As a newly established service within Social Care, the Vulnerable People team was designed to help the most vulnerable in our society to regain or maintain their independence and wellbeing and making sure that a greater number of people with needs are supported in a range of ways. Those people with complex, challenging and chaotic lives are often more vulnerable than those who fit into the traditional services and as a consequence of limited support they often look inappropriately to the emergency services such as Police or Fire service or the Ambulance service for their help. The team itself has minimum access to a care budget and therefore the members of the team are reliant on themselves as a social work and OT resource to address the needs of the clients. They are particularly creative and make strong links with third sector organisations to enable their clients to access the universal services available in the community.
Although this is a new and developing service a number of case studies have been recorded demonstrating the benefits and positive impacts the team are having:
- A young man was referred to the service from his family as he was using cannabis and getting in trouble with the police, there were lots of issues at home with aggression towards his family. The worker did some motivational interviewing and worked with him to develop an outcome focussed assessment and care plan. As a result of this work the young man’s Mum wrote a letter of thanks to the team saying the approach has had 100% positive affect on her son and she has been very grateful for the intervention which has meant that her son can remain at home with family.
- Another young man was in trouble with the police and potentially facing a jail term. The team began working with him and at his court case the barrister stated that it was directly the interventions put in place by the Vulnerable People team that meant that this young man avoided a prison sentence.
The team are also developing processes and mechanisms to enhance the service:
- The Vulnerable People’s team have piloted the new integrated assessment process [1] in preparation for the implementation of the Social Care and Well Being Act. This gave practitioners the opportunity to embed the principles of person centred outcome focussed assessment and care for vulnerable young people.
- The team manager has also introduced a new robust risk assessment to ensure that staff consider their own health and safety when working with clients who pose a risk to themselves and others.
- As the team has developed and listened to the needs of service users they also felt that the introduction of a wellness recovery action plan (WRAP) would be of benefit. Through working in partnership with the PARIS team [2] we have made it easier for staff to create a smooth transfer for Care Leavers, to an Adult social worker, with their individual plan in place.
[1] As mentioned on page 8.
[2] The PARIS system is used to store records and information about the people who use the services provided by Conwy’s social services department.