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14.Dec.2009

Local authorities need to do more to establish effective links between primary care trusts, housing workers and adult social services if they are to meet people’s needs in a more holistic way and provide better value for money, a new report has claimed.

The Chartered Institute of Housing study – Housing, Health and Care – suggested that better partnership working “can help support care closer to home, give people more independence and deliver greater efficiencies”. It warned of the demands that an increasingly diverse and ageing society will put on the health and care system.

“In many areas, efforts are being made to bring together housing, related support providers, health, and care partners to provide more linked services, which can often help to avoid or reduce costly interventions such as institutional based health or care solutions,” the CIH said.

The report's authors suggested that evidence of the benefits of joint action was already emerging but more needed to be done. They called on local authorities and other organisations involved in this area to build on their work by:

• Utilising and developing common evidence bases;
• Linking up the key strategies to underpin the sustainable community strategy and the local area agreement, and building on the shared priorities identified there;
• Aligning staffing and resources around those shared priorities, and supporting this with sustained investment;
• Building common outcomes for commissioning across housing, care and health sectors;
• Developing capacity in partnership; and
• Finding ways to maximise the effectiveness of those partnerships by identifying better ways to do things and reducing duplication.

Sarah Davis, senior policy and practice officer at the CIH, said: “We need to transform the way we plan for, commission and deliver services that impact on people’s wellbeing. Our report demonstrates that good housing plays an integral role in ensuring people stay healthy, active and independent as long as possible, so securing the best results from our national investment.”

The CIH report was supported by the Department of Health’s housing learning and improvement network, and endorsed by the NHS Alliance and the Association of Directors of Social Servicess.

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08.Dec.2009

Local authority social services and providers in Wales have performed better in some core areas of provision over the last twelve months but must still increase the pace of change and improve the quality and consistency of their services, the Chief Inspector for Care and Social Services has said.

Imelda Richardson acknowledged improvements by local authority social services in assessment, care management and reviews in particular. The Care and Social Services Inspectorate for Wales annual report for 2008-09 also suggested satisfaction among service users and their carers with the services they receive.

However, the report revealed continued variation in performance between authorities and in the range and quality of services available across Wales. “Once again, performance varies with growing gaps between the best and worst performers,” it said.

The inspectorate also warned that financial pressures will require “increased impetus” on driving improvement and modernising services.

Richardson said: “The challenge for all public bodies is to deliver quality services that provide value for money within a context of increasing demand and rising expectations. Together these are powerful drivers for change.

“Local authorities and providers must work together and build on the strong foundations in place in Wales to help social services and social care meet the challenges, aspirations and needs of citizens.”

The Inspectorate will – as part of its workplan for 2009-10 – examine key areas of safeguarding for children and adults as well as delivering individual inspection schemes in each local authority.

The Care Council for Wales, the social care workforce regulator in Wales, called for "radical thinking and urgent action” to achieve a step-change in the standard of social services and social care in Wales.

Chief Executive Rhian Huws Williams said: "We agree wholeheartedly with the Inspectorate’s call for increased impetus to improve services, particularly in this challenging financial climate. It is a challenge that all parties responsible for social services and social care must sign up to and face together.”

She added that partnership working had successfully delivered a larger and better qualified workforce. “Extension of the groups of workers having to register with the Care Council will have played a part in this, particularly in the number of qualifications secured by managers. However, we must build on this success quickly if we are to make a lasting difference.”

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07.Dec.2009

The way the Court of Protection operates is to be reviewed following complaints about its practice and procedure and because of the higher than expected caseload it has had to deal with, the President of the Family Division has announced.

Sir Mark Potter said an ad-hoc committee – chaired jointly by Mr Justice Charles and Mrs Justice Proudman – would review the Court of Protection Rules 2007 and the practice directions and forms accompanying the rules.

Membership of the committee will be drawn from the legal profession and other users of the court. Introduced under the Mental Capacity Act 2005, the court is a  specialist court with jurisdiction to make decisions and appoint someone to make decisions on behalf of people who lack capacity to make decisions for themselves.

