Social workers are at the cutting edge of personalisation – both its successes and its failures. At best they are discovering that it can be a liberating force, an opportunity to help people create new, flexible and community-focused support solutions. At its worst it is becoming more work, more forms to fill in, more complicated rules and – although its hard to credit it – more panels to try and get through. It is perhaps not surprising, given the thoughtless way in which government has gone about promoting personalisation, that we should be in this situation, and there is nothing inevitable about it. Local leaders can still protect people and staff from the encroaching madness.

One key lesson is to be entirely honest about the resources we have. If personalisation means giving people the chance to build more creative solutions with limited resources then the same principles should also apply within our systems. We can begin by being honest about how much time and energy social workers actually have and help them focus that time on things that really add values. Our estimates show that there is probably an average of £700 of care management time available for each individual served. This is a significant but very modest amount of time and it won’t be used well if it is spent largely on filling in forms to feed the system itself.

The only way of making better use of this limited time is to follow the principle of trust. We need to trust people more:

1. Trust people and families more. Give people information, contacts, simple systems and let them get on with it. Letting people make mistakes, solve problems and control things themselves is the key to good social work.

2. Trust community more. Encourage services to connect to people to design services with them directly. Make sure people are connected to community organizations and peer support groups.

3. Trust social workers more. Let people focus on those who need most help. In particular let social workers use their judgement. If they know of a good service, let them refer people to it. If they can see a quick solution to a problem then let them set it up.

Everyone fears that others cannot be trusted. Experience even teaches us that sometimes trust will be abused – people will lie, cheat or just make human mistakes. But a system that doesn’t encourage trust is expensive, stupid and disabling – by trying to put in systems that stop people making mistakes we delude ourselves that processes and rules will do what humans can’t do for themselves or if we shift power and control away from people then we shift it away from the point at which it can do most good. When we expect solutions to come from ‘on high’ then we are really expecting solutions from those who are least able to understand what really needs to be done and who are already trying to do far too many things for far too many people.

Trust, delegation and empowerment are efficient and effective – make them central to all your strategies and your work.

Simon Duffy is Director of The Centre for Welfare Reform www.centreforwelfarereform.org whose recent publications include The Architecture for Personalisation, Personalised Support, Personalised Transition and Personalisation in Mental Health

Tags: empowerment, integrated working, personalisation, simon duffy, Social Work

I am not sure why some local authorities are stopping staff from accessing the internet. The Click Guide to Children’s Services is a free downloadable resource which, for the first time, brings together the wide range of resources for looked after children. It is a rich source of knowledge and information and demystifies the complexity of children’s services as well as being a signpost for useful online resources.

It appears that MessageLabs (an email filtering service that a lot of organisations are using) have marked our email messages as SPAM. We would advise you to contact your IT department asking them to ‘white list’ www.shirleyayresconsulting.co.uk or add the email address info@shirleyayresconsulting.co.uk to the approved senders list. IT departments should know what to do to make it happen.

If your local authority does not have a social media policy it is worth looking at the trailblazer Blackburn with Darwen guidance.

Contact us – we can help your local authority develop a social networking policy

The Click Guide to Children’s Services is our contribution to promoting joined up thinking across the care sector. We are now working on Guides to Personalisation and Workforce Development (which are due to be published November 2010).

Tags: Click Guide to Children's Service's, encouraging innovation, integrated working, shirley ayres consulting

“The challenges confronting children and young people in the care system are complex. Their health and well-being depend on the contribution of many different professionals who are not always aware of the organisations and resources that are available. We want to challenge the organisational ‘silos’, and ensure that everyone has access to quality information and resources which enable informed choices to be made about the appropriate support for young people in care ”.  Shirley Ayres Publisher and Author ~ Click Guide to Children’s Services  

For the first time a free-to download, innovative guide brings together the wider resources for looked after children. The Click Guide to Children’s Services has been welcomed by child care practitioners, voluntary organisations and private companies who want to improve the well-being of children. The Click Guide to Children’s Services has been published to support a more joined up approach to services for vulnerable children and young people.

The Guide features live links to hundreds of web based resources and is a signpost for useful information including:

• Research reports and policy initiatives
• Advocacy and support services
• Good Practice guides

The Click Guide to Children’s Services is an essential tool for anyone supporting children and young people in care.

The Click Guide originated from a growing awareness that, while many fantastic resources are available to support children in care, information about these resources is often difficult to find and spread across different sources on the internet. The wider audience for the Guide includes foster carers, adoptive parents, social entrepreneurs developing new services, and young people themselves. For the benefit of these users the Guide includes further information about how children’s services work, and the roles of the various national, regional and local bodies.

Obtain the Guide here http://shirleyayresconsulting.co.uk/clickguide  and receive regular updates.

