How we do what we do

Recruiting our Workforce

In order to attract people to work in the sector who may not have considered Social Care work as a career of choice, we have hosted job fairs jointly with Social Care employers, Llandrillo College and Conwy Social Care and Education service.  As a result of the events, Social Care providers recruited new employees directly from people they met during the job fairs.

What’s next?
Following on from this successful approach, a regular programme of job fairs will be hosted by our Workforce Development and Learning Team in the future.

Working with Social Care providers and Llandrillo College, we will deliver a Conwy-wide work experience scheme.  We will utilise the Social Care Wales national recruitment campaign on a local level to support social care employers to make social care a career of choice.

Delivering services through the medium of Welsh

Mwy Na Geiriau (More Than Just Words) is a Welsh Government strategic framework for Welsh language services in Health and Social Care.  Its objectives aim to:

• Improve the quality of care, ensuring that it is centred on users’ needs;
• Maintain professional standards;
• Meet the language needs of users, in particular children and young people, older people, people with learning disability and people with mental health problems;
• Comply with legal and statutory requirements such as the Welsh Language Standards.

As an Authority we must actively offer and deliver Welsh language care services to the same standard as English language care services; this is known as the ‘Active Offer’.  We are working hard to develop the services we offer to Welsh-speaking citizens in Conwy, and regularly monitor our capability to deliver care and support through the medium of Welsh.  Our annual workforce data return shows that 42% of internal staff who work in residential or domiciliary care settings are able to communicate effectively in Welsh.  The figure is lower for the external workforce, with 16% being able to communicate effectively in Welsh.  Whilst undertaking routine visits to residential homes our Monitoring Service has found that during the last twelve months there were 177 Welsh-speaking staff for 98 Welsh-speaking residents.

We will continue to provide training to our staff on More Than Just Words and the Active Offer; 16 sessions have been commissioned for delivery up until February 2020.

Regulation and Inspection

The Regulation and Inspection of Social Care Act (Wales) 2016 (RISCA) will change how our services are inspected, how we improve the quality of care and support that we provide and regulation of our workforce.  It will place service quality and inspection at the heart of regulation; strengthen protection for those who need it and ensure services deliver high quality care and support.

Within Adults Services in 2018, the commencement of registration for managers in the care home sector across Wales, under the new RISCA regulations took place. We have held a series of manager forums in preparation for the introduction of RISCA. We have also recently hosted Social Care Wales Registration workshops to support registration of the domiciliary care workforce. We have established a RISCA policy group that meets monthly in order to review policies required under the new regulations. We also host a joint Conwy Provider Training Group to promote workforce development and learning across the Sector.

Within the Looked After Children service area, Care Inspectorate Wales are currently undertaking a project across Wales to understand the experience of children, care leavers and their Carers, and the level and nature of support available to them. Conwy were invited to take part in the project in September 2018 and a series of meetings with children, Foster Carers and young people leaving care was arranged. Positive feedback from young care leavers emphasised the value of their relationships with their Personal Advisors and Foster Carers and the positive impact of support groups and social opportunities run by the Local Authority for children whilst they are in care. Children with experience of care told the inspector that they were happy with their Social Workers and felt listened to. They also spoke about increasing their relationships with other children in the community and about support from their Social Workers to achieve this.

Our financial resources and how we plan for the future

Although the financial climate is challenging, we continue to protect direct service delivery.  We aim to provide best value, be efficient and not duplicate.  Social Care has had to identify £2.4 million of savings in 2018-19, however we continue to provide the best service we can for our residents.

Governance and accountability

The Welsh Government’s Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 outlines a set of national outcomes and places a duty on public bodies to put sustainable development at the heart of decisions.  This Act ensures that the environment, social and economic considerations are central to decision making.  In Conwy, we have incorporated these objectives into the Conwy Corporate Plan.  Seven goals and five ways of working are aligned to Conwy’s eight Citizen Outcomes.

The Corporate Plan includes actions which are preventative and not reactive, aims to work towards the longer term impact and are integrated in the consideration of how they contribute to the 7 Wellbeing Goals.  The actions are also collaborative in terms of the focus on working closely with communities so they are involved in owning and working collectively to meet the Citizen Outcomes. 

Communities played a big part in shaping the priorities, and communities will continue to be involved going forward.  Our cross-cutting themes refer to the importance of assessing our actions and key decisions in order to have a positive impact on tackling poverty, equality and promoting our Welsh language.

