Ceretas News
New Citizen -led markers for Councils
New citizen-led markers for councils, organisations and people to check progress with personalisation and community-based support
A new way for councils and social care organisations to check with people if they are really delivering personalisation was launched at the National Childrens and Adults Services (NCAS) conference on Friday 21 October. Making it Real - marking progress towards personalised, community-based support is a set of statements from people who use services and carers which set out what they would expect, see and experience if personalisation is working well in an organisation. These statements are then set against key elements that would need to be in place within an organisation to make personalisation possible.
This was launched alongside several new Think Local, Act Personal reports that share learning and new ideas about how councils can reduce bureaucracy and improve the delivery of personal budgets. Making it Real will help organisations involved in commissioning and delivering care and support - from councils to providers of in-home, residential or nursing care - to look at their current practice, identify areas that need improvement and develop plans for change.
The markers have the support of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), national provider bodies (including the NCF), the Care Quality Commission and the Department of Health. Vitally, Making it Real has been developed by people who use social care and family carers who are part of the National Coproduction Advisory Group - representing a very wide range of groups and organisations.
Organisations across social care will be encouraged to sign up to Making it Real via the Think Local, Act Personal website. By doing so, they will commit to publicly declaring their commitment and reporting on their progress in implementing personalisation through online and citizen surveys.
The other reports also being launched by the TLAP partnership during NCAS include:
- Personal budgets: Taking stock, moving forward which summarises research to date on personal budget delivery, identifying the most common barriers and providing advice on how to address them
- Adult Social Care Minimum Process Framework; describes diagrammatically the suggested core activities needed for adult social care delivery by councils with examples of good practice and useful links
- Re-thinking Support Planning suggests that taking an asset-based approach to support planning by increasing the capacity of disabled people and supporting them to do their own plans can free social workers to support people who don?t have capacity to plan themselves
- Improving Direct Payment Delivery will assist councils in both understanding their responsibilities and knowing how best to proceed in direct payment delivery. It offers advice on streamlining processes and reducing operational costs while at the same time improving outcomes for citizens.
Think Local, Act Personal has released these documents to share learning and provide advice that to achieve good results that make a difference to people?s lives, there needs to be simplicity and clarity around the processes of Personal Budgets. People who are using services need to have the opportunity to be involved in any planning about the support they receive.
Think Local, Act Personal is a group of over 30 national health and social care partners that are committed to real change in adult social care.