Tag Archives: #socialcare

World Social Work Day: promoting community and environmental sustainability

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Tomorrow is World Social Work Day (WSWD), and this year the focus is on community sustainability. The theme is inspired by the third pillar of the Global Agenda for Social Work, which was created in 2010 to integrate the aims and aspirations of social workers across the world. It stresses the important role of social workers in prompting sustainable communities and environmentally sensitive development.

This includes:

  • working closely with other partner agencies – including those beyond social work – to create communities of practice, particularly in relation to environmental sustainability;
  • promoting community capacity building, through environmentally friendly and sustainable projects, where possible; and
  • responding to environmental challenges, including helping communities to be resilient to and recover from environmental and natural disasters, as well as in relation to “human disasters” which includes refugee families fleeing persecution or war.

But how does this play out in everyday practice?

Supporting integration

Across the world, social workers are being asked to address ‘human disasters’ as they seek to support and integrate refugee families fleeing persecution and war in conflict zones. Some of the biggest challenges for social workers today relate to refugee and displaced communities. As well as dealing with the effects of trauma, they also help integrate refugees successfully into existing communities and build bridges with others to promote cohesion, reduce tensions and help them make positive contributions to society. Social workers also have a responsibility to encourage all members of the community to help with this support and integration process.

However, in a UK context, supporting people to make positive contributions to their community is not limited to refugee families. It also relates to intergenerational work, valuing the experience of older people, developing the skills of vulnerable adults, or encouraging children to feel connected to a place and community so that they might better take care of it as they grow up.

Supporting sustainability

The role of social workers in supporting the sustainability agenda may not be so obvious. The ability of social workers to adapt and respond to the needs of communities which are experiencing environmental sustainability issues is of growing importance in developing countries. However, social workers in the UK can still contribute to this element of the global social work agenda.

This includes behaving in a way that recognises the need to protect and enhance the natural environment. In practice, this may mean social work departments having policies on going paperless where possible, recycling in offices, and reducing the use of cars, or car sharing (for frontline social workers, however, this is often impractical).

Social work practice can also consider how it supports sustainable social development outcomes within a community, and maintaining personal CPD, education and training levels to reflect this. There should also, as always, be an attempt to share best practice and learn from others.

Final thoughts

This World Social Work Day, let’s take a moment to reflect on the positive contributions that social work professionals are making to their communities as well as to the lives of individuals. It’s also a chance to consider what the future might hold for the profession and how it can continue to promote and support the growth and development of sustainable communities.

If you would like to follow the events going on to mark World Social Work Day or, share any of your own stories you can do so on twitter using the hashtag #WSWD17.

We regularly write on social work topics. Check out some of our previous articles:

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Recognising the value of foster care

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Looked after childrenBy Rebecca Riley

Earlier this week, the Prison Reform Trust announced an independent review into why so many children in care in England and Wales end up in the criminal justice system. Led by Lord Laming, the inquiry is expected to report back in early 2016. This news follows on the heels of Foster Care Fortnight (held in the first two weeks in June) which aims to raise awareness of the value of fostering, and encourage more people to foster.

As a former foster carer of teenagers, I have a very real understanding of the challenges facing foster carers. My own experience was both the most rewarding job and the hardest – nothing equips you for dealing with the issues children in care go through. The back stories of young people who end up in care are inconceivable to most of us, but the opportunity to give a young person an alternative, a better future or a new beginning is a vital service to our community, one which is undervalued.

Empowering children in care

The greatest challenge I faced as a foster carer was not the behaviour, the police and court visits, or under resourced social workers, it was dealing with the concept that young people in care are lost, their lives are everyone’s business and unlike you or I, they are not empowered to make decisions for themselves.  This empowerment requires strong and trusting relationships between carers and the child.

The Centre for Social Justice in their recent report ‘Finding their feet: equipping care leavers to reach their potential’ highlights the value of ‘staying put’ which allows young people to remain in foster care, and recommends young people should only be moved on when they feel ready. The report provides good practice and case studies to enable young people leaving care make a successful transition into adulthood.

A huge social issue

Looked after children (LAC) are a huge social issue; currently in England there are 68,110 children being looked after by councils, representing 0.6% of all children under 18, the majority because of abuse or neglect. This number has increased by 12% since 2009. Children’s social care accounts for 5% of local authority total spend, at £6.9bn, with £3.4bn specifically on LAC. It costs on average £137 a day, or just over £50,000 per child a year.

The Audit Commission report into LAC, found they do less well at school than other children. They are also likely to experience poorer outcomes in adult life and this can have wider societal impacts, leading to higher costs to the public purse in the long term. Long-term impacts include: 23% of the adult prison population; 25% of those living on the street; they are 4 or 5 times more likely to commit suicide in adulthood and 36% of 19 year olds who were looked after, were not in employment, education or training.

The value of foster care

So a foster carer should be valued by society as a means to resolving this growing social issue. Recent work understanding foster placement instability for looked after children highlights a number of factors which lead to foster placement breakdown:

  • older age of child
  • externalising behaviour
  • longer total time in care
  • residential care as first placement setting
  • separation from siblings
  • foster care versus kinship care
  • experience of multiple social workers.