The Guide is also available to purchase as a printed book 

Shirley Ayres Consulting work with a wide range of organisations developing innovative solutions for managing knowledge to deliver quality care services. We believe that in the 21st century organisations need to find different ways to engage excite and energise their stakeholders. This doesn’t just mean communicating well – it means having a good story to tell. Our in-depth knowledge of social work and social care combined with expertise in communications and social networking provides unique perspectives for promoting integrated working across the care sector. This guide is the first in a series which will support joined-up thinking about information and knowledge across adults and children’s services.
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Tags: be inspired, health and well being, integrated working, looked after children, shirley ayres consulting

Patients will get more choice and control, backed by an information revolution. Services will be more responsive to patients and designed around them, rather than patients having to fit around services.  The principle will be “no decisions about me without me”. 

Under the new plans, patients will be able to choose which GP practice they register with, regardless of where they live, and choose between consultant-led teams.  More comprehensive and transparent information, such as patients’ own ratings, will help them make these choices together with healthcare professionals.

Local authorities will be given statutory responsibility for bringing health and social care together under the radical NHS reforms announced by health secretary Andrew Lansley. It is planned that primary care trusts and strategic health authorities will be abolished by 2013.

The health White Paper aims to create the largest social enterprise sector in the world by increasing the freedoms of foundation trusts and giving NHS staff the opportunity to have a greater say in the future of their organisations, including as employee-led social enterprises.

Consortia of GP practices will take on responsibility for commissioning most health services from PCTs while councils will take on PCTs’ public health functions and be charged with leading the integration of health and social care locally. GP consortia will commission most health services with a few exceptions, including dentistry, community pharmacy and large-scale specialist services.

The government also announced a wide-ranging review of health and social care regulation with a view towards significantly reducing the burdens on commissioners and providers.

The health White Paper will mean a change in the role of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), with some of its functions in promoting and disseminating good practice in social care being transferred to a strengthened National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice). The White Paper states that  ”The Health Bill will put NICE on a firmer statutory footing, securing its independence and core functions and extending its remit to social care”.

Closer integration of social care and health has been on every government agenda for many years. Putting People First and the Children’s Trusts have actively encouraged collaboration and partnerships. I hope that these radical proposals will build upon the many excellent examples of integrated working already in place which include the private and third sector. I am particularly concerned that the invaluable and innovative elearning developed by SCIE for the care sector over a number of years is maintained and further developed.  

The health White Paper is the start of an extensive consultation that will take place over the coming weeks.  The Department of Health will shortly be publishing a number of consultation documents to seek views on the more detailed proposals.

Connect on LinkedIn http://uk.linkedin.com/in/shirleyayres

http://twitter.com/shirleyayres

Tags: choice and control, commissioning services, elearning, health and social care, integrated working, regulation of social care and health, scie

The 4th National Continuing Professional Development Conference for Social Workers on the theme of ‘Integrated   Practice’ will be held at the Institute of Psychiatry on 14th September 2010.

 The conference features prominent keynote speakers, engaging workshops and a unique opportunity to network with professional colleagues from across the country.

Camila Batmanghelidjh from Kids Company http://www.kidsco.org.uk will be talking about the need for new paradigms of care.

Keynote papers will be given by:

Professor Peter Huxley ( Swansea University ) – Integration of health and social care in mental health services

Professor Nick Frost ( Leeds Metropolitan University ) – Integrated working in frontline children’s services: research, policy and practice

Professor Marian Barnes ( University of Brighton ) – Ethics of care in promoting effective dialogue between workers, service users and carers.

The conference will also feature an interactive plenary session on the theme: “Are families becoming more dangerous?”

Professor Colin Pritchard ( Bournemouth University ) will address the issue of ‘Who kills children?’, based on data presented in his recent British Journal of Social Work paper that hit the headlines.

Attendance at the conference will count towards your GSCC post registration training and learning requirements.

Further information and the online booking form can be found at www.iop.kcl.ac.uk/annualsocialworkconference. Early bird bookings are available until 31^st July. All Making Research Count bookings should be made by Learning and Development Managers to janet.noble@kcl.ac.uk.

Abstracts for parallel workshops throughout the day are still being received . If you or a colleague are interested in leading a workshop of relevance to the conference theme, please submit your abstract by 25^th June. Full information and an online abstract submission form are available from: www.iop.kcl.ac.uk/annualsocialworkconference.

Any questions? Contact Julie Smith, the conference organiser julie.smith@iop.kcl.ac.uk

Tags: advanced social work practice, be inspired, institute of psychiatry, integrated working, professional practice, Social Work

This publication aims to tell the story so far about the personalisation of adult social care services. It is intended to set out our current understanding of personalisation and its implementation, exploring what personalisation is, where the idea came from and placing the transformation of adult social care in the wider public service reform agenda.

