about services that they may be entitled to. But Social Services aren’t the only source of help or information. There’s a thriving network of voluntary and private organisations, charitable groups and services in Conwy, and we’ve been looking at ways to improve how we can share this information, particularly in the areas of Autism Spectrum Disorder, universal services for family support and support for families with a child with a disability. [Read more…]