End flying 15-minute care visits

Thousands of disabled people are still receiving rushed homecare visits that force them to choose between having a cup of tea and going to the loo. 15 minutes is not long enough to support people with dignity and compassion and Leonard Cheshire has launched a campaign to put a stop to these flying care visits.

Leonard Cheshire Disability has found that at least 30,000 disabled and older people may be receiving 15-minute home care visits.

Join the campaign by sending an e-mail to care minister David Mowat to take action to ensure social care is properly funded and put an end to these rushed care visits.

Combating Loneliness – LGA Guide for Local Authorities

There is growing recognition that loneliness is a serious problem, with far reaching implications, not just for individuals, but also for wider communities, which merits the attention of local authorities. Whilst in the past, loneliness was sometimes viewed as a trivial matter, it is increasingly understood to be a serious condition which can affect a person’s mental and physical health very detrimentally.

Apart from the general imperative for public services to do what they can to alleviate personal suffering and distress, there is also very strong evidence that loneliness can increase the pressure on a wide range of council and health services. It can be a tipping point for referral to adult social care and can be the cause of a significant number of attendances at GP surgeries.

With an increasing number of older people facing a future paying for their own care and support services, or perhaps avoiding them if they feel they cannot afford them, loneliness could be an even bigger issue. All of this takes place against a background of severe financial challenges facing councils in their delivery of adult social care. Providing direct statutory services is unlikely therefore to be an option in many cases.

However, there are practical steps which councils can take to address the issue, and these are set out in this guide. There are many general activities and services which can help address isolation (cultural activities, drop in centres etc) – but the guide suggests there also needs to be a specific focus on addressing loneliness and some specialist mental health services for doing this. This guide sets out a range of actions for effectively combating loneliness building on the latest evidence – it focusses on older people but the recommendations will be beneficial to other age groups

RMBC Improvement Plan – 25th May 2015

This plan is Rotherham Council’s strategic, organisation-wide response to the following:

a) Independent inquiry into CSE in Rotherham, by Professor Alexis Jay (26th August 2014)

b) Ofsted Inspection of Services for children in need of help and protection, children looked after and care leavers and the Review of the effectiveness of the Local Safeguarding Board (19th November 2014)

c) Corporate Governance Inspection report by Louise Casey CB (4th February 2015)

d) Secretary of State Directions to Rotherham MBC (26th February 2015).

It is based on the commissioners’ assessment of what key improvements are needed for the authority in order to have a “fresh start”; and has taken into consideration discussions with leading elected members and senior managers, input from a staff corporate working group and soundings from the LGA Improvement Board.

Adult Autism Strategy – new statutory guidance

New guidance issued for local authorities and NHS organisations following public consultation.

The guidance sets out requirements for local authorities and NHS organisations. It reminds them to work together and with partners, for example, in the criminal justice system or helping people with autism into employment. It provides clarity about what they have to do to meet the needs of adults with autism, including preventative support and safeguarding.

Local Authority and Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Information Packs for Rotherham

The information packs set out key data at local authority and CCG level to help inform the local position on outcomes. The Local Authority level pack  presents high level comparative information on the NHS, the Adult Social Care and the Public Health Frameworks. The CCG level pack provides a more detailed analysis of NHS outcomes and other relevant indicators. The purpose of these is to provide CCGs and Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB) partners with a quick and easy-to-use summary of their current position on outcomes as they take up their role.

 

Role of the Local Authority in End of Life Care

This report  considers the role of local authorities in end of life care. While the health sector has taken a strong lead role on this agenda in recent years, the engagement of
local authorities has been more mixed. Nevertheless, many of their core services, including social care and housing, are important components of a high quality approach to end of life care. In the context of major reform to the framework of health and social care, councils are considering how they can move forward with the agenda.

Health and Wellbeing Boards: System Leaders or Talking Shops?

This report  forms part of a wider programme of work being carried out by The King’s Fund on health and wellbeing boards. The programme has supported several local authorities and their health partners to develop their shadow boards. In July 2011,  a summit attended by more than 100 delegates from local government, the NHS and the third sector.

As part of the programme, in late 2011, the Kings Fund conducted a survey of 50 local authority areas covering all regions of England to find out how they and their health partners are implementing the new boards. Telephone interviews were conducted in September and October 2011 with lead officers identified by local authorities themselves.  This report sets out the findings from that survey  and presents case studies based on the experience of two early implementers, Lambeth and Surrey – each facing very different circumstances.  The report also explores the policy context in which the new health and wellbeing boards will operate and describes three possible scenarios that could emerge.

Supporting Integrated Commissioning Report

Purpose of this research

In November 2011, London Councils commissioned this research to explore where there might be opportunities for, and benefits of, integrating commissioning support arrangements at a local level.   An important aim of this research was to explore the increased value for money and effectiveness that greater integration between the commissioning functions of Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and local government could bring.

Key findings

• The integration of commissioning support for health and wellbeing, children’s services, adult social care and public health with that to support the work of CCGs, could result in a shared resource of up to £50 per head, as compared with the £25 per head stand alone resource that is currently available to CCGs. This could provide much needed capacity to deliver the innovation and transformation that it is essential to meeting the financial challenges of our time.
• It is important to make a distinction between ‘processing’ and ‘strategic’ local delivery commissioning support functions, with processing capable of being clustered in shared support arrangements, and strategic integrated local delivery essential for translating the commissioning intent into the delivery of local change on the ground.
•  Although commissioning support is a means and not an end in itself, effective integrated commissioning support arrangements offer the opportunity both to make the best use of available resources for commissioning and to ensure that there is alignment of effort at a local level.

This analysis shows the most far reaching scenario of what resources could be available if commissioning support was fully integrated at a local level and for the majority of localities it will not be feasible or desirable to go this far. However, it is hoped that by showing the upper limits of what could be possible this will help local areas to think about how far they may wish to be along this path and where they can achieve the most benefits through exploring options for working together.