Annual National Care Forum Conference (NCF) – 26th March 2009
March 27, 2009
Mike and Mark led a key workshop at today’s NCF conference for the ‘Not for Profit’ Sector Care Providers held at the IOD in London. Their presentation on the Personalisation Agenda gave delegates to opportunity to learn firsthand about the delivery of this agenda in Essex, and included an outline on the new Local Authority Trading Company (LATC) being established for the externalisation of Adult Provider Services; and an outline on the success of the new Reablement Service set up to offer intensive support for people requiring rehabilitation and assistance to develop independent skills. The presentation fitted in well with the wider presentations to conference outlining Government Policy on the new and radical Personalisation Agenda. If you want to learn more about the Personalisation agenda and the impact on the Care Market or want a copy of their presentation please e-mail at info@careandhealthsolutions.co.uk.
Progress on Personalisation: Putting People First – Community Care London Conference
March 20, 2009
On the 18th March 2009 Community Care hosted a conference to evaluate and assess the introduction of personalisation one year on. The Conference heard much about the steady progress made to date by county councils and local authorities in implementing probably the most radical agenda in Adult Social Care. Personalisation itself is about the availability of personal budgets for assessed services for people to decide how and when they use their support budgets to assist in the daily living. A simple example given by the Minister of State for Care Services, related to a man who requested money for a fridge rather than care, when asked why, he explained the purchase of the fridge would allow his daughter to cook meals for the week for him to keep thereby freeing up quality time for him to spend with his daughter rather than having to have a fresh meal prepared every night. In turn this enabled the daughter to stop being a ‘carer’ 7 days a week.
Personalisation will revolutionise the way delivery of social care occurs over the next few years against a background of the aging society, a probably squeeze on public sector spending due to the credit crunch, and a tightened of means assisted services by the state. Within this framework a new language is emerging best summed up by the new words Co-Production and used by the Minister himself.
The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) has produced a research brief this March entitled ‘Co-production: an emerging evidence base for adult social care transformation. SCIE state, “The term ‘co-production is increasingly being applied to a new type of public service delivery in the UK, including new approaches to adult social care. It refers to active input by the people who use service, as well as – or instead of – those who have traditionally provided them.
In other words the professional client relationship is gone. No more use of Service users or professionals knowing best – instead we have the arrival of an equal relationship where the recipient is no longer passive but assertive about what they need. The new User alongside the provider is empowered to share power in assessment and distribution of resources they need for use as they decide. This term symbolises a massive shift towards really putting some substance behind the easily quoted words often used by professionals of choice, well-being, and independence. If this language is correct this will be the biggest and most welcome shift since the creation of the welfare state of real power and control passing to the User and away from the State knowing best. Good news indeed.
Dementia Care Homes Need Training Programmes
March 17, 2009
Laing and Buisson the Care Market Consultancy for the Older Registered Care Market have today published a critical report which has been highlighted on national media outlets highlighting the delivery concerns of dementia care across 57,000 placements in the sector.
The report confirms the ad hoc nature in the delivery of dementia care for a client group who are rapidly increasing in number and complexity of need. Care and Health Solutions are able through our lead Training Consultant scsts.co.uk to offer specialist dementia training programmes for care homes.
In addition we hold considerable expertise in the delivery and management of dementia care and support services within care home and extra care environments and are able to support care home providers in adapting their services to respond to the rapid increase in supporitng people with complex dementia needs.
Neighbourhood Resource Centres for Older People
March 6, 2009
One of the concerns expressed about introducing the private sector into
public services is that a focus on the bottom line can crowd out the social
dimension. This is one of the reasons why there have been few social care
private finance initiative schemes.
The success of Greenwich’s Neighbourhood Resource Centres for Older People deal shows that it doesn’t have to be this way. The scheme is the result of a consultation that found that traditional residential care was unlikely to meet the local community’s future needs. The council began work on its own model, the NeighbourhoodResource Centres (NRCs), to provide a range of residential, nursing, intermediate and day services on a single site.
In September 2002 the council commissioned the ASK (Greenwich) consortium
(Kier Project Investments and Shaftesbury Housing Group), to provide three NRCs
at a capital cost of £24m. All were delivered ahead of schedule. Caring for the elderly requires a degree of sensitivity to residents’ needs.
For example, despite the consortium being contracted to provide three meals a day, dementia sufferers often do better eating little and often. Catering staff have thus introduced sandwiches and other snacks available throughout the day to meet this need.
The judges were impressed by the council’s positive view of the deal. The NRCs have experienced low death rates, with the health of many residents actually improved.
Ashley Homes joins forces with private sector to pursue tender for a PFI (public private finance initiative) scheme
March 5, 2009
In 2006 three Neighbourhood Resource Centres in Greenwich received the national Public Private Finance Award for the best operational local government project. This article charts the success of the not-for-profit care company Ashley Homes in creating a consortium with the private sector to tender for the new specialist older care services. The article shows how the best elements of the private and voluntary sector were combined.
In 2006 the Greenwich Neighbourhood Resource Centres (NRCs) for older people were awarded the national Best Operational PFI Award. So ended a process which had begun seven years earlier when Ashley Homes, a not-for-profit care company, entered the world of the private finance initiative. It successfully competed against the private sector to win a 30-year tender to design, build and manage three new centres providing residential, nursing, intermediate, day care and specialist services for the ethnic minority elders of Greenwich.
The challenge for the voluntary sector was to maintain its not-for-profit values while working with the private sector to develop a new vision of older care services.