And protective factors include:

  • placements with siblings
  • placement with older foster carers
  • more experienced foster carers with strong parenting skills
  • placements where foster carers provide opportunities to develop intellectually.

As The Fostering Network highlights, fostering is about making a difference, touching the lives of young people and making a positive change.

Find out more about being a foster carer from your local council or the gov.uk website.

Become a member of the Idox Information Service now, to access a wealth of further information on how social services can help and support foster carers, including case studies and commentary. Contact us for more details.

Further reading for members:

Investigating Special Guardianship: Experiences, challenges and outcomes

Inclusion of looked after children in education

Becoming adults: one-year impact findings from Youth Villages transitional living evaluation

 

What’s happening to make big data use a reality in health and social care?

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data-stream-shutterstock_croppedBy Steven McGinty

At the beginning of the year, NHS Director Tim Kelsey described the adoption of new technologies in the NHS as a ‘moral obligation’. He argued that the gaps in knowledge are so wide and so dangerous that they were putting lives at stake.  It’s therefore no surprise that the UK Government, the NHS, and local governments have all been looking at ways to better understand the health and social care environment.

The effective use of ‘big data’ techniques is said to be key to this understanding. Big data has many definitions but industry analysts Gartner define it as:

“high-volume, high-velocity and high-variety information assets that demand cost-effective, innovative forms of information processing for enhanced insight and decision making”

However, if health and social care is to make better use of its data, it’s important that an effective infrastructure is in place. As a result, changes have been made to legislation and a number of initiatives introduced.

Why is it important to know about big data in health and social care?

The effective use of data in health and social care is a key policy aim of the current government (and will most likely continue under future governments).  The changes that have been made so far have had a significant impact on the policies and practices of health and social care organisations. The vast majority focus on information sharing, in particular how organisations share data and who they share data with.

What changes have been made to support big data?

Care.data

This was the most ambitious programme introduced by NHS England. It was developed by the Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) and set out to link the medical records of GP practices with hospitals at a national level. It was expected that datasets from GPs’ records and hospital records would be linked using an identifier such as an NHS number or a person’s date of birth. However, due to concerns raised by the public, particularly in regards to privacy, the programme was delayed. The programme has now resumed but new safeguards have been introduced, such as the commissioning of an advisory board and the ‘opt out’ provision, where patients can opt out from having their data used for anything other than their direct care.

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 and the Care Act 2014

The Acts have both introduced provisions that impact on data. For instance, the Health and Social Care Act enshrines in law the ability of the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) to collect and process confidential personal data. In addition, the Care Act clarifies the position of the Health and Social Care Act by ensuring that the HSCIC doesn’t distribute data unless it’s part of the provision of health and social care or the promotion of health.

Centre of Excellence for Information Sharing

This initiative came from the ‘Improving Information Sharing and Management (IISaM) project’, a joint initiative between Bradford Metropolitan District Council, Leicestershire County Council and the 10 local authorities in Greater Manchester. The centre has been set up to help understand the barriers to information sharing and influence national policy. They hope to achieve these goals through the use of case studies, blogs, the development of toolkits, and any other forms of shared learning. The centre has already published some interesting case studies including the Hampshire Health Record (HHR) and Leicestershire County Council’s Children and Young People’s Service (CYPS) approach to communicating how they deal with data.

These are just some of the steps that have been taken to make sure 2015 is the year of big data. However, if real progress is to be made it’s going to require more than top down leadership and headline grabbing statements. It’s going to require all health and social care organisations to take responsibility and work through their barriers to information sharing.

Further reading

Read our other recent blogs on health and social care:

Become a member of the Idox Information Service now, to access a wealth of further information on health and social care including best practice and commentary. Contact us for more details.

How is health and social care integration being achieved in England?

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By Steven McGinty

Since coming to power in 2010, the coalition government has introduced a series of major reforms to health and social care. They argue that these reforms are necessary for meeting the future needs of patients, as well as providing a more efficient public health service.  Central to these changes is the idea of integration, where services are delivered in a way that limits duplication, delivers more preventative care and targets resources more effectively. However, what has the government done to facilitate integration between health and social care?

In 2012, the Health and Social Care Bill was given royal assent and became an Act. The Act introduced a number of key changes to the way that healthcare is delivered, including:

  • the merging of a numbers of quangos, such as the Health Protection Agency and the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse, into one national body, Public Health England (PHE);
  • the abolition of Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), and the introduction of Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), which are GP led bodies responsible for the commissioning of local health services, as well as a greater responsibility for local authorities;
  • the extension of the remit of bodies, such as Health and Wellbeing Boards, giving them extra responsibilities, including the development of strategies across health and social care to meet local public health issues;
  • the introduction of a new organisation, Healthwatch England, an independent body set up to promote the interests of patients in health and social care services.

