Supporting lives, connecting communities Suffolk Adult Care – Developing a New Approach In Conversation with Adult Social Care PVI providers February 28 th 2013

The Vision…. Suffolk Adult Community Services have set out on an ambitious journey to redesign how they offer people support called ‘Supporting Lives, Connecting Communities’ based on the following key principles..

….. Influencing communities and people so that it is easier to live more independent lives without on-going formal intervention Providing responsive short-term support to help people regain independence. Re-designing the statutory assessment system – so that it is lean, and remodelled to offer real choice and control.

Supporting Lives Connecting Communities 3 Offers to The Community Help When You Need It Regain independence, minimal delays, no presumption about long-term support, goal focussed Help When You Need It Regain independence, minimal delays, no presumption about long-term support, goal focussed On-Going Support for those who need it Self directed, personal budget based, choice and control, highly individualised On-Going Support for those who need it Self directed, personal budget based, choice and control, highly individualised Manage Demand Right Skills, Right People Help To Help Yourself Accessible, Friendly, Quick, Information, Advice, Advocacy, Universal services to the whole community, Prevention

What is the new approach? Building on developments over the last 5 years Developed with service users and partners Helping people to make best use of their personal and community assets Focussing on –Prevention –Enablement –Personalisation –Integration –Community responses –Simplifying responses Promoting independence

What will it mean for people who use our services? High quality personalised advice based on options available in their communities A rapid response in a crisis situation to get people back to independence if possible Clarity on the type and level of support available Support that is designed around people, their circumstances and agreed outcomes An expectation of continuing independence or progress towards it in most situations

Help To Help Yourself…. People living their lives in ways that support their independence Having access to opportunities that will support that independence Vital for services and opportunities within communities to be sustainable This is ‘everybody’s business’ Includes people who will never experience social care - “self funders” This is the form of “services” we want people to experience most of the time

Help When You Need It…. People often experience social care after some form of crisis - we want people to regain independence Once care services know of someone the relationship is often ongoing: we want to change that - no presumption about long-term support. Aim is to get people back to independence: requires a co-ordinated response with minimal delay focussing on outcomes People are often disabled by environment: housing and disabled facilities grant solutions are vital Community and individual assets very much part of solution

On-Going Support for those who need it… Individual choice on how to use personal budgets not “services” Encouraging choice and creativity using a highly individualised approach - Support Planning Building on support that people have from friends, family and community Nobody will receive immediate long term support without having conversations about what else we can do to support and maximise independence Outcomes focussed on maintaining and increasing independence Including community and individual assets as part of a personalised approach offering choice, control and increased sustainability

This approach requires join up

Challenges for the council working differently in communities We are more used to standard solutions and offers: trying to minimise the “postcode lottery” - this is the opposite of local tailored solutions We can be slow and bureaucratic and have to abide by procurement rules that can make us unresponsive and inflexible Some of the best community solutions come from working around rules and regulations The debate can become all about we what will and will not pay for Despite all this we really believe we can respond to make it work

How does SLCC work with the Independent Sector? We want providers to:- Work with all their customers to maintain independence. Support personalisation, including improving well being, that helps customers lead as fulfilling lives as possible Use the existing community, including voluntary sector, and individual assets available to support people Encourage sharing of good practice between providers

How does SLCC work in partnership with the voluntary sector? Partner organisations already provide services to support people within their own homes and within their communities. Funded projects should remain ‘fit for purpose’ in the future and support our strategic objectives People need to be in the ‘driving seat’ as far as possible about how they live their lives – there should be a personalised approach to services

One example of many… Side by Side is an extension of the original work Suffolk Artlink did with the Alzheimer’s Society. The project is a partnership with the Alzheimer’s Society. It offers a series of creative activities for people with dementia and their carers, many of whom are partners or family members. The aim of the project is to bring people in similar situations together and to allow carer and cared for to recapture their relationship outside of a caring role. Using creative activities allows an equal opportunity for both carer and cared for. People are encouraged to think about trying activities themselves at home as well as encouraged to access local cultural opportunities.

In Summary.. Our vision is about Building services that will be affordable and will deliver well for the people of Suffolk. We accept the challenge of doing both We want people to be as independent as possible - we assume that is what most people want We will base support around what people, their families and friends say would make a positive difference to their lives and what people and their families can do for themselves. Our focus is what works well for people in Suffolk, not our organisational needs

Supporting Lives Connecting Communities is all of our business… not just a project for a few

What Next? How do we deliver Supporting Lives Connecting Communities together?

We will be working with you to… Redesign specifications for all of our services - to make them fit for SLCC purpose Creating a more flexible approach to procurement - moving away from inflexibility of specifications Explore ways of helping you to provide creative responses to specifications/bids (as long as they fit with outcomes required)

We will be working with you to… Support you to position yourselves to deliver on personalisation To be ready to provide the right type of support, at the right time, in the right place…at the right cost Redesign home care delivery using a framework agreement

Too achieve this together we need to… Develop the detail using a systems approach to develop a customer centred model Work more closely with health to develop more services that will support independence Encourage independence and personalisation at every level

Over to you….. Does this make sense? How do you see this working from your perspective? Do you see this working for customers? What are the issues for you?