Agenda item

In attendance for this item were:

·       Paula Furnival, Strategic Director of People

·       Kerry McCrossan, Assistant Director for Adult Social Care

·       Hannah Perrott, Assistant Director for Communities

·       Adrian Hardman, Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Adult Social Care

The Strategic Director of People introduced the report, which was a very important area, since social work was so much more than assessing people and criteria and social workers worked with complex family situations; the strengths based approach was about the rich conversations involved.

The Assistant Director for Adult Social Care summarised the main points of the report, which explained how the Strengths Based Three Conversation (3C) approach had been introduced in 2017, and the subsequent refresh in 2020 as part of the People Directorate Strategy. The 3C approach was very much the obvious way in which social workers worked with and listened to people and found meaningful support for them within local communities which built resilience into their lives.

In 2020 an independent review had been commissioned, to look at how to maintain momentum, resulting in a set of actions to help embed the 3C approach, including the Council’s work with partners.

The Chairman invited questions and the following main points were raised:

·       Panel members felt the 3C approach was very positive.

·       When asked whether any areas of the approach were working less well, the Officers pointed to the importance of listening to residents and staff and data intelligence was being developed to improve this. Mechanisms were also in place to understand more about the fluctuations in compliments and complaints. One big area of change was trying to ensure first conversations happened as soon and as locally as possible, thereby reducing the need for escalated help.

·       In terms of co-production, it was explained that the original 3C launch involved considerable time reaching out to a whole range of organisations which had continued as the model was developed. Feedback mechanisms had been developed with Healthwatch, although this needed further work.

·       The dip in numbers of conversations occurring in April/May 2020 were due to Covid, however a significant number of welfare checks had been done and thousands of people had been contacted during these periods, which were not recorded on the database.

·       The Officers acknowledged the need to bring the number of days to allocation (the duration between contact and time allocated to a worker for new referrals) figures for those with learning disabilities or mental health into line with other client groups, nonetheless 11 days for ‘conversation 1’ was a significant improvement on historical ways of working and the return of mental health social work staff to the Council would provide greater oversight. The Directorate did not want anyone to be waiting and did not operate waiting lists which some councils did, therefore a lot of resources was being invested in order to improve allocation times.

·       The Officers agreed the importance of clear information for the public, and an example was a leaflet on direct payments. Information was provided on the internet but also by telephone and face to face support.

·       When asked what individuals could be missed and end up in crisis, the Strategic Director explained that the People Directorate Strategy was underpinned by the need to reach people earlier and to focus not just on critical care.  The Here2help system was part of this work, and it was important to build staff awareness across all sorts of settings so that they knew how to respond to different issues.

·       The Chairman asked whether more public roadshows were planned and was advised that there were no current plans. The Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Adult Social Care agreed that the roadshows had been very successful in some areas although did require a lot of effort; Covid restrictions prevented such events but more may be planned in the future.

·       The Officers explained there were various means to reach those who may be reclusive, for example through Here2help volunteers. Work with health partners and the voluntary sector (through the Integrated Wellbeing Offer) looked at how to identify such people and how the community could help. There was increasing demand through Here2help and teams were all trained from a wellbeing perspective and volunteers matched accordingly.