In 2013, the government introduced a new funding mechanism known as the ‘Better Care Fund (BCF)’. This was a £3.8 billion pool of money to support health and social care bodies through the process of integration. Health and Wellbeing Boards (HWBs) are expected to provide plans to access the funding. These plans are assessed using criteria that includes:

  • how well data is shared between health and social care bodies;
  • how well plans protects social care services;
  • how it protects seven day a week services;
  • how well it reduces admissions to hospitals at weekends.

According to the County Councils Network, plans will have to show how services will be delivered in an innovative way that meets the local needs of people over the long term, in order to ensure funding.

In 2014, the government introduced the Care Act, a piece of legislation based on the 2011 Dilnot report into the funding of adult social care. The Act has been described as the biggest transformation in the care system since 1948, and introduces a number of significant changes, including:

  • that those who receive care from a regulated care provider or local council will be covered by the Human Rights Act, although those paying for care are not covered;
  • introducing a new cap of £72,000 on the cost of care for those eligible under the Act;
  • introducing duties for local authorities to offer prevention services, including the right to receive accessible information and advice, to try and reduce the numbers of people needing to go into hospitals.

The current Minister of State for Care and Support, Norman Lamb MP, has stated that the government is committed to integrating health and social care by 2018. However, it will be very interesting to see if the health care system can be fully integrated by that deadline and whether it can deliver the sort of outcomes expected.

Idox are involved in an innovative partnership with Calderdale Council. The council has developed an innovative case management tool to support their day-to-day work, in areas such as child protection, looked after children, and fostering and adopting.

Calderdale have teamed up with Idox, a specialist in providing technology, content and funding solutions to government, and are now offering their system to other local authorities. The partnership has already proven to be successful, with Calderdale and Idox providing their solution to councils in the Isles of Scilly and Leeds.

We blogged recently about the benefits of the system for integrated working. We have also looked at the barriers to the uptake of digital technologies in health and social care.

Further reading:

What technology brings to health and social care: a case study of Calderdale and Idox

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By Steven McGinty

In the second of our articles on health and social care and technology, we‘re going to look at the advantages of using technology, as well as a case study of an innovative partnership between Calderdale Council and Idox.

The ‘Digital working, learning and information sharing’ strategy, developed in partnership with the adult social care sector, identifies three areas where technology would bring a number of benefits:

  • working directly with those who need care and their carers;
  • supporting the learning and professional development of staff;
  • organisational business support and information management systems.

The use of electronic notes, for instance, would be a simple step that would have a significant impact on homecare workers (highlighted in section 5 of the Burstow Commission report on the future of the home care workforce).  At the moment, care workers usually make handwritten notes and leave them in a book in someone’s home.  However, if care workers moved from handwritten notes to electronic notes, information could be shared more easily. This would mean that care managers and families would be able to monitor an individual’s care and conditions remotely.

Organisations have also seen the advantage of incorporating e-learning into staff development.  The Skills for Care ‘Digital capabilities in social care’ report found that 95% of organisations used e-learning courses to support staff development, particularly in administration-related areas, such as health and safety and fire training. For instance, instead of sending staff on full day training sessions, e-learning courses can be completed by staff in an hour, offering greater efficiency and flexibility.

However, the report also highlighted that social care related e-learning courses, which looked at issues such as dignity and respect, were of ‘variable quality’ and not able to compete with the experience of face-to-face and group learning. Therefore, it’s possible that an opportunity is being missed by education and training providers, as technology should be able to provide better solutions than the simple tick box exercises described in the report.

Interestingly, the report also suggests this might not be too far off, as one of the organisations revealed that they were looking at more interactive options and were currently working on a research project with a university in Greece, which focused on the idea of ‘gamification’.

One local authority that’s certainly tried to capitalise on the benefits of technology is Calderdale Council. The council has developed an innovative case management tool to support their day-to-day work, in areas such as child protection, looked after children, and fostering and adopting. Parveen Akhtar, Early Intervention Service Manager, at Calderdale Council explains that:

“The Child Social Care solution was created in partnership with schools, health and police. Providing an intuitive system to meet the requirements of front line social care practitioners, it enhances our ability to provide better services to families within our community.”

The Child Social Care solution creates a single view of a child through combining information from several sources into one record. This means that practitioners are able to create, access and share information easily and securely, supporting informed decisions and putting in place appropriate support for children and their families.

The system has a number of benefits and features, including:

  • improving multi-agency communication and response;
  • reducing the amount of time taken by practitioners to locate another agency involved in a child’s case;
  • enabling practitioners to access information remotely;
  • offering comprehensive performance and reporting tools for providing vital statistics;
  • providing the ability to monitor and track the progress that children and families are making.

Calderdale have teamed up with Idox, a specialist in providing technology, content and funding solutions to government, and are now offering their system to other local authorities. The partnership has already proven to be successful, with Calderdale and Idox providing their solution to councils in the Isles of Scilly and Leeds.

Over the coming years, health and social care will be facing ever greater demands with tighter budgets. For this reason, technology is going to be essential to support better outcomes and more efficient services.  It is therefore important that a strategic approach is taken concerning information technology, and that organisations look at its long term benefits, rather than the short term savings from cuts to investment.

The first article on health and social care and technology, “What’s preventing health and social care from going digital?”, can be found here.

Further reading: