Agenda item

Context:

Members received a report and video presentation in order to receive detail and an evaluation of the Community Coordination and Small Local Enterprise Learning pilot that is scheduled to run until the end of May 2016.

Key Issues:

The Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 comes into effect on 6^th April 2016 and highlights the role of public services in building on individual and family strengths, helping people to have a stronger voice, choice and more control supporting a meaningful contribution to local community life, the coproduction of person centred services and the achievement of personal outcomes. The Act also creates a duty on local authorities to ensure appropriate services to help prevent, delay and reduce the need for care and support.

Community Coordination is based on establishing local coordinators within communities to work with people who may otherwise require traditional social services. By engaging early on, building on strengths and helping people to build local connections they help people find their own lasting solutions. The development of small local enterprises facilitates the promotion of community enterprises whose aim, in general, is to improve the wellbeing of those involved as well the wider impact of improved community integration.

The work was initially presented as a learning pilot. Cabinet decided that the programme would be monitored throughout and the learning used to adapt the work as it progressed. Consequently Adults Select have received reports over the past eighteen months and will be broadly familiar with the evolving nature of the programme but not the precise nature of it.

The learning pilot produced a number of stories that identified improved outcomes for individuals. While there is not yet enough evidence to aggregate the impact of these studies, in some cases practitioners within the integrated teams were clear that without the intervention individuals on their way towards a care package had been diverted towards a more informal community arrangement.

The most significant conclusions highlight the importance of place and in particular the existence of buildings and facilities where individuals and groups can come together to create a sense of community, friendship, reciprocity and belonging that builds lasting connections.

People have a need to be involved in shaping their own future. Many of those who benefitted from the work wanted to be active participants who co-produced their own solutions not passive recipients of services. It is through contribution and involvement that people achieve a greater sense purpose and identity.

This cannot be viewed in isolation from the system-wide transformation taking place in adult social services and it is difficult to separate out the relative impacts of the different transformation strands. The decision to go ahead with the programme back in 2013 has yielded valuable learning that will position the authority well to implement the Social Services and Well-being Act as well as aligning very clearly with the principles of the Well-being of Future Generations Act.

The programme has facilitated positive outcomes for individuals and enabled the service to be on-budget. There has been no need to make a case for budget increases which could be expected when aligned to the projected rise in demand caused by an ageing population and increased complexity of need.

There is enough evidence of the positive impact that contribution and participation make to consider how these key aspects of well-being can form part of the future model of service provision. These can be incorporated into the wider transformation of adult services. It is anticipated that this can be delivered within existing budgets by maximising the potential of external funding streams such as the Intermediate Care Fund. Any future proposals that affect the nature of service delivery will be brought forward in a future report as needed.

Members Scrutiny:

The Chair welcomed comment from the Cabinet Member for Social Care, Safeguarding and Health who added that it had been a wonderful journey and had been great to see what had been achieved to date and what would be achieved going forward.  It was acknowledged that these were specific location pilots, in Caldicot and Abergavenny, the learning it would bring would be a consequence of the environment.  The next phase and volunteer coordination would be an important step forward, and identify ways we can bring a difference to people.

A Member commended officers on a powerful presentation which provided effective information on what can be done in the community for social isolation.  It was requested that for future reporting figures be provided rather than percentages, in order to provide a clearer picture. 

It was questioned that as schemes such as Befriending and Community Connections relied on lottery grants, did officers see problems for future funding.  The Head of Adult Services explained that in terms of funding it was intended to partly fund the next phase through the intermediate care fund.  With the preventative duty through the Social Care and Wellbeing Act it should be difficult for the Gwent Community to not fund, so officers were reasonably confident that the money would be forthcoming.  The issue moving forward would be short term funding arrangements.

In response to a query raised we heard that the short term contracts of the coordinators, due to finish in April had been extended. 

There were concerns surrounding the evaluation and the following points were made:

·         It would have been useful to have received a blank questionnaire in relation to the report.

·         It was worrying that the questionnaires had been distributed and collected by the coordinators.

·         The results did not clearly show the service sizes which would have had an impact on the data shown.

·         The unrealistic nature of the results due to the positive bias of the questions.

The Policy and Performance Manager accepted the concerns and added that it was hoped to make to evaluation as honest and robust as possible.  It was agreed that a blank copy and further detail on numbers would be added to the report when presented to Cabinet.  In terms of the distribution of the questionnaire it was recognised and mentioned in the report that this needed to be taken into account.  It was also added that there was some difficulty with the nature and the smaller sample size.  It was noted that the statements in the questionnaire were written in accordance with the wellbeing outcomes.

Members highlighted that isolated people would benefit from added facilities, such as blood pressure checks, in the community hubs. We were informed that there were intentions to add opportunities around health and social care to the hubs.  The Rogiet hub saw social workers and police community support officers having breakfast there, which was a great opportunity for people to approach.

A Member questioned if an unused hut owned by MCC, opposite Fairfield Car Park in Abergavenny would be considered for use as a hub.  We were informed that the approach was to use existing establishment and it was not the intention to take over new buildings.

The Chair noted that further along there could be a more external approach to be encouraged eg. including health visitors.

The Chair highlighted that with more work being done in the community with volunteers, we would have to address accountability issues.  The Head of Adult Services responded that we were creating opportunities for people to come together as a natural approach.  In terms of the volunteering aspect the Programme Lead for Volunteering ensured we were supportive of people in a volunteering role.

Recommendations:

Members were invited to scrutinise the report and the accompanying appendix to ensure that they present a robust and evidence-based evaluation that can be used to inform the future development of services.