Making it Personal: A provider’s experience Steve Scown

Dimensions Support adults, young people and children with learning disabilities and who experience autism Support just over 2500 people We offer support via RCH / GLS / SLS / Day Services / Short Breaks and employment training and preparation Work in 71 Local Authority areas Employ approximately 3800 staff Budgeted turnover in 12/13 of £125m

“We must not let our past, no matter how glorious, to get in the way of our future” Charles Handy

The Immediate Challenges Traditional services currently offer more secure income streams Traditional services are less and less in demand Personalised services will be what people want to buy and have funding for Personalised services will have very small and fixed margins

The Provider Conundrum Managing yesterday’s services today whilst developing new ways of listening and responding to tomorrow’s customer – and accepting less money for doing it.

The LA commissioned service Paul lives in a home with 4 other people Local Authority pays Dimensions £50k per annum The home has a team of 5 staff – there is 1 staff there all the time during the day and sleep ins at night There are 40 hours per week shared amongst the group Paul wanted to go abroad for a holiday and a group of 8 people decided if that was OK Paul spends 2 days a week at the local learning disability day centre and the rest at leisure.

What Paul wants Paul has an Individual Budget of £34k. Paul pays Dimensions £22k a year for:  Support in the mornings whilst his Mum is at work  Support 2 days a week whilst he works in a garage keeping the floor clean and the place generally tidy  Support every 4 th weekend whilst he goes away for short breaks – either camping or on a city break One of his support workers is his cousin at his family’s insistence. Paul is offering a one-off £3k payment if Dimensions can find him a job which he can keep for 6 months.

“So basically you’re moving from wholesale to bespoke retail”

Market Dynamics Now B2B B2C Future B2B B2C Public Sector Austerity

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one that is most responsive to change” Charles Darwin

“We cannot solve our problems from the same level of thinking that created them” Albert Einstein

The key question to be considered in the workshops Market awareness Brand Co-design and production Defining your offer Costing your offer Recruiting the right staff

“ I am always doing what I cannot do in order that I may learn how to do it.” Pablo Picasso

So what about the people we’re already supporting in traditional services..?

What did we hope to achieve from Anne Marie’s perspective?

What did we hope to achieve from the staff team’s perspective?

The money Individual allocation Identify each person’s share of the funding we receive based upon their individual need Core support and shared costs Identify what support and costs are necessary as a result of the service being shared In my personal control Identify ways of enabling each person to maximise their control over what resource they have once they’ve paid their share of the core support and shared costs

The current model A 6 bed home with a budget of £300k Each placement is charged at £50k per person Occasionally extra costs on an individual basis can be negotiated

The ISF model (1) A 6 bed home with a budget of £300,000 Person A: individual allocation of £50k Person B: individual allocation of £42k Person C: individual allocation of £45k Person D: individual allocation of £53k Person E: individual allocation of £65k Person F: individual allocation of £45k

The ISF model (2) From the budget of £300k Core support costs are determined to be: £30k x 6 Shared costs are determined to be: £10k x 6 Total budget for core support and shared costs is £240k

The ISF model (3) Leaving In My Personal Control money as: Person A: £10,000 (£50k – £40k) Person B: £2,000 (£42k – £40k) Person C: £5,000 (£45k - £40k) Person D: £13k (£53k - £40k) Person E: £25k (£65k - £40k) Person F: £5K (£45k - £40k)

Choosing staff

So what changed for Anne Marie? New people in her relationship map Voluntary work Unpaid support New places Reconnected with old friends Busier and happier Better relationship with estranged sister

What do you think your purchasers say about you after you’ve left a meeting with them? How do you know what they really think about you?

What would you like your brand to be? How might you change what they say about you?

The key issues to be considered in the workshop How prepared is your organisation for change? How person centred is your organisation?

Some thoughts about change...

Preparing your organisation Ensure your leaders are all actively engaged and prepared for the change. Establish your criteria for success at the outset, based on what you want to achieve for the people you support and for your organisation.

Preparing your organisation Be realistic about what you’re aiming to achieve. Major change to working practices takes courage, determination - and time. Recognise and feel comfortable with accepting you will discover some things that must change. You’ll learn much more and achieve positive change more quickly by clarifying your expectations and engaging in honest and open dialogue and avoiding the ‘blame game’.

Preparing your organisation Develop your own views very early as to how you would allocate Individual Service Funds, what should constitute core services and what people can have under their own personal control. Develop your organisational response to dealing with a member of staff whom nobody wants to support them.

Preparing your staff Provide people with clear information about the principles of personalisation, individual budgets and Individual Service Funds at the outset. Everyone, including business support, but particularly every member of operations should be familiar with person-centred thinking tools and should work towards becoming ‘fluent’ in them.

Preparing your staff Help your staff understand they must have their own personal offer for the people they are supporting. If they haven’t got one, help them to develop one. Find anchor points that are real and use stories and journeys to connect people to change.

Managing through the tough times Use person-centred supervision on a regular basis. Having the feedback of people being supported as an explicit component of individual staff supervision and appraisal is very beneficial. Be prepared to provide higher levels of support, training, independent challenge and coaching than you think necessary.

Managing through the tough times Don’t under-estimate the impact of broader organisational change upon local services and their attempts to improve how they provide support. Accept it will never be right and just keep on going.

“If you want something different to happen, you have to do something different” Sharon Di Santo