The report contains the following key messages and recommendations:
By identifying and transferring knowledge about good practice, SCIE has a special role to play in transforming adult social care services.
Person-centred planning and self-directed support will need to become mainstream
It will ultimately mean universal services such as transport, housing and education are accessible to all citizens.
The personalised system will need to be cost-effective and sustainable in the long term.
Approaches to early intervention and prevention need to develop further so that people are encouraged to stay healthy and independent.
The social care workforce will need to acquire new skills.

This guide is aimed at frontline practitioners and first-line managers in statutory, voluntary and independent sector social care services, although it is an indispensable summary for all those interested in this important area.

Published: October 2008, Updated: April 2010

SCIE Personalisation: a rough guide By Sarah Carr Order your copy now

Tags: integrated working, personalisation, rough guide, scie

A brief roundup of some of  the topics we will be featuring in 2010 

The Advanced Practitioner – managing your career

“Find It Here” – the launch of the first comprehensive Directory of online resources for people supporting children and young people in care

The Big Ideas survey – share your thoughts about how we can improve social work and social care 

Integrated Working – what stops care and health working together?

The e-Learning revolution and social media – a new approach to improve the skills and knowledge of staff in the care sector?

What makes a good employer? A simple audit tool which reveals whether your employer demonstrates that staff really are the most important resource in the organisation.

New Partnerships – Shirley Ayres Consulting will be joining up with a number of organisations who are committed to driving up standards in social work and social care.

Leadership and Management in Social Care – has the investment paid off?

An undervalued and unrecognised resource? - the launch of an exciting new website for grandparents.

Introducing Blastbeat Education UK a not for profit company that has developed a fun & exciting Music & Multimedia Business progamme offered to young people and schools around the world. Blastbeat promotes and encourages young original songwriters & musicians, supporting youth communities on a local & global level, empowering young people to create social enterprises creating community and social capital to help bring about change for the good of society.

Quality Assuring Training  – do the increasing number of quality marks and standards really make a difference to the unregulated training in the care sector?

Stress busters – See life from a different angle.

BASW and the new National College for Social Work

“The insurmountable difficulties of today are the solved problems of tomorrow.” ~ Cardinal Heenan

Tags: advanced social work practice, be inspired, care sector, elearning, encouraging innovation, integrated working, Leadership and Management, Learning and Development, quality assurance, Social Work, Stress busters, training

We have been looking for a way to connect professionals across the children’s workforce to network and collaborate, share resources and information and promote good practice. The new group offers the opportunity to discuss evolving practice and to exchange thoughts and ideas which promote the health and well being of children and young people in the care system. Join our group  if you would like to share information about policy initiatives, interesting reports, practice guidance, research and events.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas about the policies and practice which are really making a difference to the lives of children and young people in care.

Tags: children in care, encouraging innovation, integrated working, linkedin, looked after children, sharing best practice in children's services

“Attention has become the scarce resource of the information economy”

One of my favourite sayings because it is a reality that there is so much information available on the internet that it can become overwhelming. Every organisation I am connected with now sends out an e-Letter. Improving access to, and use of, knowledge and information has been identified as a priority for improving care services. But identifying the resources which will add value to your knowledge and skills is a major challenge.

The national Child and Maternal Health Observatory (ChiMat) provides information and intelligence to improve decision-making for high quality, cost effective services. It supports policy makers, commissioners, managers, regulators, and other health stakeholders working on children’s, young people’s and maternal health. One of the key roles for ChiMat is to act as a signposting organisation for relevant work in the areas of children, young people’s and maternal health and to identify and support potential synergies in national work between government departments and other agencies.

The ChiMat Knowledge Update is one e-Bulletin that I always read. This free online resource provides a snapshot of current issues, news, research, policy and practice across the wide area of children and young people’s services. It is an excellent example of joined up thinking in health and social care. 

Sign up for the weekly ChiMat Knowledge Update here

Recent Knowledge Updates have included information about:

National Indicators datasets
Access to information about national indicators which range from National Indicator 58 – Emotional Behaviour of Looked After Children through to National Indicator 62 – The percentage of children looked after at 31 March with three or more placements subsequently adopted in that placement. Access the ChiMat Data Atlas here

In the News
Community Care: BASW brands integrated children’s system a failure
The British Association of Social Workers has branded the implementation of the computerised integrated children’s system (ICS), which records details of children receiving social care, a “systematic failure”. Access the article here

CWDC: Dawn Primarolo launches Young People’s Workforce Reform Programme
An important chapter for the young people’s workforce, and those it serves, begins today, as Children and Young People’s Minister, Dawn Primarolo launches the Young People’s Workforce Reform Programme. Access more information here

Supporting social care for families and children: An introduction to SCIE’s resources
A new booklet presenting SCIE’s range of resources for families and children’s social care. Access here