Sir Mark said: “The Court of Protection has faced a number of difficulties in its first two years and court users have complained that court procedure is too formal, particularly in relation to straightforward financial matters which are not contentious. The court has also received applications far in excess of predicted volumes, which has meant that the allocation of four full-time judges has not been sufficient to keep up with demand.”

The committee has been tasked with making the court's rules clearer and simpler, for both lay and professional users.

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01.Dec.2009

A royal college of social work is to be introduced to improve professional standards in the sector, Children’s Secretary Ed Balls has announced.

In an interview with The Guardian, Balls said a report, due to be delivered by the UK’s social work task force today (1 December), is expected to recommend the establishment of a national college of social work to give the industry a “voice", representation, better training and the ability for the profession to shape its future.

Balls said he is working with Justice Secretary Jack Straw to give the new college a royal college status, on a par with the Royal College of Nursing.

"In the first year of practice, we put social workers in situations without proper support and probation that you would never do to a newly qualified teacher, police officer or hospital doctor,” he said. "The quality of social work training at university before you start is not adequate…too many social workers either quit the profession, or go into management to secure promotion".

According to Balls, the task force is also expected to recommend clearer career paths and higher rates of pay to help retain top-quality social workers in the field. Balls said he expected a royal college would act as a beacon of reform in the system, providing standards and probationary periods to workers entering into the profession.

“This is a moment we have never had before to recognise the importance of social work in terms of the potential for the profession and for employers,” he said. “We will support the national college to become a Royal College of Social Workers in the speediest way we can.”

The social work task force was created in part as a result of the Baby Peter case, which sparked a public outcry when it was found that the baby’s death was a result of abuse occurring over an eight-month period that saw over 60 visits from social workers and police.

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01.Dec.2009

The Department of Health has published a new guide for primary care trusts, local authorities and learning disability partnership boards in a bid to address the health inequalities face by people with learning disabilities.

The guide, World class commissioning for the health and wellbeing of people with learning disabilities, is designed to ensure that all health services are commissioned in ways that are more responsive and provide better outcomes for people with learning disabilities. The health services covered in the guide include primary care, community health services, mental health and acute care.

A series of reports – including an independent inquiry conducted by Sir Jonathan Michael in 2008 – have found significant shortcomings in the way that services are provided for those with learning disabilities. These failures have contributed to “poorer health outcomes, avoidable suffering and, at worst, premature deaths”, the guide said.

A joint report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and the Local Government Ombudsman this year meanwhile recommended that all NHS and social care organisations urgently review the effectiveness of their systems, and their capacity and capability, for understanding and meeting the needs of people with learning disabilities.

For PCTs, the guide recommends a comprehensive needs assessment, which seeks evidence on the numbers, health needs and experiences of people with learning disabilities. PCT board members are requested to exercise their duties under disability discrimination legislation by asking tough questions about how commissioned services are meeting the needs of people with learning disabilities.

The guide also calls for learning disability partnership boards to continually review services and outcomes and help develop public commitments to achieve their goals in the next five years.

The responsibility for commissioning social care was recently transferred to local authorities.

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24.Nov.2009

Government plans to give free personal care to those in the greatest need have been widely welcomed, but there is scepticism among local authorities about whether the financial framework underpinning the proposal stacks up.

Local authority leaders have expressed deep concern over how the government intends to finance its plans for wider provision of care.

The proposals, contained in the Personal Care at Home Bill unveiled in the Queen’s Speech, are described as the first step towards setting up a new National Care Service.

The Bill would guarantee free care at home for up to 280,000 people with complex medical conditions, regardless of their means. A further 130,000 people will get the right to aid that will enable them to live in their homes for longer.

The Department of Health will provide £420m towards the cost of the scheme, but £250m a year will come from local government. Although local authority and community groups support the Bill in principle, there is widespread concern over the funding rationale behind the legislative framework.

Jenny Owen, president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said: “We shall be working closely with the Department of Health in trying to frame the working guidance over the coming months. But local authorities have already wrung substantial efficiency savings from their adult care and other budgets, and it isn’t clear that there is a further £250m left to wring.”

The Local Government Association (LGA) agreed. It warned that if the government cannot lift existing burdens, it is difficult to see how local government could meet the cost of “another new burden”. “There needs to be absolute clarity as to what is included in personal care and in what form it will be provided,” it argued.