The Act also defines sustainable development in Wales as a mechanism for improving the economic, social, environmental and cultural well-being of Wales.  This promotes focus on considering what we do, how we do it and how we communicate.  As a service we are contributing by reflecting on how we are applying the five ways of working through our six-monthly Service Performance Review process.

Flexible Funding Programme

The Funding Flexibility Programme looks to improve the outcomes of the most vulnerable in our communities through early intervention and prevention approaches which encourage self-reflection and increase motivation. The aim is to remove the barriers that prevent people from achieving positive change by developing innovative approaches which are designed to prevent citizens from becoming more vulnerable in the future. The programme brings together ten funding streams into two grant ‘pots’ in order to strengthen our ability to deliver preventative services, focused on early intervention for those in greatest need. The first of the two focuses on Housing and the second on Children and Communities.

We have reviewed our governance arrangements to provide a platform for bringing all involved in the grants together, including facilitating discussions amongst senior management about shared objectives, as well as the detailed work undertaken by the officers through the project groups.

We have designed and agreed on five locality areas for delivery, and have started to look at the needs of each of these communities in detail. There is a vast amount of data and research available that we have been collating in order to support the identification of need provision.   As well as considering the needs of each locality, it’s imperative that we identify cross-cutting themes that will need to be coordinated county-wide.

Within the theme of Early Intervention and Prevention, a research study to evaluate the Families First Programme in Conwy has been undertaken in order to develop the new approach to planning and commissioning. The study included:

• Interviews with project deliverers;
• Family Stories to illustrate the themes emerging from projects;
• Qualitative research with families.

Learning from the study is being transferred into our early intervention and prevention Family Centres work, and we have established five local Family Support Teams (previously Team Around the Family and Flying Start).

Within the Employability theme, our Participant Engagement and Employer Engagement Officers now promote all of the employability programmes in Conwy to reduce duplication, and to coordinate PR/marketing activities and merchandise to promote employability. Links have been formalised between this programme and other European funded work.

What’s next?
During 2019-20 we will be recommissioning projects in a phased approach around a number of themed areas including play development and key aspects of Adverse Childhood Experience factors e.g. domestic violence, bereavement, CSE and family counselling.  These developments support an increasing recognition that Adverse Childhood Experiences are a key challenge in the County and are key aspects of the Conwy Early Intervention and Prevention Strategy for Children, Young People and Families.  The model is based on the lived experiences of families in Conwy, who have told their stories about accessing support.

Working in partnership with our third sector colleagues

We work closely with the Conwy Voluntary Services Council (CVSC) who deliver basic training to community groups and volunteers on our behalf.  As an example, they operate a safeguarding service, providing information, resources, advice and training for third sector organisations.  A Safeguarding – Getting it Right, Together event was held in November 2018 to coincide with National Safeguarding Week, which brought CVSC and Conwy County Borough Council together to highlight joint working and the ethos that safeguarding is everyone’s business, regardless of where they work.  53 delegates attended the event and a total of 40 organisations were represented from voluntary organisations, the Local Authority, BCUHB and North Wales Police.  Topics covered included:

• The work of the North Wales Safeguarding Board
• The Charity Commission’s approach to safeguarding
• Support for ‘getting it right’
• Safeguarding Community of Practice
• The responsibilities of trustees

Feedback on the event was positive, with 83% of those who completed evaluation forms rating the event as excellent and a further 8% as good.  The supporting comments revealed that many had found the opportunity to network very useful, as well as the resources and access to further help and support which were provided.  Most importantly, more than 75% of attendees were interested in the proposal to develop a Safeguarding Community of Practice and this will now be taken forward.  These comprise groups of people who share a concern or passion for something they do and learn how to do it better through regular interaction.

Community-based services

Last year we reported on our flagship Community Resource Team (CRT) programme for health and wellbeing in Conwy and Denbighshire, the vision of which is to deliver collaborative, flexible and responsive multi-agency services, based locally.  They will be more easily accessible, support independence, create a strong, multidisciplinary approach with a focus on the care of patients with complex needs, and enable better outcomes for people within a community.  The CRT will be able to provide a strong, professional and seamless service to the citizens of each community to enable them to live as independently as possible in their own homes.  CRTs will also prevent unnecessary acute hospital admissions and support discharge from hospital.