BASW and ADCS call for no-blame approach in SCRs
Social workers and directors of children’s services have called for serious case reviews to use a no-blame “systems approach” as developed by the Social Care Institute for Excellence. Access here

Hidden Children –separated children at risk
Professionals ‘missing opportunities’ to help hidden children exploited for sex and forced labour. Children and young people trafficked into the UK, or exploited after their arrival, are struggling to get help from authorities responsible for their welfare, according to new research from The Children’s Society. Access more information here  
 
Guides and Practice
Commercial and Procurement Skills for Commissioners of Children’s Services
This page links to a set of guidance documents designed to help commissioners understand and apply commercial and procurement skills in their work. The documents cover the key principles of procurement, an overview of both strategic procurement and the contracting process, an overview of resource mapping and a basic jigsaw tool designed to help commissioners understand the key principles of change management.  Access here 

Policy and Reports
Community engagement key to Enfield’s JSNA strategy
The London Borough of Enfield has teamed up with the local primary care trust (PCT), NHS Enfield. They have placed community engagement at the heart of their joint strategic needs assessment (JSNA). This cas study gives an account of this process and includes key learnings for other councils. Access here

Meeting the specific needs of children with disabilities
The Centre for Excellence and Outcomes presents the latest guidance on the importance of ‘differentiated’ services for disabled children. Access here  

Research
Exploring family environment characteristics and multiple abuse experiences among homeless youth
A qualitative study of homeless youth to examine how they describe past instances of abuse, including physical, sexual and emotional abuse, and to explore family characteristics in their home environment. Identifies themes relating to the home environment, such as home instability, abandonment and substance abuse; also identifies themes around abuse, including intrafamilial abuse, rejection and carer abuse.
Access here

Consultations
Safeguarding Targets and Indicators
The National Safeguarding Delivery Unit (part of the Department for Children, Schools and Families) has launched a consultation on Safeguarding Targets and Indicators. Deadline for responses is 8 December 2009. Access here

Events and Training
Five Years On: What’s Changed for Children and Young People?
London, 8 December 2009
Participation Works and 11 Million are holding a one-day conference to review the changes that have taken place since the Children Act 2004. The conference will identify what has worked well and what still needs to be done to ensure that the views and opinions of children and young people help to shape and influence policy and practice. This is a unique opportunity to find out what works in participation and help you to meet the duty to listen to and involve children and young people and to champion their interests. Access more information here

Shirley Ayres Consulting are committed to development through communication in the care sector. With extensive experience in knowledge management and communications we believe that a skilled and knowledgeable workforce, up-to-date with the latest legislation, policy and best practice, enables staff to make the most effective use of their time. This promotes the best outcomes for children, young people, their families and carers.

Tags: advanced social work practice, apho.org.uk, ChiMat, cwdc, DCSF, health and social care, health and well being, integrated working, knowledge management, research, scie, Social Work

“In the past, health reports may have simply recommended eye tests or immunisations,’ Lin explains, ‘but I want people to do whatever they can to help these children achieve optimum health – not just tick the box that they’ve been to the dentist or had their immunisations. I think we’ve all realised that there’s more to health than just vaccinations – looking after the well being of our children is just as important. Prescribing activities like baton-twirling helps boost confidence which can really make a difference to their lives and it means that they’re healthier and happier”.

There are currently around 60,000 looked-after children living in the UK.  Many looked after children have experienced abuse and neglect and have extensive health needs. Their educational achievement is much lower than that of their peers and they are four times more likely to have a mental disorder.

As the borough’s lead nurse for looked-after children, Lin’s post is funded by NHS Hammersmith and Fulham and the council. She provides a range of health advice and support to the borough’s 230 children in care. 

Looked-after children nurses like Lin support these young people by building their trust, carrying out health checks and answering their health and well being questions. Lin realised that the health and well being of these young people needed to be addressed more systematically and creatively. The children had complex lives with frequent changes of home and school. Lin introduced a scheme assigning a lead health professional to each young person, with a personalised care pathway and plan.

Lin said: “The feedback we get from young people is helping to continually improve the service. For example, when out on visits we now wear jeans because the children told us that we’re more approachable and easier to talk to in casual clothes.”

Sarah Whiting, Managing Director of NHS Hammersmith and Fulham, said: “ By developing new projects and initiatives like the ones produced by Lin and her team, we’re improving care and making sure that our patients lead happy and healthy lives.”

Lin contributed to the recent Government office for London publication “Supporting the Health and Well being of London’s Looked After Children – Learning from Emerging Practice” available here

*Established in 1988, the Nursing Standard Awards identify outstanding achievement and promote excellence and innovation in nursing care. Around 3,000 nurses are nominated for the honours every year.

Tags: be inspired, health and well being, integrated working, Leadership and Management, Lin Graham Ray, looked after children, looked after children nurse, nurse of the year, Social Work