Nine CRTs have been agreed across the two counties; each team is made up of a range of professionals including GPs, Social Workers, District Nurses, Therapists, Health Visitors, School Nurses and other children’s service professionals who work together to support the health and well-being needs of their populations. 

This project is building on what is already in operation but will entail new pathways of care, and changes to organisation development, enabling meaningful multi-disciplinary working through shared case management, co-location, integrated technology and improved communication across the wide range of services.

What progress has been made?    
Each of the nine CRTs now have a designated lead within each team to drive the integration agenda forward, and to lead, motivate, support culture change and help drive the success of this project by leading and supporting the existing teams through a time of exciting change.

Local Development Groups (LDGs) have also been set up to ensure the action plans within each area are developed, adopting a whole sector approach. The LDGs are made up of a wide range of service areas across Health and Social Care. Developing these groups has seen a huge improvement in professional relationships and communication links, which is essential when trying to build an integrated team.

Within Conwy, liaison officers have been created for each of the five CRTs to support development of integrated working.  Some existing resources have been relocated to the CRTs, these being Single Point of Access Operators, Health and Social Care Business Support Officers and Welfare Rights Officers.

Some teams have developed regular multi-disciplinary team meetings, daily huddles and new ways of working, which has resulted in a more efficient way of working.

Technical sub groups have been set up to provide leadership and support the business change process.  These sub groups facilitate and implement the changes needed to enable integrated working relating to infrastructure, IT, processes and communication.  Each of the sub groups have technical representation from the three partner organisations to come up with solutions when these issues arise. 

 A regional conference is in the process of being planned for July 2019 to enable all CRT teams to come together to exchange knowledge and share practice.

How we commission services       

In last year’s report we talked about our new commissioning strategy which set out how Conwy would work collaboratively with citizens, staff, communities, volunteers and partners to commission services which deliver outcomes, improved health and wellbeing, a cared-for workforce and better value for money.  The aim was to provide our citizens with what matters to them, and choice and control over their lives, as well as fulfilling our departmental vision:

“Working together with our communities to enable everyone to get the best out of life.”

Our eight strategic objectives were:

How have we done?
Progress has been made in the implementation of the commissioning strategy and this is being reported to the Health and Social Care Scrutiny Committee in April as part of our annual update.

On a quarterly basis we meet with our independent providers jointly with our Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board colleagues.  The purpose of these meetings is to develop better relationships, provide an opportunity for providers to have a voice and to share information.  The meetings are themed and topics included so far have been:

• Lessons learnt and continuous improvement (care home closure process, escalating concerns policy, safeguarding etc.);
• Fee setting;
• Compliance and regulation (Brexit, health and safety, food safety, workforce regulations).

These sessions are well attended and valued, ensuring that we foster a close relationship with our providers.

What’s next?
A key focus for 2019/20 will be facilitating and ensuring social value from our commissioning activities.  This means that we will be promoting the development of not-for-profit organisations to provide care and support services and preventative services.  These models include social enterprises, co-operatives, user-led services and the third sector.  We will be analysing the number of social value organisations in the county delivering health and social care support and how we commission with them, looking in particular at how we can encourage the development of new social value delivery models and innovative ways of delivering care and support services and preventative services.

Participation

Over the last year we have undertaken a number of consultation exercises on a range of topics on behalf of Children and Family Services.  Feedback and information received from consultation helps us to shape our services:

• Legislative Proposal to Remove the Defence of Reasonable Punishment – Response from Conwy Social Care Department;
• Consultation Draft Autism Bill (Wales) – Response from Conwy Social Care Department;
• Amendments to the Adoption Agencies (Wales) Regs. 2005 and New Regulatory Framework for Adoption Services;
• Draft National Standards for Children in the Youth Justice System 2019;
• CIW – Cwestiynau/Questions – Cafcass Cymru Inspection Consultation Response;
• Young Care Leavers – Council Tax Exemptions – Consultation response from Shaping Futures Leaving care Group;
• Consultation on Adoption Regulations 2019;
• Housing Adaptations – Service Standards – Consultation Response.

We have also been able to involve people in the development of our Family Centres and the Family Support Service at various levels.  The model was developed based on qualitative research with families, and their lived experiences. A Project Advisory Group of parents and young people is working alongside the Project Manager. There have been consultations in schools and in communities, focus groups and stakeholder events. This pattern of involvement will continue as we work through developing each area.